Billy and Mandy of the Night
by I Am The Night
Summary: Mandy is on her path to power when her world is turned upside down, forcing Grim, Billy and her into hiding. Isolated together Mandy will question her choices as Billy begins to show a different side, all the while their hunter begins its long search.
1. Dying Dystopia

**Greetings to all who are reading this.**

**Finally the day has come to begin uploading. It's been a good eighteen or so months coming. First off let me say I am a huge fan of Billy and Mandy. I have never seen a show quite like it, and it's a shame its time has now since come and gone, leaving it in the anals of cartoon history along with other great shows like The Angry Beavers and Invader Zim. I began to have musings about a story in my head involving Billy and Mandy some time around 2008, about the time when I was first discovering fanfiction. Gradually a plot developed over time and I got interested in writing it as a fanfic, but it just seemed too great an undertaking for someone who'd never really written a story before.**

**Then I read frogman's work Mandy's Metropolis and it showed me what could be done. Basically that wonderful story was what inspired me to take the plunge and begin writing out a plot in dot points around September 2009. ****I then began typing it in late November. ****I have since been working on this thing almost every day since. I stayed up to the early hours of the morning almost every night for over a year working on this baby so it's no wonder I'm so psyched and monologuing about myself like this. I will be uploading one new chapter every Sunday fortnightly.**

**The point I'd like to make is that I've poured my heart and soul and toil into this project so please, to whoever is going to read this, leave a review, tell me what you think. I don't want to sound needy or anything but I'd just like to feel as if all my effort didn't just become forgotten, that I actually made some little contribution to the world.**

**Finally I'd like to dedicate this fic to to my father Barry and my younger sister Cassandra, who have both been there for me when times turned tough, and have proven themselves to be the best family I could have ever asked for, and to the brilliant frogman for writing Mandy's Metropolis, who inspired me in the first place.**

**The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is by Maxwell Atoms. No one else could have shared his genius.**

**I Am The Night.**

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**Prologue: Dying Dystopia.**

The year 3194.

"Who are you loyal to?" Spoke the merciless ruler of the world for beyond a millennium, her grim words echoing in the concrete chamber around them as she addressed her loyal agent of darkness.

"I am loyal to you." The voice speaking back was as dark as her own, only so much colder, lacking any and all hint of emotion. It was the eerie voice of darkness imbued with perfect control, a shadow subtly distilled into a living body. From without the flawless being could not be distinguished as anything out of the norm. Inside it wasn't even human.

Created on its master's will as an ultimate weapon the figure clad in black robes and hood was grown a few years back in a tank from the empress' own genetic codes, bearing several modifications to the original. Grown for loyalty to its master and the merciless execution of her enemies, it was biologically engineered for strength, endurance, agility, and a completely stoic manner, lacking any and all sentiments of emotion. It did not know fear, nor anger, nor sadness, love, joy, humour or compassion, only the detached focus of cold-hearted logic. It did not feel remorse. The pain it caused others bought it neither guilt nor satisfaction. It was a danger to anyone who opposed the empress and her tightly controlled regime. Any resistance leader who hated the ever watching cameras, the armies of killing machines, or the heavy grey skies darkened by the pollution of a million factories, would inevitably become its target. It was designed and created from the beginning as a living weapon to eradicate anyone who resisted the cold and foreboding stare from the empress's dark eyes.

Though engineered and trained from the outset to ignore emotions, there was however one instinct that remained. It held an underlying primal desire which stemmed from its masters genes; the will to rise up and dominate all others, to crush its enemies and to take control over the lives of the small-minded, corrupt people of the world. The core desire for power and domination was the closest thing to an emotion it had ever allowed itself to feel, something it suppressed in order to remain completely focussed on its order to obey its master, and mother.

"What is your primary mission?" Empress Mandy of the Night continued, staring down at her dark clad agent of evil.

"I am to assist you in your rise to power at home, then across the world in the ensuing world war. Once you are in power I am to destroy any and all threats to your power."

Mandy was now over a thousand years old, yet due to the combined power of science and the underworld, she was now wholly immortal, her age frozen in her early twenties. She had outlived trillions of people in her time after having taken over at a very young age. In her early life she had experienced first hand the pinnacle and ultimate sliding downfall of human civilisation, and the last days of individual freedom, their world pulled down by the weight of its people's own crimes. The days of living in gluttonous comfort, free of fear of the government, of green grass, trees and forests, clear blue skies, of birds overhead, oceans teeming with fish, whales and stunning coral reefs, were days long past.

Now every piece of individual freedom and beauty that people had once taken for granted was now replaced by the world of an ever watching dictatorship, their punishment for their thousands of years of arrogance, vanity and selfishness. This was a world of one billion people all living in fear and abject misery, drudging away day after day amongst a landscape of towering skyscrapers. Dull grey apartment buildings, home to a thousand people each, would stretch five hundred metres into the air, right next to near identical ones throughout a towering city of one billion people, the last of its kind in the world.

The capital as it was most commonly called had its centre slightly to the west of the decaying ruins of a town called Endsville, with San Francisco to the north and Los Angeles to the south long since absorbed into a giant mess of grime, acid rain, factories and dark polluted skies. Closer to the centre rose the towering skyscrapers of vital government bodies, government owned corporations and neon lit bars and clubs for the very limited upper class. Vehicles reminiscent of cars and trucks, suspended on anti-gravity coils glided about above the grimy streets, home to millions of pedestrians on foot, bicycle and train, with cars limited to the wealthy due to the slowly collapsing economy.

The economy was just one organ of the entire society. Its slow decay and collapse was not alone. After roughly five hundred years of rule Mandy's empire began to decay, and had since been very slowly dying. Pollution, mass poverty, oppression, the slow exhaustion of natural resources, plus the overall lethargy and apathy of her subjects, had begun to wear out the empire. Though mining colonies were set up on other worlds, namely the moon and Mars, ultimately they were abandoned as her civilisation retreated in on itself.

As the empire continued to decay, corruption in lower levels began to take root, spreading throughout the offices of government. The masses, long kept under control through force and fear of force, ultimately began to run rampant as they had before Mandy's takeover. Finally in this maelstrom of decay the resistance, long simply trying to defend itself and struggling to survive, had begun to fight back, overtaking parts of Africa, South America, Asia and Russia, all the while the populace retreated from one city after another as their world collapsed. They were now settled in their own permanent bases, they were armed, and they were organised.

The population of her world was decreasing, the billions of narrow-minded people slowly dying out as her civilisation continued to very slowly decay from the cancer in its heart.

'_Cancer in its heart.'_ She mused quietly to herself. It was in a way ironic that Mandy herself, who from the very beginning had longed to rid the world of the corruption she had hated for so long, had for even longer suffered from a somewhat similar issue within her heart. Even now as she addressed her servant she could feel the void within her as bit by bit it pulled more of herself into its empty hollow depths.

Her powerful agent was conceived as a weapon, her trump card with which to take care of all her enemies with one weapon, imbued with all the power of the underworld greater than any demon. It had proven a resounding success, and had destroyed much of the resistance before it could launch its final attack, saving her and the remains of her empire from destruction.

"And your secondary mission?" Mandy demanded callously of her subordinate.

While the impending attack had recently been averted, Mandy knew full well the resistance was now too strong to effectively destroy with or without the assassin. The empire was now facing inevitable, imminent destruction from without and within. She foresaw that any attack on the capital would lead to the masses rising up and flooding her armies. Now that her empire had collapsed, leaving her with only this one city left in the world, an uprising in this city could never be quashed from outside. The last remains of her once great empire would come to an end, and her with it.

But she had one last trick up her sleeve.

"Kill the founders of the resistance before you come to power, and destroy resistance members throughout your reign." Answered the figure emotionlessly, a simple statement of what it was to do.

It was her creation itself that had proposed the concept to her in the first place following its successful mission to postpone the empire's downfall. As it had been done before, when she was fighting against Boogey and his pathetic gang of thugs, she knew that it was possible to travel back and forth through time. What's more her one time collaborator Mandark, long dead after he was of no more use to her, had designed a working time machine which could easily be rebuilt. She knew that if she were to destroy the resistance before it existed, it wouldn't be a threat to her later.

She had seen the proof of her agent of subterfuge's loyalty and effectiveness, and so she found it logical to send it back to when she was very young, and her quest for power was just beginning. If her weapon could be set upon her enemies at the earliest stage before they even became a problem, then everything that plagued her now, everything that had turned her dream to ruin, would all evaporate. In addition there was also the chance to avoid the many heavy mistakes she had made earlier in life.

There were however two issues about her plan that unsettled her. First and foremost was she didn't know what would happen to her in this time once the jump was made. Would she, the resistance and life in general continue, with another better timeline branching off for another much luckier version of her? Would the resistance suddenly be gone while she stayed like this? Or would she, the empire, the resistance, and her entire universe suddenly cease to exist with another timeline taking its place?

To this while she had reason to be nervous, in her mind it was pointless to fear it when she had no control over it. Mandy had no choice but to send the agent back due to the inevitable destruction she faced by her ever growing enemies.

Her other concern was somewhat different. What would her creation would do once it was released? Prior to now her agent had served her with utmost loyalty, relentlessly pursuing its targets to destruction, going to absolutely any length to infiltrate and destroy her enemies. But that was in this world, an uninhabitable dead world, her world. Here she was the ultimate power. There was nowhere anyone wishing to break free of her control could go. Outside of the capital there was only desolation and ruin. Until now her agent had been operating under her shadow.

_'What will happen when I'm not there?'_ The thought flashed through the forefront of her mind. How would her agent of subterfuge behave once it was completely let loose without her there to control it?

Once more though she had no choice. Whatever happened when she did this she had no control over, so there was no point being afraid. Ultimately though it wouldn't have mattered anyway. She was as emotionally cold and empty as her assassin, all the desire and passion and hatred she'd once felt, the powerful dynamic forces that had once driven her, having long since fallen into the void within her. In the end she really didn't have any reason to feel fear anymore. Nothing really mattered to the stern dictator now, and in the grand scheme of the universe, not even she, or her servant, or anything they were doing here did. She hadn't really cared about anything for hundreds of years now.

Taking one last look around at her surroundings, the cold concrete room adjacent to the giant decaying hall, all part of her underground laboratory, she began the task of sending her servant back. In front of her stood her raven cloaked spectre of shadow, whilst behind it arose a large oval ring set atop a metal platform. Walking over to her right she took her place before a control panel. Working with detached calm she entered in the number of years the machine was to jump through, coupled with the location it was to come out at, the numbers appearing in orange on a black liquid crystal display set into the sloping steel surface. Checking they were correct she moved her slender fingers to lift the clear plastic cover to expose the ever typical red button, depressing it into the surface.

Turning to the end of the room she watched as the ring formed a great glowing green vortex through space-time to when and where she was very young, not long before she first started to put her plans for world domination into practice. She looked back to her creation, her prodigy. It had been so long since she had someone as loyal as it was. After the destruction of her enemies she had begun to care for her creation something very much like family. She had hoped with all that remained of her heart that it would one day become just that, a family, and would perhaps one day return her affection. It was always loyal and respectful to her, its voice always slightly softer when speaking to her. Indeed it gave the appearance that the love and care she bestowed upon it was being returned one hundred percent.

Deep down though she knew the truth. Though it would return gestures of kindness and affection back to her, whenever those bitterly cold, haunting black eyes looked at her, they were completely devoid of any warmth or fondness or care for her whatsoever. Those very same detached, silently chilling eyes were currently looking back at her now.

Mandy watched as it turned on its heels and slowly began to walk towards the ring. Slowly ascending the platform its black shoes made slow, even footfalls on the steel steps, heel then toe striking the metal grate beneath as it continued onward with complete calm.

She walked over to the centre of the room again to where her prodigy had stood moments ago, watching the figure slowly ascend now almost at the top. _'Goodbye my child, I will miss you.'_ She whispered silently through her mind, though outside her dark and stoic demeanour told of nothing.

Finally reaching the top of the platform the black cloaked spectre stopped, pausing just centimetres away from the face of the vortex. Without uttering a single word or gesture the figure turned around to face where it had stood one last time. The eyes wandered around the room, taking in every last scrap of detail of this world's existence as they could. Its cold onyx eyes swept from the left, the bare concrete wall, the control panel, to the right, the opposite wall, the power cables, coming to the centre, the exit to the hall and the ruins of the world beyond.

Finally it turned its unfeeling gaze down, down on the spot where it stood moments ago. It stared at the figure standing there, the ever present stoic mask on her face. It stared at her, the cold malice filled eyes boring, burning directly into hers, before finally turning and stepping through the vortex without a word, disappearing through the event horizon.

Mandy stood there, her creation gone. The vortex closed now that its job had been done, bringing an end to the link between the two worlds. She turned on her heels to leave through the doorway out into the main hall, never to return to the slowly decaying monolithic facility. As she walked alone through the empty hall of the laboratory beneath the thousands of titanic pillars standing tall up to the curving roof high above, she remembered just how those cold onyx eyes had stared into hers.

Her walk slowed to a halt, standing silent and alone beneath the silhouette of the giant empty hall. She knew now exactly what the message was.

Thinking back with a heavy heart Mandy reminisced about her creation, crafted from her own genes, her own soul with all the darkness and will her entire being had ever held, with none of the slight bit of compassion and good left in her. She closed her eyes and gave out a weary sigh of defeat, continuing her slow walk back to her grim fortress bastion, all the while reflecting on her creation.

In that she finally realised her mistake.

'_It was too much like me.'_

Mandy walked in silence to the end of the long hallway, her footsteps echoing around her until she finally dissapeared through the exit. The ancient empress was long gone when the white lights in the hallway winked out permanently, the miles of concrete pillars fading away into blackness as the entire complex fell silent.


	2. In the Beginning

**Hello again.**

**First I must give my thanks to all who reviewed the prologue. They really made my day to see just how highly people thought of my work. Thanks to you I will continue to pour more effort into this and try and make it all the better for those reading.**

**As for the Terminator reference made by BlueShift5, this is correct. Terminator was a major influence in this and it will become more apparent as time goes by. The other large influence I drew on was the large number of Naruto-gets-betrayed-by-Konoha-and-swears-revenge type fanfics out there. As such themes like prejudice, racism, stupidity and small-mindedness, vanity, greed and above all arrogance will play a very heavy role. There will also be many crossovers from different shows incorporated into the plot, most of them negative, so you'll see a lot of cameos.**

**Now on another more sombre note I feel I should pay respect to those affected by or who have lost loved ones in the floods. I live in the south-east of Brisbane well away from the flooded areas, but when I look on the TV and see the amount of devastation in and around the river, it shocks me deeply, with much worse in places like Toowomba, Maryborough, Gympie, and many others up and down the coast. I can't imagine the recovery being anything less than a monumental task, particularly when three quarters of the state has been declared a disaster zone and the state and national budget is already stretched like a wire. But then again, we are Queenslanders after all. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.**

**Anyway thanks again for your reviews. Please keep em coming, they make me smile.**

**Here then is the first real chapter and the beginning of our story.**

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**Mandy of the Night.**

**In The Beginning.**

"FOR DE LOVE OF ALL DAT IS EVIL GET OUT!"

"But I want it, yes!"

Grim felt as if his head would surely explode as he continued to rant and rave at Fred, who was still trying vainly to get his grubby fingers back on Horrors Hand. It had only been two weeks after the fight against Boogie had been resolved when Fred had taken the hand with disturbing ease out of Grim's trunk. After enduring the agony of running out of nachos, Fred had managed to take power over it and attacked Endsville. Needless to say it didn't quite work out as he had planned, not that he was capable of planning.

"I DON'T CARE!" Grim continued to scream. Sometimes he swore stupidity was something far worse to suffer through than tyrannical domination and fear. "YOU'VE ALREADY KILLED HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE IN THAT LAST RAMPAGE, AND YOU'RE NOT DOING IT AGAIN!"

"But-"

"I SAID NO!"

"But-"

"NO!"

"But-"

"NO!"

"Yes."

"NO!"

"But-"

"Oh for de love of…" Grim threw his hands up in the air exasperated, turning around to move back into Billy's house, a few feet away from the ever eager Fred.

"So you'll give me the hand?" Fred asked hopefully, rising up on the tips of his pads with his greedy hands clutched together expectantly.

"No."

Grim summoned his scythe, the deep black of the shaft reflecting the light of the mid morning sun as it shone through the doorway. The cursed steel blade held a dull surface yet was razor sharp, tough and hard, able to cut down almost any threat posed by mortal or demon. All up the reaping tool and weapon had enough supernatural energy in it to level several city blocks.

"Yes!"

"Whatever."

Aiming the scythe next to the dim-witted demon Grim opened a glowing green portal to the underworld, shoving the fat green elephantine creature back into it.

With Fred out of the picture for now he managed a slight sigh of relief, once more turning around to head back inside the house, shutting the door behind him as the green glow outside rapidly faded into nothing. Gliding across the carpet he entered into the living room, making his way dourly over to the old green couch where his two masters sat.

Billy and Mandy, the two wholly contradictory eight year old children with whom he shared a love-loathe relationship, more the latter by a great degree. Billy, a stupid and blissfully ignorant young boy, light-hearted, happy, and hyperactive enough to jump-start the sun and make it shine through thick clouds. And then there was Mandy, the ruthless, domineering, logically-minded girl who possessed a will and resolve strong enough to see her through any hardship. Currently they didn't seem to care about his presence, Mandy watching the screen as she sat on the left while Billy sat on the far right. Looking on the two with plain dislike Grim sat down in the middle between them while they simply ignored his return, their eyes fixed on the boxy old television set opposite, a box of pizza each sitting on their laps.

"Fred's gone. He'll be back soon enough." Grim muttered. "Stupid elephant."

I gotta hand it to him, I didn't know he had it in him." Mandy spoke up, a slice of pizza held in her right hand. "How many did he kill again?"

"Two hundred and twenty five in total, including de ones dat died in hospital later." Grim remarked off headedly as if it were mere statistics of no real relevance. It came as no surprise to his masters however seeing as they'd long since grown accustomed to such carnage. Billy had a saving stupidity that kept him detached from it all, unable to properly grasp and understand what was happening, while Mandy simply watched on with either angered satisfaction or all round apathy.

The aforementioned incident with Fred had occurred when the chubby, mindless green demon had simply waltzed on in during the night, opened up Grim's trunk, and taken Horrors Hand. In a move that surprised all who knew of the bumbling fool he immediately embarked on a brutal rampage throughout downtown Endsville. By the end of it several blocks of Endsville's shady central business district had been devastated, which wasn't particularly out of the ordinary for the three in any manner of the word. They had managed to stop him by bribing him with a bowlful of frozen yogurt. For a moment Mandy had held the bronze hand for herself, and had wondered if perhaps she should continue the rampage against the seedy lowlifes who worked there, but ultimately decided against it. There wasn't any plan behind it and it would very likely fail to achieve anything in the end. There were just too many targets worldwide for it to have any real effect. Fred for some reason or another somehow figured that it would be nice to go on another rampage again, thus why he had showed up eagre to get the hand back.

That event had occurred six months ago, and all the damage done to the city had long since been repaired, while the people who were lost were mostly forgotten by their peers. Prior to and after Fred's rampage the city had faced devastation of far greater magnitude on several occasions, including the attacks by the Martian Reaper, the lunar werewolves and Velma Green and her huge spider army. Finally, coming several months after the last of the major struggles they'd faced, came the long prepared attack of Bun Bun and his army of mutant sweets, prompting the formation of the group Underfist.

In the days after they had put an end to Bun Bun and his candy demons, everything had reverted back to its prior state as it usually did. Mandy had stepped down from her position of power calmly, aware that it wasn't the right time for a takeover, with the builders getting to work rapidly in repairing the damage and clearing away the rubble. Underfist continued for another few days, fighting threats to the earth here and there, until they simply became bored with the whole thing and in the end simply drifted apart without a word yesterday.

Thus here they sat now, Grim, Billy and Mandy lounging back on the couch, with a pizza each for breakfast at ten o'clock on a Sunday morning, one week after the attack. An odd feeling of calm and triumph seemed to brighten the day for the three. Billy smiled and grinned without any particular reason while Mandy held a somewhat more relaxed persona. It could almost be said that she was laid-back. To her it had felt like their last struggle had been the last of their long round of troubles, as if after fighting through so much in what was almost a year of owning Grim that they had somehow finally come out the other side. A part of her felt free. It was like the constant weight of wondering when the next danger was going to come from had suddenly been lifted. If she didn't know better she would have thought Billy felt the same way, judging by the slightly more care-free state he was in currently. Perhaps he did on some level, or perhaps it was the effect of her own relaxed state. All up she discarded the notion and returned herself to the box in front of them, taking a bite from her pizza.

Billy turned his gaze from the television down towards the comic book in his left hand, a slice of pizza in his right. He was blissfully reading away on part three of Man Eating Comics. This morning when he had risen and said hello to the sun, giving the glass a slobbery kiss in the process, he had felt as if everything seemed to be bright and cheerful following their last and hardest struggle. Not that his jarred mind could really comprehend the reason for his good mood, he just accepted it without question, giggling loudly as he read over a page that showed a devastated landscape much like Endsville a few days prior. Neither he nor anyone else thought it unusual anymore that after facing such destruction just a week ago there was now little evidence of any damage to buildings, property and such, bar the grieving family members.

Grim really didn't care much for grievers; their wails of grief didn't matter to him anymore after hearing them for so many millennia, simply fading into the background as he reaped the souls whose time had come. Billy's ignorance to the reality of the world gave him a strange 'whatever' attitude to the pain of others, one he was yet to figure out, simply because he couldn't quite think that far. Mandy was halfway between approval of their suffering and simply not caring. After all, why should she care about how much pain and grief the nefarious fools suffered, be it at her hand or someone else's? They weren't her, nor were they connected to her, so in reality they didn't affect her at all. Besides, she knew it was human nature to be wicked and corrupt and conceited, thus she didn't particularly feel any sympathy for them. As far as she was concerned they deserved it for their lazy and corrupt natures, but at this moment in her relaxed state she wasn't particularly concerned by what people did to their brothers and sisters.

She always thought this was a good way to live. After all why, should she deliberately hold herrself back for the good of the same people who treated her like a disease? If others were miserable, why should she chain herselfself to them and go down with them? She found it so much easier if she disconnected from others, freeing herself to utilise every bit of her passionate hatred inside her, that way she could terrorise and oppress them, to make them suffer the way they deserved to suffer, and not get a stupid guilt trip for it. Some would call such a life devoted to logical, structured darkness to be wrong, but how could it be wrong if darkness had given her so much?

Her choice of lifestyle did however necessitate some personal sacrifices. Mandy knew it was absolutely crucial for her to maintain her strength of will at all times, never to falter to any source of weakness. So far she had forbidden herself to feel openly happiness and contentment. She absolutely refused to allow herself to ever smile, not when there were six billion lying sociopaths and narcissists that hadn't faced her wrath yet. Furthermore she had resolved long ago to never get sentimentally attached to another person, be they family, friend or otherwise. Reliance on others for emotional support was in her logical eyes a weakness, and she would never allow any form of inner weakness to drag her down to their level.

Power was everything to Mandy. Any price to get it was worth paying, as was any sacrifice to keep it worth making. Whatever she needed to do, no matter how deep into the black abyss she needed to go she would do it, without a moments hessitation or a shred of remorse, all for the one thing that set her apart from the rest. Becasue in the end, there was only power.

She picked up the remote, turning up the volume on the television so as to hear it over Billy's giggling. The documentary she had been watching for the last half hour told of the Nazi's brutal invasion and takeover of Europe, from Poland to France where the Blitzkrieg strategy still worked. Mandy already knew the story by heart. Afterwards there came the Battle for Britain, to which they lost, a heavy blow to the pride of the supposedly perfect and pure Aryan race. Hitler and his twisted cohorts were furious, and in his arrogant rage he ordered the invasion of the east.

_'That of course didn't work because supplies couldn't keep up with the front, so they ran out of fuel, broke down, and froze solid. Racist idiots.'_

Grim sat and watched quietly, remembering many of the battles where he had to reap the thousands of zealous souls which still refused to go, still wanting to fight for one cause or another.

"Bah, Nazis gave me such a headache. It was always with de glory of Germany dis and de so-called superiority of the Aryan race dat." He spat indignantly, grumbling as he folded his skeletal arms across his ribcage. Sparing a glance across to Mandy to see what her reaction would be he noticed her give a short, silent nod of agreement, never taking her dark eyes off the screen.

He raised a non existent eyebrow at the girl. This had come as something of a surprise to him, not least because in his eyes Mandy had always tried to push for the same power as the Fascist's did before her. She was just as merciless and domineering as they were, as proven by her one time mastery of the KND organisation. She stood for the very same ideals of power and dominance and superiority as the Nazi's and their Fascist brethren, didn't she? Out of everything he had experienced from the girl he hadn't expected her of all people to be a hypocrite, to denounce the very thing she herself had coveted for as long as he'd known her. A thin, mocking smile extended across his face as she glanced up across to him, wondering what it was he was smiling about.

"Mandy, you're a lot like dem aren't you?" He mockingly asked, not noticing her eyes suddenly widen. "Heh heh, little Nazi girl wants to take over de world." Grim teased, doing a Roman salute with his right arm while holding his left hand above his jaw to immitate a tiny moustache. "Heil Mandy, heh h… eh… "

Grim trailed off, his sudden mocking humour fleeing him to be replaced by a deep fear. Mandy openly stared at him, her eyes wide and set in a glower that was different to everything he'd seen before from her. Whereas he had faced the scary girl's fury time and again this was anger of a different nature. The intensity and sheer depth of her rage came at him in a flood from deep within the brooding and angry girl. He faltered and fell silent, frozen in his seat as tidal waves of malice eclipsed his suddenly very small figure beneath the shadow of her incensed glower.

"How dare you."

Her words came in a flat, even voice, a chilling stream of deadly intensity, clearly beside herself at what to Grim's terror had turned out to be an incredibly offensive slur to the fiery young girl.

"How dare you compare me to one of them!"

"Uhh… Wait Mandy, I didn't mean you were…" Grim stammered as he tried backing away, raising his bony hands in defence of the enraged girl. "All I'm saying is… Huh?"

He trailed off again as Mandy turned away from him, appearing to turn her rage away from him, directing it towards the swastika bearing killers on the television. His fear dropped away replaced by curiosity as he watched the girl in wonder, gritting her jaw together, clenching her fists angrily at some unknown source of deep ingrained hatred.

"Grim, listen to me very carefully. You are never, and I mean never, to call me a Nazi again." She ordered him with a tone heavy with anger and unspoken threats. "Nazis are the absolute lowest of the low. They are arrogant and bigoted lowlifes who blindly throw all their faith in the superiority of their people, and are pathetic enough to believe in pathetic prejudices like race, gender and religion. They believe that if someone isn't like them, they are inferior. They are so self-important and so arrogant that they honestly believe that anyone who is in any way different deserves to be enslaved and killed for not being 'perfect' like them. They think that their way is the only way, and anything else is wrong, as if they are the only ones that matter. They think that they have the right to do whatever they want, to take whatever they want, and anyone who tries to protect themselves deserves to die." The anger and venom in her voice was palpable, making the air sticky and heavy with malice and hatred as she spoke. Billy bought his attention away from the comic book to look across to the girl sitting on the other side of the lounge, listening in growing interest as she spoke, an aura of deep darkness and powerful anger hanging around her being.

For Billy, though he had heard her speak words of acid before, and had been on the receiving end of those words many times, he'd never taken any apparent interest in what she was saying. His blissfully optimistic stupidity shielded himself from whatever it was that spurned her fury. This time however something was different, he felt oddly drawn to listen in on what she was saying. He didn't think about why, not that it ever occurred to the ill-witted creature in the first place, he just listened.

"I hate people like that. Hitler and all his cronies and suck-ups, and his millions of diseased followers, they were the very pinnacle of human nature. They were arrogant and stuck-up and thought they were better than everyone else. Besides that Hitler could have spent all the time and effort of killing people who were different on taking over and ruling other countries properly. And even in war he was an overly confident idiot. Who would start a war on three seperate fronts?" Mandy sighed, rubbing the area around her eyes in frustration.

"Look, the only thing those maniacs and I have in common is the desire to dominate the lives of others. There the similarity ends. I know my strengths and weaknesses, I think ahead, I use logic and self-control, I don't think of myself like I'm superior to everyone else, and I don't blindly hate others for being different! And I'm smart enough not to split up my army!" She began to muse over her own memories of the time her own weaknesses had led to her humiliation and defeat.

"I learnt a lot from my failed takeover of the KND. Back then I was overconfident, I overestimated my abilities, and I underestimated my enemies, and that ultimately lead to my defeat. I thought about that a lot afterwards, and I saw where I'd gone wrong. If I had dedicated more effort into securing my control over the minds of my subjects, instilling myself as their comrade and benevolent leader instead of being their overlord, then they might have continued to obey me even after I got found out. Instead I just had to restructure everything in my own image. It was like I wanted to be some kind of to god." She grimaced at the thought, a feeling of anger at herself for her own stupidity and hubris. Even she had made mistakes in her life which she had come to regret, and this was first and foremost in her mind. "And on the other side if they hadn't underestimated me I probably wouldn't have gotten away as easily as I did."

She gave out a sigh, relaxing back into her soft seat. "The difference between me and guys like Hitler is pretty simple. They do what they do because they think they're better than everyone else, because they're small-minded and obsessed with their pride and purity. I do what I do because I'm above that."

Grim was stumped. He really hadn't thought about it that much, but apparently Mandy knew what she was taking about. "You got a point dere."

"Of course I do. It's me after all." She could still be sarcastic and witty though.

The trio were shaken from their thoughts when they heard a knock on the door. Grim looked to the kids, both of which were looking back expectantly.

He sighed. "I'll get it, dough I don't know why I bother."

"Because we own you."

"Because you love us, tee hee!"

As Grim neared the door he could hear the constant mind grating chant of…

"FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger..."

"…"

He grimaced flatly. Upon opening the door he was greeted with a short, curt…

"Yes."

He didn't bother saying anything, simply opening up another portal beneath his pads, immediately sucking him back down, not that he would stay down long. Returning to the couch he came in time to see Mandy tire of the documentary, glaring at the screen as she raised the remot and began to switch through channels. She settled on a British car show. He stayed standing beside the couch beside them, the three watching on as the three poorly dressed presenters rambled away.

"Grim." She spoke up, drawing the servant reaper's attention. "Not that I don't have an idea already but why exactly did you say that about me?"

"Uhh-"

"What were you thinking when you compared me to a Nazi? Be honest." Mandy asked, taking her eyes off the screen to gaze at him. Oddly there was nothing in her tone that seemed threatening or warned of retribution if she didn't like the answer, as if she were just asking out of interest. Why she was interested however remained to be seen.

"… Well…" He paused for thought. If he didn't word this just right he could still incur the little tyrant's wrath. If he left parts out she would easily sense it and pry it out of him. "Uh, well look at the similarities. Fascists want power and world domination, just like you. And they want to tightly control the lives of deir subjects, just like you. From de day we first met you wanted power and greatness, to be feared by people and for them to obey your will. You've always been extremely ambitious, it's plain to see it in yer eyes girl. I mean, I know you're not some stupid bigot like most of dem but still, you do tend to share more similarities than differences." He awaited her reply tensely. Mandy continued to eye him over, showing a noticeable lack of anger or offense, before she turned away, narrowing her eyes in contemplation.

"I thought as much." She answered, surprising him again. "All along you've never looked beyond the surface."

Slumping back in the couch she finished her last piece of her pizza, putting the box on the ground at her feet. She remained quiet in thought as Grim watched and waited on edge. Billy also turned his attention away from the television to face her, all the while she kept her eyes narrowed.

"Alright listen, you guys still don't seem to have figured out how I roll yet, so I'll explain it to you."

Again her two companions listened intently. Billy though, as much as he felt he should listen, could only partly focus on his friend, a good chunk of his attention going to the three British men on the television and the accompanying silver Murcielago.

"You guys remember how I hate humanity right? You remember how I swore that one day I would bring an age of darkness to the world?" She turned to look across to them as they listened, or at least partially. "Did you ever once stop to wonder why?"

Though Billy continued to face the screen before him, his interest caught on this. His eyes flickered away from the screen, staring off as her words drew him back to what she was saying. Mandy faced Grim with a hard scowl as she continued, unaware that Billy had suddenly started to listen in fully.

"I'll tell you why. It's because people like the Nazi's aren't really that much more corrupt or selfish or intolerant or small-minded than the vast majority of people living on the planet now. Just look at Endsville, all these people, almost all of them are lazy and indifferent. They're vain, they're shallow and they don't think about anything that's not about some celebrity. They turn on each other like rabid dogs at the drop of a hat. These wretched people beat and crush everyone around them just for the thrill of it, and then think it's so wrong when someone does it to them. And most of all, they think only of themselves, that they're the only person who matters, that they're so high and mighty and superior to everyone else, regardless of everything they do!"

She kept her eyes locked on Grim, seeing it beginning to sink in, an understanding occurring to him as he listened. In keeping her attention on Grim though she hadn't noticed how Billy had begun to look off blankly in the direction of the opposite wall, a strange wide-eyed visage taking over his features. Turning her gaze away from Grim she ran a hand through her short double spiked hair.

"I'm not the way I am just because I want power. The whole reason I want power and control over people, to bring darkness and suffering on others, is because of what people are really like inside. When times are really tough they hide their real natures under a mask of modesty and camaraderie, and join together to fight for something better. It's when they get through the hard times and they get what they want that they reveal who they really are inside. They lie, and cheat, and back-stab their own friends and family just to prove how much better they are than everyone else. These people beat, and rape, and maim, and kill those who can't fight back, and you know what? _N__o one, ever, cares._ That is why I am the way I am."

"… Wow." Spoke Grim, still stunned by the revelation. This was the first time Mandy had ever really opened up and explained how she thought and felt, and _why_ she did as she did, being a merciless figure of power and control. "Mandy, I never knew you'd thought this through like dis. To be honest, I kinda see where you're coming from."

Turning back to the television Mandy and Grim continued to watch the car show, Mandy still rife with unshed anger. Gritting her teeth she realised her hands were clenched into angry claws. Closing her eyes she took a deep sighing breath through her teeth, part of her remembering what she'd learnt back at that shameful anger management class. Gradually it eased away, her fingers relaxing and her heart rate returning to normal. Her relaxed mood from earlier however was now gone, leaving her to face the world she loathed as she usually did, with dry, biting cynicism.

"Come on, let's get out of here. Fred won't be gone long." Grim droned gesturing to the kids to come. "We'll go to de ice cream place, my treat. Maybe dat'll cool you down."

Shrugging she took the empty pizza box and sat it on the lounge beside her, taking Billy's from his lap and stacking it on top before she rose to her feet. Without concerning herself with the boy she stepped past Billy as he continued to sit, staring off blankly away from the television.

"Come on Billy, let's go." Mandy ordered the boy, only to get no response. "… Billy?"

Billy didn't hear her in his trance-like state. Unknown to his partners his mind was currently working at a blistering rate at which it had never done before, the violent reaction speeding up faster and faster with every second that passed. He had listened to every single one of Mandy's words, taking them all in, digesting them, and working them into his mind. Her powerful, passionate words had acted like a key, fitting into and opening a lock which had lay dormant in his brain since he was born. Deep in the recesses of his mind a door opened to something previously unknown to him. His mind was in a state of revolution and upheaval as he continued to calculate and debate furiously through the now open door at what she had said. For the first time in his life the great rusted gears inside his head creaked and groaned before they finally ground slowly into life, turning against each other growing faster with each second, faster, faster, faster-

"Billy!"

Shaking his head he looked up to where Grim and Mandy stood looking down at him.

"Wake up stupid, we're going out for ice cream!" She barked, seeing the boy return to whatever form of sanity inhabited his skull, a happy smile breaking out across his face. The growing momentum within his mind broke off, the frenzied thoughts slowing down as he sank back into his state of blissful idiocy.

"_Some say that when he exhales argon comes out..."_

"Ooh! Ooh ice cream!" Billy bounced to his feet as he looked eagerly at her and the reaper.

"_And that both his hearts have variable valve timing…"_

"Sure whatever, now let's go." Grim spoke lazily.

"_All we know is, he's called the St-"_ Mandy seized the remote, shutting off the proverbial trough of silliness they ate from. She and Billy followed their property out through the front door.

"Mom we're going out for ice cream. Be back once the green demon thingy isn't knocking on the door." Billy called out throughout the house.

"_Okay sweetheart."_ Gladys called back from a few rooms away.

Mandy closed the door and waited for Gladys' voice inside. "Three, two, one…"

"_Wait what? Green demon?"_ They heard Gladys screech to which Billy giggled as he always did.

Without wasting anymore of their Sunday morning the three walked across the lawn, off down the street, passing Fred on their way. He didn't seem to notice them as he turned off the footpath towards the door to Billy's house. As they walked off towards the shops they heard the sound of continuous doorknocking, followed by the annoying chant of…

"FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger…"

The group ignored the demon as he pounded on the door. Gladys was most likely cowering in terror of the monster, hoping against all hope that it would go away of its own accord. They all knew this to be more than unlikely, Fred being too stupid to know when, or indeed how to quit. Billy raced on ahead of the group, thundering ahead on his stubby little legs, flailing his arms around as he careened down the street. From the outside no trace of the sudden spark of thought could be discerned from the bumbling idiot, the revolutionary turmoil in his brain having quietened down to nothing.

The door however remained open, and there was no shutting it.

"Billy slow down." Mandy called out to him half-heartedly, knowing it was useless. "Don't forget you're allergic to anything pointy or edgy."

Alas it was only another few seconds before a howl of pain was heard coming from ahead. She rolled her eyes skywards as they continued, picking up Billy from the footpath where he lay, a vertical line pressed into his nose and face from where he had hit the edge of the mail box. Hauling him to his feet she batted the sides of his face with her hands, earning a big cheesy grin as he shook off the shock to his system, before he set himself hurtling off down the street again.

'_Ugh, there's no saving him.'_ Mandy thought to herself as she watched him barrel down towards a street light currently in his way, all the while he flayed his arms about as he usually did.

Then a curious thing happened. Shortly before he reached the hard metal pole Billy veered off sharply to the right, swerving around it to then continue on running down the street as if nothing had happened, avoiding the pole altogether. Mandy raised an eyebrow in interest, before she tossed the notion out of her head a second later, her and Grim continuing on after him. Billy waved his arms about like wings as he ran around ahead of them, completely ignorant in his happy smiling bliss as he giggled and flitted on down the street.

One day he would destroy worlds.


	3. Max

**Hey guys, did ya miss me? ****No? ****Thought not.**

**In this chapter we are introduced to Mandy's relationship with her other friends Irwin and Junior, we get a glimpse at the _real_ Endsville, and the nature of its people, and we have our first cameo appearances. ****Also my main OC is introduced. I won't say anymore at this point except he'll be a recurring character.**

**Here's chapter three. Hope you enjoy it. Remember, your reviews inspire me so please tell me what you think. Thanks.**

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**Max.**

Grim, Billy and Mandy walked the hour and a half journey to the ice cream shop in relative silence. Each of the three found contentment in their own private world, Billy smiling and thinking about dumb things, Mandy casually reflecting on her contempt for other people, Grim feeling a little bit sorry for himself for having met the two, all under the bright midday sun. Oddly enough the presence of the clear blue sky and the long walk did much to alleviate the brooding negativity and hyperactive idiocy the three tended to immerse themselves in, just as Grim had suggested they would. Together they made their way along the concrete footpath all the way in close to the city's centre, coming into a string of small shops, cafes and other small businesses.

Walking in through the front door they were glad to find the ice cream parlour had air conditioning as the outside air was hot with the summer day. Up behind the counter stood an average young, dopey looking casual worker with more pimples than skin. He held a look of utter boredom on his face that did much to prevent people from ever returning. For a moment Mandy wondered if any of his greasy pus had gotten into the ice cream, but quickly crushed that train of thought once she felt her stomach twist in revulsion. They had come here regularly for the past few months, and had once even bought their chubby green pestilence with them on their ill fated day spent with Grim prize. She'd managed to put aside her suspicions so far and she wasn't about to give in now.

"Hello, welcome to the Freezing Brain, what can I get you." His voice was as dull as they came. Inside part of Grim felt slightly sickened and heavily disparaged that not even the Grim Reaper, death incarnate himself, could shake up the creature's pathetic existence. Then again, this was Endsville, which was becoming known for not exactly being the average 'Anytown U.S.A.' it once was. Regardless of how bad it was, at least it wasn't Townsville.

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! CHOCOLATE! ME WANTS THE CHOCOLATE, or as the French say, LE SHOKOLATE!" Billy started bouncing back and forth from one foot to the other.

"You know Billy, there are other tings dan chocolate mon." Grim tried to persuade the hopeless fool. "Why not try-"

"NO! No poisonberry. Ever!" Alas he was a lost cause.

"Billy it's not poison, it's…"

"Give me a large boysenberry." Mandy spoke with the dull edge of having been around Billy far too long. No matter how hard they tried, mainly Grim seeing as Mandy had long since given up, they could never get Billy to try anything outside his usual pallet, as diverse and disturbing as it most often was. As odd as Billy was though Grim had shown that he could himself occasionally match it.

"I'll have rainbow." Grim spoke. Billy sniggered while Mandy's eye twitched. She gave a sigh as she held the bridge of her nose.

"Grim, my respect for you, however limited it may have previously been, has just shot through the floor." Mandy muttered much to Grim's displeasure and Billy's amusement. Releasing her hand from her face she rolled her eyes towards the ceiling, remembering the peculiar nature of her relationship with the two. "Why can't I have better friends, someone else like me perhaps?" She asked herself.

The puss faced youth didn't seem to react or notice, his pimpled face staying a bored neutral as he scooped the desired flavours and dumped them on top of the cones, handing them over. Grim and Mandy payed seeing as Billy didn't know anything about money. But they didn't mind. He was usually in debt to Mandy for her continuing guidance in his life, handing over his allowance every weekend to her in exchange for her frequently bailing him out when he got himself up to his neck in trouble. Often she just told him to pay up and he would without fuss.

'_And there's the beauty of befriending an idiot. I was wondering why I kept him around.'_ Mandy thought to herself.

The three sat down at one of the tables beside the front window. Grim and Billy chowed down on their semi-frozen treat, Grim not having to worry about the dreaded pain of brain freeze due to the lack of a brain, his consciousness spread throughout his entire skeleton and cloak. Billy however had no such invulnerability. Neither of his friends told him to slow down, not that it had made a difference when they did on previous occasions, and due to the lack of warning…

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Billy screeched in pain, grasping his searing head in his hand as he ploughed it violently into the table.

"BRAAAAIIIINNN FREEEZZZZE! THE PAIIIINNN! MAKE IT STOP! OH MAKE IT STOP!" Turning from the table he hammered his forehead up against the glass repeatedly until large cracks spread across its surface. Mandy grabbed him by the back of his collar and stopped him before he could break it, knowing she would end up paying for any damage he caused. She would be paying with his money but still the matter remained unchanged.

Mandy ate hers as it melted, savouring every sweet drop of the creamy delicacy as beside her Billy proceeded to make faces on the glass, pressing his lips against it and blowing out his cheeks, showing off the chocolaty interior of his mouth. Mandy and Grim turned to watch as several people outside retched at the horrible sight. Around the parlour the other few customers turned to show them a look of scorn.

She groaned to herself as the feeling of so many hostile eyes on them became more than she could bare. Mandy had long since become accustomed to being an outsider, scorned and looked upon with derision by the shallow people that made up the majority of the population. Their constant disdain and contemptuous sneers behind her back served to stoke the flames of her hatred, fuelling her lone wolf lifestyle of brooding darkness, power and vengeance. Currently though the combination of the obnoxious stares of the other patrons and the irritating slurping noises of Billy's mouth on the glass made her feel lethargic and even slightly sick. With a heaving sigh she rose to her feet.

"Let's get outta here."

Billy threw down the last of his ice cream as Mandy yanked him by the collar up out of his seat, Grim following the two out the glass front door back into the summer heat.

Just across the road was a park, a long field of open green grass, trees and footpaths. It was a deceptively optimistic front however, a bright and leisurely façade for a society slowly collapsing under the weight of its people. Behind it rose the cluster of skyscrapers at the centre of Endsville, where the corporate executives, accountants, sycophants and many of the upper-middle classes worked. As bright as the front provided by the park was, it could not hope to cover up the stark backdrop of corruption and greed that overshadowed the fit young people jogging and relaxing below. Whereas Mandy and Grim saw through the front easily, Billy was simply too ignorant to see the truth. He yanked out of her grasp and took off across the road, an act that caused one man to be hospitalised after going through the windshield of his car.

"Is it his time? Mandy asked looking to Grim. He took out his list from within his robe, scanning over it as he held his ice cream in his left hand.

"No, he'll live. It's us I'm worried about. We're around him every day."

They watched on as across the road Billy walked up to a large dog and bent down behind it to sniff its hind quarters, to which it was none too appreciative. The large beast snarled and bit him on the nose, thrashing him around and throwing him into the branches of a nearby tree.

Mandy deadpanned as she watched on. "You'd better go watch him."

"What about you?"

"I'll be around here, a safe distance away from the living weapon of mass destruction." She replied, reminded of how dangerous her friend could be. "No wonder Eris chose him for spreading chaos."

"Chaos! Where?" Eris cried as she appeared next to them in a golden flash, the Apple of Discord at the ready. Mandy pointed to Billy off in the distance, about to sniff another dog's rear end.

'_Or is that a little horse?'_ She wondered quietly. The ensuing violence gave her the answer. _'Dog.'_

Grim and Eris hurriedly crossed the street to watch over Billy while Mandy continued to lick at her now quickly melting ice cream.

Checking left and right across her shoulders she crossed once there were no cars, heading over to a park bench facing the skyscrapers in the distance. Walking along the green grass she took the time to gaze around her, studying her surroundings.

Here was the city of Endsville, a small metropolis situated in the heart of California, inland between San Francisco and Los Angeles, with a population of two million including the outlying suburbs. As far as cities went it was unimpressive, a regional centre of population with nothing in particular to offer the nation in the way of industry or skills. The city's economy was based largely on retail and mindless consumerism, with the majority of the middle class employed in customer service roles. There were only a few reasonable industrial works in the north of the city, the most prolific being warehousing and logistics, tended to by the lower class ethnic minorities that lived there. The town did however boast a number of manufacturing facilities and a chemical plant, in addition to the numerous utility works necessary for keeping the town habitable. The downtown sector directly ahead of her was home to several local insurance, banking, media and legal firms, few of which were of any importance on a national scale. Endsville's tallest building was the Endsville Central Tower, a gleaming sixty storey geometric office block home to several legal and financial institutions, and was the city's official heart.

Seated in the Central Tower, Endsville's local government, bureaucracy and other administrative bodies were commonly known as a model of just how corrupt and twisted a system could become due to the simple greed and pompous buffoonery of the mayor and those under his wing. Obscene levels of bribery took place every day between the wealthy industrialists in control of various parts and parcels of the city, and the bureaucrats whose duty it was to ensure they did their business responsibly. This inevitably resulted in dangerous levels of toxic pollutants entering into the people's environment, and many thousands of people being exploited, usually the lower class poor. Embezzlement was even worse. With so much public money being used to line the pockets of the wealthy elite, little was left over for actually maintaining the city. Yet most people simply didn't notice that the schools were falling apart or the potholes in the roads weren't being filled, preferring instead to gossip about their celebrity false idols.

The Endsville Police Department however was the worst of the worst. While they did the bare minimum of their job, policing the streets, attempting to solve crimes and feeding people into the revolving door legal system, that was where the similarity to honest police ended. Their ranks were made up of a mixture of seedy lying cockroaches and street thugs, and were themselves responsible for committing more murders and other violent life destroying crimes than they had ever solved or prevented. The force was responsible for a massive extortion racket. It was their job to ensure that the supply of dirty cash filtering down through the bureaucracy wasn't interrupted by anyone brave enough to stand up to them. This part of their job they carried out with brutal and remorseless efficiency, usually killing the person in question in addition to their families. All manner of criminal enterprise and organised crime was permitted within the cities boundaries, much of it sanctioned and endorsed by the police, so long as they received their cut of the profits.

Culturally the city showed off its twisted underbelly in almost every facet of daily life. Corruption at all levels was not only tolerated, it was expected as the norm. The violence and crime going on in the streets, workplaces and schoolyards went on without opposition. This debase set of standards had led the people here to become even more narrow-minded, arrogant and selfish than ever. Issues like poverty, the sorry state of the economy, or the ever growing ridiculous greed by the government didn't matter in the slightest to the vast majority, preferring something that entertained their more base instincts than something that would actually make them think. Prejudice and discrimination of all kinds was rampant and growing worse by the day, again caused by the same mentality of selfish small-mindedness and collective arrogance. A rigid caste system had developed over time due to the people of the different social classes ruthlessly crushing those below them in an attempt to further their own petty goals.

If any one saving grace could be found for the unsightly local culture, it was their unusual love of Halloween. The festival was held on several separate occasions each year. Aside from that however there was little to be found that could be considered appealing. Needless to say tourism was not a major industry.

In conclusion the city of Endsville was a malignant puss filled boil on the already pitted and scarred face of human civilisation.

Returning from her bleak muse Mandy focussed again on what she saw of the park in front of her. All the people here seemed to be the definition of beauty, young men and women with toned bodies, tanned skin and healthy builds. Part of her felt somewhat confused by this.

'_Why are they putting so much effort into being fit and strong if underneath they're just as lazy and vain and shallow as everyone else?'_ She wondered as she took a seat on the bench, scrutinising the people around her with interest. _'And why do they all come here to exercise? They probably want to be stronger and more beautiful than everyone else, and come here to show off.'_ Her cynical thoughts were not unreasonable however as she could see many of them jogging with their heads held slightly higher than normal. Many of the women were clearly wearing cosmetics. She could almost feel their mocking derision and contempt for everyone else as they passed by her field of view. _'Why is everyone in this city a pompous jerk? Well, almost everyone.'_

As per her thoughts the girl found herself graced with the presence of one of the few people she had any faint respect for. Unfortunately following on his footsteps came another person for whom she had absolutely no respect for whatsoever.

"Hey Mandy. You mind if I sit here with you baby?" Came Irwin's cooing voice, sending a shiver of disgust up the fiery young girl's spine. Beside him Junior stood watching the dorky dark skinned boy at work with a similar disdain mixed with all round apathy. "Come on honey, you know you want me. Don't you want me to hold your hand?"

"I'd rather hold your throat. Would you like that?" She responded calmly, sending him a harsh glare, as if he were a rat to a snake. For all his seedy desire he took the hint, backing away from her with his hands held up in defence nervously. "I thought not."

"Hello Mandy." Spoke the young pale skinned boy to Irwin's left.

"Hello Junior." She replied in a much less cruel tone, allowing him to step around to her side, taking a seat beside her where Irwin had hoped to sit. Junior payed her no particular interest as he sat beside her, just as she remained quiet and neutral towards him, the same quietly respectful interaction the two had shared for some time now.

Mandy's perception of the paranormal youth had changed greatly since they had first met at the winter camp months ago. Whereas originally she'd regarded him as nothing more than a dangerous mutant freak, a scientific oddity trying to masquerade as a human being, she'd since seen the error of such thoughts. Looking back she felt a simmer of shame at having considered him with such small-minded contempt. Since then Billy, Grim and her, and a very small number of their acquaintances had come to see him as he really was, a misunderstood young boy who simply wanted to live in peace. In fact she had allowed him into her tightly controlled inner sanctum of friends and acquaintances, provided that he not get too big for his boots like everyone else seemed to do at the first opportunity. They weren't particularly close friends, as shown by the fact they still occasionally found themselves rivals, but she enjoyed the restrained sort of company he gave her nonetheless.

Irwin was a different matter however. From out of the corner of her eye she thought she noticed him looking at Junior with a strange partly veiled hostility, more than likely jealous of him for being able to sit next to her whereas he could not. It disgusted her that he thought that way, that if he could not have the object of his desire, then it was wrong for anyone else to, as if she supposedly belonged to him. What's more she sensed his jealousy was strong, dangerously strong.

"So what are you guys doing today?" Junior asked in his particular accent.

"Nothing right now. We just came out here to get away from the house." She answered as Junior watched the crowd passing by. "We were watching a documentary about Nazi's and-"

"Oh yeah Nazi's, they're the greatest." Irwin answered in an attempt to impress Mandy. "Sieg heil! The Reich will rise yo!" He shouted, raising his arm in an enthusiastic Roman salute. He looked down, eager to see if he had impressed her. Instead he was alarmed to find her boring a hole in his face with her angry stare.

"Irwin, Nazi's are intolerant, hateful bigots and chauvinists, just like you. I loathe Nazi's and anyone like them."

"… Uhhhh…" Raising his hands in defence a film of sweat broke out across his face, partly fogging his glasses. "Yeah, me too baby. They're just… like… not us yo. I'm not-"

"Irwin, why don't you just go home. You're making yourself look really bad." Junior stated, urging the young boy with his hands still in the air to accept defeat and leave. Finding himself cornered Irwin flicked his eyes nervously back and forth between Mandy's angry stare and Junior's almost indifferent gaze. With a sigh he complied, turning to begin walking away, as defeated as his conceited friends at the end of the Second World War. Mandy relaxed her angry glower as she and her companion returned to the calm, quiet respect they shared between each other.

"Freak."

It had only been barely above a whisper but they heard it. The two turned around again to face him as he walked away. Pausing momentarily Irwin turned his face to look back to the green eyed boy and the pink clad girl. Though she held little more than disdain for the pathetic little fool, there was something in his face, some flash of malice in his smile and his stare that disturbed her. She kept looking to see what it was, but it was gone a moment later, Irwin turning away as he left their presence.

"Did you just… see…" She began, only to cut away. "Never mi-"

"Yes, I did." Junior responded grimly. Mandy turned to face him in interest as he lowered his features, a solemn grimace taking over his features as he thought about the boy. "He's been acting strange for a few days now, ever since he fully opened up his mummy-vampire abilities. He just seems… I don't know how to put it, a little bit different. I think that power's gone to his head. He's become more aggressive and arrogant than usual, especially around you." At this point however he relaxed back in his seat, his grave expression replaced by a carefree visage. "Don't worry, it shouldn't last long, he'll come back down soon enough. I wouldn't worry about it."

Though he played himself off as being calm Mandy saw through it. While Junior's face was relaxed she could still see the tension in his eyes, his hands at his sides also unusually taught. She knew it alarmed him the same way it had alarmed her. Irwin was already unreasonable in his relentless pursuit of her, almost to the extent of being deranged and unstable, and with his new strengths he could easily start to slide downhill. This she suspected was something that may have already begun.

There was something else in that momentary flash of malice that disturbed her however. The other thing she had noticed was how he had disrespected Junior with a particularly vicious hatred. Irwin hadn't called him a freak at a time when he was acting in an insane and dangerous manner as he had in the past but rather when he was perfectly stable and calm. He had venomously insulted him because he abhorred the fact that he was who he was.

It was these thoughts that led her to her next alarming realisation. As she looked out towards the sparse crowd of joggers, her gaze following her friends, she began to notice the people turning to stare in Junior's direction. She noticed one couple walking along, when the wife noticed them. She touched her partner's shoulder, talking to him as she pointed towards Junior. Watching her mouth move she could distinctly recognise the movements for the word 'thing', after which her husband began talking, wherein she picked up on the word 'abomination'. She and Junior watched as they both stared in open revulsion at the green eyed boy until they passed out of range a few moments later. This same pattern appeared again and aga-

"Hey, you're that freak Nergal Junior!" A boy a little older than them spat, standing beside their bench pointing at Junior. "My mom and dad were talking about you. You're a monster! You should just go and die! Why don't you just go get run over by a truck or something!"

Mandy openly gaped in shock and overwhelming outrage at the boy as another couple, presumably his parents came up behind him. "Hey mom, dad look! It's that freak Nergal Junior!"

"Yeah that's it my boy." The father said as he came up to tassel the boy's brown hair. "Heh heh! Now don't you get too close to it or it might bite."

"Can we kill it dad? Please?"

"No sweetheart, we'll let the thing go for now." His mother cooed softly as she put her hand on her son's shoulder affectionately. "It's the government's job to get rid of vermin like that. To be honest I'm surprised they haven't gotten rid of it already. They're probably waiting for the right time to strike."

"Yes, they may want to capture it so they can torture it and conduct all sorts of tests on it. Don't you worry though, someday that thing will get what it deserves for being such a monster, heh heh." The loving family smiled warmly between each other before turning to send Junior a horrific glower. Though it hadn't any effect at all on the seemingly apathetic Junior, staring blankly as the woefully bigoted family left, Mandy was out and out horrified and sickened by the display. She turned back to him gasping for breath, her eyes and mouth still wide in shock.

"Junior… What was that?" She stammered out, trying to keep the queasy feeling in her gut down.

"That is what happens when everyone finds out about me and what I am." He explained flatly. "It's been happening for about a week now, ever since they did that story Monsters Among Us on the news about me, people have just started glaring at me and calling me a monster and a freak whenever I walk by. Before now it was only a few people who knew who I was, but now that word has gotten out to the entire country about how I'm the son of a demon, everyone has started to hate me. I can't say I'm surprised. "

"But it's just so wrong! They can't treat you like this just because you're different!" Mandy cried in outrage. "Doesn't it make you _so angry_ that they do this to you?"

"It does but what can I do?" Junior replied with a somewhat sombre note in his voice. "I can't prove to them that they're wrong about me because you can't reason with bigots, but I can't fight back because that would make me just as bad as them doesn't it."

"No! It doesn't! There's a difference between fighting back against people who constantly attack you and being a bigot like them!"

Junior remained quiet. In truth he hadn't really believed what he'd said from the beginning, but once again he came to the same problem. "There are six billion of them Mandy, and only one of me. Besides, why should I have to fight back against them? Why should their blind hatred concern me in the slightest? I'm better than them, and I don't need to be a stuck-up jerk to say that."

Mandy was actually somewhat surprised by his detached manor of speaking, seemingly indifferent to the people's despicable habits. He seemed to be in the midst of developing a calm, detached persona with which to simply become aloof to the people's ever increasing intolerance. In his face now she could sense a mild self-satisfaction, content that he was neither the abomination they said he was, nor affected by their petty, insignificant cursing of him. It was pride without arrogance, contempt without conceit. He even possessed a faint charm in his cool, detached manner, his half-lidded eyes visible under the green shaded glasses, a slight smirk of content on his lips.

'_Hn, I didn't know people could be confident and proud without being pompous like that.'_ Mandy mused.

Gradually she recovered from the shock, returning to her ice cream to ease her raging heartbeat and her shaken mind. The stress eased its way out of her system, Mandy taking a deep breath as they returned to their quiet state regardless of the people's hateful glares. Craning his gaze to the sky above Junior squinted, shading his face with his hand against the hot sun.

"It's too hot out here." He spoke quietly, rising to his feet. "I'm gonna keep going. I'll see you later."

"Yeah, see ya." Replied Mandy as he left, leaving her alone once more.

Mandy sat alone for the next few minutes quietly eating her frozen luxury, brooding in her anger and hatred and other dark and negative emotions. She built her anger up and up, feeding it into the depths of her soul, painting her entire being with a deep darkness that hung around her in an overpowering cloud. From further down the park a yellow frisbee landed at her feet. A young boy a few years her senior wearing a white and black shirt with a bulky green watch ran towards her to retrieve it. When he had come within a few feet of her Mandy whipped around to look him straight in the eyes, piercing him with a spearhead of crushing intensity, her face set in a cold and foreboding scowl. Without having to utter a single word the youth froze, his appearance matching that of a rabbit caught between a car's headlights, eyes wide and skin draining of colour in terror. His breath still caught somewhere between his lungs and his lips he slowly backed away from her as she focussed all her anger and fury into his terrified eyes.

His friend, a girl about his age with orange hair and a blue shirt came up to him asking something along the lines of why he didn't get it. Mandy dismissed the two amateur heroes to return to her brooding torment, the air around her heaving and swirling on ionising negative fields, further charged by the girl's annoying condescending voice.

"Well? What is it that's messed up your empty little head dweeb?" She heard her probe obnoxiously again. The boy however was simply too distressed to answer, instead raising his hand to point shakily in her direction, his face still yet to regain any of its natural colour. Looking across to the girl sitting alone on the bench, the frisbee at her feet, she indignantly strode over. When she reached the same distance as her friend had, her finger raised as if about to give an irritating lecture, Mandy rolled her eyes across to stare her down. Just like her friend the older girl found herself caught within a spiralling vortex of malice and deep hatred, the merciless deathly stare of the girl sitting before her making her back away in terror, hiding behind her friend as they both turned and walked away unsteadily.

"Ben, I think I just saw my own death." Mandy heard the traumatised girl say

"Me too. Was it poisoned smoothies?" Her male counterpart replied.

"Uh huh." The girl's voice flittered halfway in and out of her mind. It wasn't that she had anything really against the two, at least no more than she had against everyone else, it was just after having seen what people thought of Junior, how they had heaped all their vile corruption onto him, she was set in a particularly bad mood. Now as the two left the vicinity she once again found herself alone in the comfortable stasis of her own presence, allowing her to resume building up her anger and hatred for the world.

Taking another few last seconds to focus her misanthrope and feed it into her inner furnace she finally relaxed, content that she had reinforced herself enough to continue her fight to enslave and destroy mankind. She continued eating the last of her melting ice cream, before devouring the cone. Mandy was satisfied to see that everyone else saw sense to keep a ten metre exclusion zone around her for fear of the deathly field swirling around her being, making them all feel like lambs before the slaughter. She saw fit to just sit back and simply enjoy the atmosphere of the day as best she could in the city of lowlifes, leaning back with her eyes to the ground.

'_Perfect, just the way I like my people, living in fear of me.'_

It was out of this peace where Mandy sensed she was not alone. She flicked her gaze up to watch the park before her, the sounds of the birds, the wind and the people fading out as she first picked up on the faint rhythmic sound of soft, slow footsteps on grass. She forgot about the world around her, focussing all her attention on the approaching sound as moment by moment the slow muffled rhythm of steps gradually became more pronounced, and she was able to discern that someone was approaching her from behind. Her eyes swivelled left to the edge of her vision as she listened to the sound, each step after step drawing her out. Her heart tensed and fluttered in anticipation as the hairs all over her body began to stand, as if sensing something was different.

The sound of footsteps became louder and louder as they came up to her from behind, before finally stopping. Mandy's breath stilled as she sat on edge. Casting her eyes down she could make out the dark shadow cast on the ground looming over her just next to her own, indicating that whoever had approached her now stood just over her left shoulder.

"Delicious isn't it."

Mandy frowned and turned in her seat to face the source of the young male voice, readying herself to mercilessly crush whoever had dared to intrude on her solace. Standing there looking down on her she found a boy about her age, with short blue-black hair combed up in a simple yet dignified short back and sides style cut, wearing a dark blue long sleeve button up shirt and pants. Studying him she noticed every part of his dark appearance was immaculate, right down to the black boots on his feet. His face was handsome and had a calm and sophisticated appearance. A kind, light-hearted smile graced his features, the type she'd seen on the type of person who always saw the diamonds amidst the dirt and always wanted to make someone else's day a little bit better, something she had little time for. All up the stranger held a subtle, mysterious air, like a deep blue sapphire under the midnight full moon.

"Excuse me?"

"The ice cream, boysenberry wasn't it?" His voice sounded soft and welcoming, so unusual for someone in his position, and made her raise an eyebrow in wonder. It didn't take long for her to figure he was some preachy religious or moral activist out to convert another mindless sheep to his flock.

Mandy nodded once while looking at the light-hearted idiot, staring him down the same way she did the other two. The Opiate of the Masses would not save him from her wrath, the threat of what she would do to him heavy in her scowl, her entire being directing her caustic angry vibe into the stranger.

He continued to smile back.

"What's you're name?" He asked, eyes wide open, face devoid of any sign of being threatened by her powerful and dangerous presence as he continued to smile, the girl's anger now faltering.

"Mandy." She replied, dropping it like a blunt weight, not quite sure what to do with this strange saintly figure of kindness and joy.

"Hi." He greeted her. Turning his eyes down he looked to the seat beside her. "Uh, do you mind if I…"

Mandy found herself taken aback, her scowling eyes relaxing and widening as her disdain gave way to surprise and even a vague feeling of curiosity. He, who had every appearance of being a god of flowery meadows, public forums and sunshine, would want to sit next to her, goddess of darkness, revenge and pollution? Her stare alone could break the will of what she guessed to be ninety percent of the people alive on the planet, so for him to be completely unmoved by her threat showed a potential strength of will she hadn't quite come across before.

'_Interesting. He's clearly unique.'_ As she looked up at his kind face she noticed something else that caught her. _'His eyes are like mine.'_ He looked upon her with two deep, dark onyx orbs, strangely at odds with his nice personality, two mysterious event horizons beyond which anything could lie.

As much as she still felt aloof to the strange boy, her curiosity demanded to be answered.

'_For now I'll go along with this, and see where it goes.'_ She gestured for him to sit at her side, to which he did so gladly. Stepping around her left the blue-clad youth made his way to sit himself down beside her. _'This could be interesting.'_

"Correct me if I'm wrong Mandy, but you don't seem like the type to want to go out to parks and spend time out with friends. You seem unique among these people. You look more like the strong-willed, lone wolf type who doesn't need others for support." The youth spoke with a feeling of knowing, like just from meeting her he already understood a lot of her character. Then again, she knew for someone with a keen eye it would be easy to discern.

"Well maybe you're right. Maybe I'm not like all these pretentious jerks. What are you gonna do, sue me?"

The boy smiled and gave a light chuckle. "Heh heh, no I don't usually sue people for being different to me, although I'm sure plenty of people here do."

"I could name a few who would." Mandy replied with her usual sarcastic wit.

Her new companion smirked as he continued. "I saw how you took care of those two before, just by looking at them. I don't think I've ever seen someone with that strength of resolve before." He had seen her ward off the two who had thrown the frisbee earlier, therefore he already knew about her foreboding aura and dark personality. And nevertheless it didn't seem to bother him; yet another tantalising mystery for her to uncover.

Mandy had to know about him, her interest in the strange new boy growing by the second.

"Who are you?" She asked him at last, fixing the youth with a wondering, probing gaze, taking in every feature of his calm face. So far she could only speculate on what he was. He could potentially be her missing equal, a parallel entity to herself, or he could be some pathetic suck-up. So far she couldn't discern which.

"My name's Max." He answered, putting a name to the new face. "I moved here a few days ago from Townsville. Too many monsters and destruction there for my liking." He remarked with a slight sense of humour in his smile.

"If you came here to get away from all that, you'll be greatly disappointed." Mandy continued. "After all-"

"Yes, I know about Endsville not being that much better. This was the only place where the rent was affordable. Besides, I wasn't looking for a boring place, just somewhere that's liveable. At least here everything's a lot smaller and easier to deal with. Here I don't have to worry so much about being crushed by a collapsing building like in Townsville." Another new piece of the puzzle came to light. It seemed Max knew a bit about demons and the like from prior experience.

"So you left Townsville because of the monsters, and came here because of… monsters?" Mandy asked incredulously.

"Like I said it was the only place that was affordable. I know it's not a particularly good place to live but I've dealt with worse things in the past. I've actually gone up against a few of the weaker things that came through Townsville. Did you ever hear of Fuzzy Lumpkins? It taught me how to fight and survive, but if I stayed there any longer I would have been killed in the end." It seemed Max had combat experience, albeit running and hiding against everything that was over eight feet tall. Could she have just stumbled across a mini Hoss Delgato?

"You know the last guy who came here looking for trouble has already lost two limbs, and I doubt it'll be long before he looses all four."

"Don't worry, I can take care of myself." He assured her with confidence. Mandy

"Well you better, because this place is not going to be your friend." She explained with dire weight in her voice. "Do not trust anyone. These people will eat you alive if you let your guard down for so much as a second so be warned."

"I can handle that. I've been through this before. Because of all the damage, robberies and incompetent leadership, Townsville's economy has declined badly. Unemployment is skyrocketing, people are leaving in droves, businesses are failing in their hundreds and the property market has collapsed. The people there are turning on each other like rabid dogs. The crime rate has exploded. It's a stones throw away from becoming the world's largest ghetto. It was already a dangerous place to live because of the people alone when I came here."

"Well I have to admit, the place has really gone downhill, despite having their own three superheroes taking care of it." Mandy had seen an article in Time magazine about how it had been decaying over the last two years. Add to that the fact that people nationwide had gradually became more and more small-minded and selfish, and it looked like the whole western world may well be looking at troubled times in the years ahead.

"I never really cared much for super heroes." Max said with a sigh.

"Neither do I, but why not? Why don't you mister perfect little saint?" She asked to which Max smirked.

"You shouldn't judge people until you really get to know them. After all, you're choice of clothes," Indicating towards her pink dress with a pretty flower in the middle, "indicates that you are a sweet little ball of love and compassion." He never stoped being kind and polite, even as he continued "But neither of us is like that now are we?"

"Oh come on. You dress almost like a Goth, but you sound and act more like a girl scout. We're polar opposites." Mandy replied, tired of the guys annoyingly sweet disposition, even if he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He was probably an idiot in disguise, or a pathetic fanboy like Irwin. "You're obviously some pretentious idiot out to prove how perfect you are."

"Polar opposites you say? If I may, what do you honestly feel when you see homeless people begging for money on the street?"

She shrugged. "I don't care. They're not my problem. The strong rise and the weak suffer and die, just as it has been for millions of years." Mandy's reply was short, blunt and brutal, exactly befitting of her. "They're the product of people's contempt and selfishness. If not them, they would do it to someone else."

"And what do you feel about all the people in countries like China and North Korea, who have to go about their lives living in fear of the oppressive government?"

"Again I don't care. The strong will naturally rise above the weak. It's just simple Survival of the Fittest. Do you think a Lion would feel sorry for the Gazelle it just killed? Do you think someone or something would feed the Lion if it decided not to hurt another creature? No, it would starve, grow weak, and eventually be preyed upon by another predator." Mandy had long known the facts of life, facts which most people refused to believe or were too weak to implement into their lives. "Besides, that's what they signed up for when they chose to support communism."

"I know how you feel. I think the exact same way." Max said with a grin on his face, his reply coming as a surprise, knocking Mandy off balance mentally.

"You're right. Emotional attachments, chains of love and compassion, only serve to hold us back, chaining us down to the people around us. If we break free of these chains, then we can be free, within reason, to do whatever we want. We could dedicate our lives to doing great things, to changing the world into what we want it to be, and not be held back by sentiments of guilt or remorse." Max continued holding up his open hand.

He then turned to her with a kind and benevolent smile on his kind face. "You know you're the first person I have ever met to ever truly take that on board and successfully put it into practice. All the others are too arrogant and stupid to do anything. They lie and cheat their way to the top, and think its wrong when someone else does the same thing to them. I've never met anyone else who could cut through all of that. I suppose you deserve my respect."

Mandy stared at him, pleasantly surprised. He had essentially spoken her own thoughts. He had even said what she herself had spoken earlier that day, including his apparent disdain for humanity. Aside from the polite and friendly attitude he was, as far as she could see, very much like herself.

_Why can't I have better friends, someone else like me perhaps?'_ Her words earlier called out in the back of her mind. Could it be she had just found someone she could truly connect with, someone who would understand her, perhaps even work with her? He even respected her simply for being her, something the majority of people viewed with disdain.

"Well… thanks, sort of." She answered awkwardly. "You know, though I don't particularly have any special interest in you, I guess I could learn to live with you. So long as you don't do something stupid like muscle in on my turf, I think we could get along. Try anything funny and I'll crush you."

"Deal." Max said.

"Good. In that case, welcome to Endsville." She stated. "Now let me brief you on some things you'll need to know. Firstly the local deity in this place is money. The majority of people here are obsessed with having more of it, regardless of where it comes from or how much they already have. They use their money to get power over other greedy people, and also to buy expensive stuff like fast cars, big houses and anything that will make them look more important than they really are. Now the upper class are few in number but they have a lot of money and they hold the reigns. They're the ones riding around in Lamborghinis with thousand dollar suits and dresses. The middle class are the most common and they work in all the most common positions. They will do anything they can to take advantage of you to further their own greed. The lower class have no money, live in terrible conditions, and have been preyed upon by everyone, so they're the most aggressive. Half the violence and crime this place suffers is from this one group."

"Sounds lovely."

"Indeed. Now not all the people in this place are back-stabbers and psychopaths but don't expect to find anyone who'll willingly stand up to protect you. That's how the other half of these people work. If it's not them that's being beaten down they won't even lift a finger to help. I hope you're ready because you're in for the fight of your life, and that's not counting the monsters and hordes of demons. Other than that we welcome you and hope you survive your stay."

"Thank you." Max answered happily, confident in his skills.

"Gehehehehe!" Yaaay! This is fun Grim! I'ma flayahinnn! Ehehehehe!"

Mandy twisted around in her seat and looked to see Billy and Grim coming up to her right from further up the park. Grim held an indignant grimace as he made his way along the footpath, holding a giggling Billy under his right arm, still trying to squirm out of the reapers grip.

"Alright my friends are back. I gotta go." Mandy spoke as she rose to her feet. Max stood up as they approached gazing over the two newcomers with a wary visage.

"Who are your friends?" He asked calmly.

'The short idiot with the big nosed is Billy." Mandy spoke with a deadpan voice. "And I think you should know the Grim Reaper when you see him."

Max flicked his dark eyes up to the bleached skull, scanning him over methodically. "You're friends with the reaper?"

"Yeah. Billy and I won him in a game of limbo. Well, mainly me, but Billy… No, just me."

"Dat and you cheated." Said the angry and begrudging Grim as he continued to grimace at the girl and the new youth. "You two never let me live dat down."

Max smirked and gave a nod. "Good for you. That's quite a catch too." Grim grumbled in response at the mysterious boys comment.

"Alright. I'll see you round maybe." Mandy answered as she stepped away from the bench towards her companions.

"See you later." Max replied as he walked away, stepping on and mercilessly crushing the frisbee under his shoe. Mandy noticed this with interest, and paused to glance back, staring at the broken yellow plastic. That small momentary show of force seemed to conflict with the polite persona she'd seen, further deepening the mystery. Raising an eyebrow she spared the crushed remains one last glance before she turned and left down the street with Grim and Billy, back towards their houses.

"Who was that guy Mandy?" Billy spoke up, looking at her suspiciously, as if he was going to be replaced again.

"Just a guy I met. His name's Max. He was a lot like me." Mandy said in a bored tone as they walked slowly back the several miles towards their suburb in the early afternoon heat.

'_I met someone who could end up being quite useful in the future.'_ She mused, the time passing by as she withdrew into her thoughts._ 'Dark yet polite, smart, knows how to fight. This day turned out alright.'_

Her reflection broke away as they neared Billy's house, where they were unfortunately again greeted to the sound of...

"FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FreFredburger..."

The three stood back and stared as the chubby monster rambled on and on, continuing his knocking on the door unceasingly, unaware that they were even there. Billy's face twisted uneasily.

"He's not breathing. Why isn't he breathing?"

"Who cares." Grim rolled his hollow eyes skyward and waived his scythe at the green demon, sucking him back to the underworld via a portal beneath his feet.

"Come on, let's go to my place until he's gone for good." Mandy spoke up leading the two away towards her home nearby.

"We could be there awhile." Grim added.

"But Mandy has the big TV." Billy piped in happily. "Cool! We can have sleepovers every night for weeks! Yaaaayyyy! Thanks Mandy!"

Mandy deadpanned and urged herself for calm as Billy threw his arms around her shoulders and embraced her in a warm hug. She clenched the bridge of her nose before trying to lever herself free of her stupid friend's affection as he pressed his nose into the side of her face. _'I just had to bring it up didn't I?'_

"Fine. Come on cadaver-to-be." Mandy grizzled, a stern frown set on the girl's features as she dragged a smiling Billy along towards her house where they would spend the rest of the afternoon. Grim fixed them with a look of disparagement before he followed after them.

* * *

Back at the row of shop fronts facing the park, a lone figure sat kneeling atop the tiled roof of a cafe, silently contemplating what it had witnessed so far having observed everything that had happened that day. Nobody noticed it from its vantage point high above the park, and even if they had looked, their narrow minds would have likely skipped straight over the small crouching figure in the black cloak.

Three days into its mission and it was already underway. It had arrived on the outskirts of Endsville's northern industrial park in the dead of night, and had immediately set about gaining its bearings and tracking down its main objective. It hadn't taken long to locate her. The strange entity had been silently watching Mandy since yesterday, keeping a good distance so as to avoid detection by her or any of her associates, along with planning and preparing for what lay ahead.

'_Getting her to trust me will take time. The execution of resistance founders should not be difficult. Securing her trust will be more challenging though. I will continue to observe her from afar for now.'_

The being rose from its place to leave, moving along the rooftop down behind the row of shops, going completely unnoticed by the denizens and shoppers as they went about their day. It payed them no attention as it past through the alleyways and left the district, heading west away from the city centre.

'_I need a base of operations to use for the duration of my activities here.'_

It had one particular location in mind, a secluded place residing in one of Endsville's more isolated suburbs further out from the hub of activity. The burning midday sun did nothing to bother it as it made its way calmly through the empty streets, passing through the middle class housing estates, continuing ever forwards on foot even as mid afternoon arrived. With the sky overhead growing a heavy orange hue from the pollution it stopped and looked up as it arrived at a dilapidated wooden fence. Scanning it over quietly it searched for an opening hidden in amongst the various keep out signs. A loose plank of wood served the purpose.

Ducking down it pushed through the opening and stepped out into the long grass on the other side. Taking a short moment to scan its surroundings it saw the brown wheat grass towering above, with a barely noticeable path leading on ahead. Following the faint path forward it walked through the dry undergrowth, stepping out into a more open pathway. An old scarecrow stood to the right. Over the top of the grass it saw what it had come for, the old mansion known to be haunted by a spirit. Abandoning the new path it made its way through the untamed grass straight towards the entrance.

Opening the front door inwards it found the interior of the decrepit house to be in far better shape than the outside. Onyx eyes roved over the rose rug and blue-grey walls, suspicious of the state of the house as it shut the door and made its way further into the new environment. It paused before a flight of wooden stairs to listen.

It sensed the presence of another being, some spectral entity responsible for keeping the house alive as it had been in years long past. Reaching out with its senses it detected movement coming from atop the staircase.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" A lively male voice called from beyond the stairs to the right. Turning to the source of the sound the figure watched as the shadow of a large ungainly creature moved in across the wall, before an enormous spider came into view

Jeff searched the area below the stairs for any sign of whoever had caused the disturbance.

"Is anyone in here?" He called out again trying to keep his tone from sounding dangerous. "Don't worry, it's alright. We don't get visitors in here often and you're more than welcome." Clambering down the staircase he listened for any sign of another person. Not a sound greeted him as he made his way to the bottom.

"Huh. Oh well." Shrugging it off he turned around to return back to his resting place higher up. "Guess I imagined-"

His voice fell silent as from out of the shadows beside the staircase the spectral figure lanced out and struck him over the abdomen. The enormous spider's eyes shot wide as its body shuddered and slumped dead on the ground, his many legs contracting inwards as he lay still, the once great beast of a spider dispatched with a single effortless strike.

Regarding the spiders body with indifference the raven cloaked creature turned to face the true source of the house's haunting presence as she stood atop the staircase. The spirit of Mrs. Doolin stood staring in shock down at the body of her companion, watching as the small cloaked figure looked upon her from below.

"Who are you?" She spoke with anger in her voice, gritting her teeth as the black void beneath the cowl stared back. "Talk! Who are you?" Her words demanded with growing anticipation. Once more the wraith-like figure remained silent and still, a deathly calm that did ever more to unnerve the spirit. Opening her palm a golden rapier materialised in her hand.

"Answer me!" Raising the pointed blade she threatened the newcomer.

Without a moments hesitation the cold figure launched itself up at her, darting over the stairs in an instant. Mrs. Doolin's eyes widened as it reared its hand back and struck her chest, an unnatural black energy bursting forth from its extended fingers blowing straight through her.

She gaped in shock, the raven figure landing just behind her, looking back as she dropped the sword to the floorboards. The spectral image of the old woman flickered as she lost her strength, her legs buckling under her as she keeled over. Her body fell forward down towards the staircase beneath her, the surrounding house fading in and out as she collapsed. Upon hitting the floor her body vanished, the sword flickering out of existence with her.

Standing facing where its vanquished foe had fallen the wraith looked up to gaze at the walls around it. It watched on dispassionately as the well kept plaster, paintings and rugs, the source of their life sustaining force gone, now melted away all around. The features ran down to the floor, dissolving as their master had moments before. When the illusion had completely faded away it revealed the great old house as it really was, decaying, broken, and completely abandoned by society.

Turning away from the body of the spider below the cloaked figure continued on into the upper floors, accompanied by nothing more than the low howl of the wind through its empty corridors. Within the walls of its isolated sanctum it continued in its preparation for the task ahead.

The house's previous master had been strong enough to beat death. It had taken but a second for it to succeed where the reaper had failed.

* * *

**How's that? Three chapters down and already the death toll begins. About that last bit at the end, I just wanted to gauge our newly arrived creation, easily defeating someone who had herself been able to defeat Grim in the past. As for the pointless Ben 10 cameo, this will only come into any relevance much later in the story.**

**Hope you liked it, tell me what you think.**


	4. School

**Hello again readers.**

**There's just a couple of things I'd like to point out about this chapter and the story as a whole. First is that while I tend to over analyse things like about Mandy's philosophy that's just my style, and while I go into great detail about these things in reality the plot really isn't all that complex. Second, while this is currently at the upper limits of the T rating, it's not going to stay like that for much longer. I'll be changing it to M not long from now so be advised as this is going to get pretty dark later on. And third, there's gonna be a big crossover with Invader Zim that'll begin next chapter and it will be recurring throughout the story.**

**Finally I'd just like to mention that this is the last chapter in which the characters will be represented as they are on TV. In this the characters will begin to change and evolve from what they were on the screen, setting the stage for the events to come. Say goodbye to Billy, Mandy, Junior, Irwin and everyone else as they were in the series because after this I take over, and while plenty of their original personalities will remain, overall each of them will grow and develop.**

**Getting this chapter ready was murder for the past two weeks. Please click that review button as hearing your feedback makes it all worthwhile. Thanks, now enough with the details.**

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School.

Next morning.

"Good morning Mandy, what can I get you this morning? Came the voice of Mandy's long suffering mother Claire, the woman's scary daughter walking in to take her place at the table.

"Three pancakes, eight inches in diameter each, chilled orange-no, pineapple juice, fresh of course, the paper, and your soul." Mandy's draconian nature had long since forced her parents into submission, being little more than heavily overworked slaves to her now. She had taught herself long ago that the one thing that was better than to be loved and respected out of acceptance, was to be loved and respected out of fear. Whereas acceptance relied on the will of the other person, fear put her in control. She consciously repeated the mantra that she didn't care for her parents whatsoever, that she had no emotional attachments to them outside of the services they provided.

_'Why not? I don't need their love, I'm above tne need for love from other people. I have no place for sentiments that will only make me weak in the long run.'_

Claire got to work on the pancakes while Phil, her equally abused father, got the paper like a good dog. Literally, he sat down beside her seat at the table, like a dog, with the paper clutched in his teeth, to which she took quietly. Turning down to the fully grown man beside her seat she scrutinised him closely, narrowing her gaze slightly so the full forced of her stare impacted the man. He broke out in a sweat as she inspected him meticulously, searching for any sign of dissent. Her cold, relentless, crushingly oppressive gaze, the one she used on her parents time and time again, was really all that was needed to effectively restrain their weak wills, ensuring they remained her loyal, fearful subjects. It was a talent of hers, an ability wrought through the combination of her courage and determination, her carefully controlled and guarded state of mind, and the years of densely built up anger and hatred that burned deep within.

Phil remained on his knees, his eyes locked in dread up at his eight year old daughter, until finally her stare relented. Mandy relaxed and turned her attention on the paper as her father shrunk away. She vaguely disliked her father for having repeatedly tried to pass her off as a boy, having wanted a son instead of the daughter he got. It didn't particularly worry her though, not when she had both of them under control via her superior will.

And yet they continued to care for her regardless, loving her as their daughter despite the heavy psychological toll she'd taken on their lives. Overall, aside from a few minor issues she had to admit as parents in Endsville go, she was lucky. Even through she abstained herself entirely from attachment to them, and kept them both tightly controlled under her oppressive mental grip, she never quite forgot that. It made keeping them under control a somewhat sombre task.

Phil came back with her juice, with Claire returning with her first pancake shortly thereafter, placing it on the table before her before they both moved away. Wasting no time she poured the syrup and dug in, taking a moment to savour the taste. The pancake was delicious, making her feel warm from her tongue and cheeks all the way down to her toes. Of course she showed nothing on the outside.

Alone in her thoughts again Mandy thought back to her encounter with the boy from yesterday. Max; the riddle that perplexed and fascinated her the more she tried to analyse it. She wondered if she would see him again, after all it seemed a pity that they should never meet again, not when he had seemed so much like her. Depending on how the cards fell all manner of possibilities could open up. If Max was as he said he was then he could be of benefit to her in the future.

But there was another thing about Max. While Mandy acted as dark and foreboding as she was, partly to dominate others through threatening them into submission, he was very different. He acted as bright and cheery as Billy, albeit much more intelligent, almost the exact opposite of herself. From what she had heard come out of his ever smiling mouth, he believed in, and followed the exact same philosophy as she did, a strange mixture of revenge against the corrupt and survival of the fittest, and had done so for some time, and yet his behaviour was entirely contradictory.

Furthermore he said he'd seen action against the beasts of Townsville, and had mentioned one Fuzzy Lumpkins. She had done a web search on this Fuzzy Lumpkins creature, and had found that he was by no means a lightweight. For him to defeat something that looked to be as strong as ten Grizzly Bears was no small feat. He would have had to go through hell and back to get that strong, and even if he'd been able to surely it would show on his body.

Her train of thought was interrupted as her mother slid another pancake onto her plate, right as she finished her first.

So why did his polite attitude not match his beliefs and history. _'Why doesn't he act more like me?'_ She had met guys like Piff, Billy's impromptu name for a Gothic he ran into at school, who she for a short time had… _'Uh, no! Let's not go back there. Pathetic, one of my weaker moments.'_

But for all his misplaced pride and weakness, Piff had looked like quite a dark and negative oriented person from the outside, just as his personality dictated. So why then did the similarly dark boy she met yesterday not behave like it?

Could it be just a front? It was possible, either to conceal or to convey that he was like her when the reality was something different. The story of him fighting Fuzzy Lumpkins was almost certainly not true, as he couldn't possibly be that strong. The fact he acted so unusually polite towards her was probably an act to befriend her.

"Hnn…" Mandy narrowed her eyes, pausing in her breakfast in thought.

She came to the conclusion that what he said was more than likely a lie. He would not have approached her and spoken to her on such friendly terms if he was as uncaring of others as he claimed to be. Clearly he was not and could never be like her. All the proof she needed to see was in his kind and welcoming smile. She, the definitive queen of anger and darkness as she was, had never given a genuine light-hearted smile like that in all her life. She could easily conceive a plausible reason for him doing so.

'_He was probably some wannabe toady who just wanted to mooch off of my power and authority like a leech, then stab me in the back!'_

She snarled and clenched her hands and teeth as her mother nervously gave her the third pancake. _'He lied to me, he fooled me! He took me for a ride just like Dora did! And I fell for it!'_ Her anger flared and grew stronger with each moment as she focussed on how she had been conned._ 'I swore I would never let anyone play me for a fool like that again. I'm supposed to be above trusting and falling for people like that! I swear if I ever see that lying parasite again, I will show him the consequences of such an insult.'_

Eating quickly Mandy finished her breakfast, revelling silently in the content feeling in her stomach, the sensation reverberating throughout her entire body, easing away the stress of the offense. Leaving the table for her parents to clean up she finished getting ready for school, brushed her teeth, strapped her bag to her back and headed out the front door.

"Bye sweetheart, is there anything you want us to do while you are away?" Philip asked, still showing affection for his daughter despite his fear of her drilling stare. He hoped that by showing initiative he could win a bit more respect. For a second Mandy felt a flash of pity for her parents. Neither of them were too bright, as if they really knew Mandy they would know that she didn't reward good behaviour, only punished any and all incompetence severely.

"Yes, I expect my room to be clean upon my return, but do not go through any of my drawers, my closet, or computer. I'll know if you did. That is all." She really didn't have any work to give her parents, and her room was already in good order. A good part of her really didn't like the idea of them going through her desk, her draws, and opening anything with a door on it in her room, considering it an invasion of her privacy. She had used that privacy several times. As of right now she kept an antique European broad sword in her closet, as well as her yellow and black Kill Bill outfit and the keys to her Akira style bike. In addition she had also been filing away a large amount of cash, currently set at two thousand dollars in bundles packed away in her closet, for use as a rainy day fund in case of an emergency.

As she made her way to the nearby bus stop she had to wait only a few seconds before Billy and Irwin joined her.

"Why hello my love. Fancy meeting you here." Mandy grimaced as he flashed her a wide grin. It was plain to see that Irwin would one day grow up to be a depraved sleaze, if he wasn't one already that is. She was once again reminded of what Junior had told her, of how he had begun to show flashes of some aggressive, deluded side they had never seen before, and sought to keep a close eye on him.

"Hi Mandy, are you ready to learn?" Billy greeted her. Billy didn't really know how to learn, and would never even try to learn how to lea…

'_Now there's a paradox. Learn how to learn.'_

"Yes Billy, but chances are we won't be doing much of that while we're gong to this dump." She growled out irritably.

"Aw cheer up bestest friend of mine." He replied, opening his arms to embrace her in an all encompassing hug from behind. Mandy didn't react to his squeezing hold. Looking out of the corner of her eye she spied Irwin looking at Billy hotly.

"Billy, let go." She spoke calmly.

"Okay!" Bouncing back he let his friend go, smiling happily in his idiocy as up the road the school bus approached.

'_Hee hee, Mandy's so great and friendly and stuff, just like doughnuts! And rockets, and Lambuhgenees and-and Irwin! Irwin's so…'_ His happy grin faltered however when he looked across and first noticed the unwelcome glare his friend was sending him. _'Why is Irwin looking at me like that? Does he have gas? No, I think he's angry at me. Why he mad at me? I didn't do nothing.'_

"You stealing my girl yo?" Irwin asked in an accusing tone.

"Uuh…" Billy's eyes widened at the sharp stab of bitter venom in his friends words and glare. Unable to formulate any counter or even to fully understand what was being said he could only stare dumbly.

"Don't play dumb with me Billy, Mandy's mine! I saw her first!"

'_Mandy's mine? What? But Mandy don't belong to anyone buts Mandy. Why he acting like he owns her? That's… that's… not right.'_

"Shut it Irwin, I don't belong to you." Mandy replied with a grizzle of indignation.

"But Mandy, my sweet flower-"

"I said shut it!" She barked angrily, putting an end to his protests just as the bus pulled up in front of them. "Just get on the bus alright!"

Hopping on as soon as the doors opened Irwin disappeared inside as Billy and Mandy followed after. Still somewhat shaken from what Irwin had said Billy's face held a look of trouble as he stood beside his friend, looking down the rows of seats as the bus lumbered onwards. All throughout the bus the seats were filled with idiots and miniature thugs, throwing assorted junk throughout the bus as if it were a clothes dryer. Pudn was trying to eat his maths book, thereby 'accepting' its knowledge, in addition to the processed wood fibbers. Sperg was in the back, waiting for someone it appeared as he scanned the seats for any sign of crippling weakness for him to prey on. It seemed he had found what he had been waiting for as he fixed his eyes on Billy.

Smirking cruelly he got up out of his seat and started slowly stalking towards them. Before he could come close enough to lay a finger on Billy however Mandy stepped in. She lowered her head down and to the side as she glared ruthlessly at Sperg, anger and aggression and the promise of cruelty flooding through her piercing stare. Sperg stopped rigid with panic before slowly relenting, turning around and heading back to his seat. Though Sperg was gradually getting stronger and more arrogant and brutal, Mandy's threatening gaze could still reel him in, controlling him through playing on his cowardice. And when it came to actual combat, though he was the strongest in the school, Nergal Junior's semi-liquid form gave him an overwhelming edge in being able to change form to suit the occasion.

Still she didn't push her luck. Due to his ever growing ego she knew there would come a time when his pride and arrogance overcame his spinelessness. She didn't want him to fight back, as she foresaw that if she ever found herself confronted by the hulking behemoth she would probably lose unless she resorted to lethal force. She would let him have his way with everyone else so long as he didn't harm Billy.

'_Why do I protect him so much? What's so special about… Oh well.'_ Dismissing the matter she took her seat amidst the middle-right beside the window with Billy slotting in beside her. Sealing herself off from the depraved people around her she gazed absent-mindedly out the window, towards the cluster of skyscrapers visible in the distance.

Beside the brooding girl Billy began to regain his happy bliss, smiling as he looked around the bus. _'Hey look there's Mindy! She's all cool and popular and everyone likes her cause she's all nice and friendly. I wish I could be more friendlier like her, that way Sperg would be my friend. I like Sperg, and Mindy, and pie! Mindy's so nice and that's why everyone likes her.''_

He felt the bus pulling to a halt again. A girl with curly brown hair got on, making her way past Billy towards where Mindy sat just in front of Sperg, gossiping with her two suck-ups.

"So I went to take the mascara, and the guy at the counter said that I actually had to pay for it! Me, as if I was just some lowly trash like him! The nerve of some people!" Mindy rambled as the two sitting in the seat in front sniggered. Noticing the arrival of the girl she turned to give her a look of contempt. "Speaking of trash, what is it?"

"Um, h-hi Mindy. I was just wondering, uhh… could I sit here?" She asked nervously. Unfortunately for the timid girl Mindy regarded her request with outrage.

"What? A worthless little nothing like you sit next to me? Get lost! As if a beautiful, rich and effluent girl like me would dirty herself by being next to filth like you!" Mindy spat out with poison and spite, wholly intent on breaking the back of the poor girl's remaining self-esteem. She flinched and held her arms to her chest under the assault.

"… Um, sorry. You know, effluent actually means… sewage."

All around the bus everyone fell silent. Mindy's mouth hung open in disbelief before she clenched her fists and teeth, her face going red with rage.

"YOU!" Jumping up she brutally shoved the girl backwards, causing her to land hard on her back and hit her head. Gritting her teeth against the pain she held the back of her scalp as tears ran down her cheeks. Mindy didn't stop there. Stepping up to her she stomped down on her chest with her heel, then kicking her again and again in the side. Her furious visage gave way to one of cruelty and malice, smiling down on the crying girl as she brutalised her.

"You're nothing compared to me! You're just a pathetic, worthless little loser! Who would wanna be friends with you? Nobody likes you. Nobody loves you. Your parents told me they wished you were never born!" She laughed as she continued kicking her in the ribs, grinning with the feeling of power it gave her.

All around the bus everyone laughed heartily at the poor crying girl's suffering. Mandy watched with hatred out through the corner of her eyes. The girl in question already suffered from the effects of bullying and abuse from those around her, and her self-esteem had been ruined as a result. She knew what it was like to be an outcast, ostracised and looked upon as something below everyone else. But whereas they had intended for her independent spirit to break, it had instead done much to build up her strength of will and resolve, and had given her a sense of confidence in herself that combined with her deep burning anger built her up into what she was. But whereas it had made her stronger and more independent, she could see it was not so with the girl lying on the floor. They were slowly but surely killing her and they all knew it.

Sniggering at what he saw happening in the back the driver pulled the bus over again. Pushing and shoving the girl around the other children toyed with her cruelly, Pudn wrenching her backpack away and tossing the contents about. Smiling triumphantly Mindy turned back to the rear of the bus, towards where Sperg sat behind her, himself equally amused by the fun and games.

"Sperg, get rid of her." She commanded as she sat back in her seat. Smirking he rose to his feet and roughly grabbed his quarry by the throat. Dragging the bloody, beaten and tearful youth out to the front door of the bus he kicked her in the back, knocking her out onto the footpath where she lay sobbing as those in the bus laughed and shouted insults as they continued on without her.

'… _What?'_

Billy stared at the other students in shock. He was appalled by what he had just seen, and with his brain still mostly dormant he couldn't comprehend it. _'But she was just trying to be friendly. Mindy, she always has loads of friends cause she's so nice and… but… that wasn't nice. She didn't deserve to be kicked and hurted like that.'_

For the remainder of the journey to school Billy continued to gaze about each of them in shock and dismay, repeating the same question in his head over and over again.

'_Why?'_

* * *

Ten minutes later.

Arriving out the front of the old public school the bus opened its doors and everyone got off. Mandy led her friend off, casting him a concerned look as they stood before the entrance.

"Billy, you awake?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine." He responded in a less than beaming tone, the two turning their attention to the school ahead.

The school building itself had been made sometime in the late fifties, and had been steadily decaying and patched up ever since. Miraculously it had survived the decades worth of trash that had passed through its doors, along with a budget that sometimes was not even enough to pay for the electricity used. However the invasion of Velma Green and her hordes of spiders had pushed it over the edge. The grades were extremely poor due to so many stupid and lazy individuals, to be career criminals, and by definition deadbeat teachers. The fact that their resources were in dire need of replacement, computers from the nineties and books from much earlier, didn't help the matter. What little funding the school received went to the teachers, who ran it like a modern farm, treating their students like battery hens.

The fact that Mandy had managed to eek out a decent education was due solely to her own dedication to study and hard work, while the school had done much to hold her back. Over time she knew it would inevitably deteriorate further.

They made their way inside, passing through the grimy hallway to their lockers. While Mandy was preparing her books for the day she saw Sperg back hand Billy directly in the face, deforming his already deformed nose with a big flat section at the front. She sighed; she couldn't be his guardian demon all the time, even though she had come to hate it when Spurg attacked him for his own tainted glory.

From out of the corner of her eye she saw Mindy coming down the row of lockers towards her. Today though she wasn't as annoyed as she usually was when the stupid socialite entered her presence. After seeing how easily Dora had defeated her by just calling her a loser, she had been wondering how far she could exploit that weakness. Returning her eyes to her locker she remained passive as she approached, sensing her arrogant aura even before she was greeted.

"Hey loser. Would you like to bask in my glorious presence?" Mindy called as she came over to her. Mandy didn't react in the slightest, continuing to load her books, almost as if she hadn't heard her. This lack of reverence did not bode well with the narcissistic socialite.

"Hey, I'm talking to you loser!" Mindy raised her voice, angered that this obviously inferior being was ignoring her taunts. She was again frustrated by the lesser creature's lack of response. Mandy slung her books under her arm, closed the locker and turned to see Mindy glaring angrily at her, getting ready to shout again.

"Oh hey Mindy. Someone was calling for you just a moment ago." Mandy said flatly.

"What? When?" Mindy replied perplexed. "I didn't hear my name called."

"It just happened a moment ago." Mandy said, readying the punch line. "Someone calling out 'hey loser' really loud." Mandy watched as Mindy's face contorted in horror and confusion, Mandy's theory proven correct. "You're the biggest loser here aren't you?"

"I AM NOT A LOSER YOU LOSER!"

"Huh, there it is again." Mandy was as calm as ever as she easily demolished the arrogant little princess of vanity.

Mindy's eye twitched. The only person to ever call her a loser was Dora, and that was when she was angry. Mandy was stating it as if it was a fact. _'I couldn't! I couldn't be! A loser… I can't...'_

"Mindy, are you going to answer that call?"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Mindy ran screaming from the school, Mandy watching her go with a disdainful scowl, satisfied by her easy yet overwhelming victory against Endsville's new 'Princess Loser'.

She and Billy headed to class as the bell went. They were among the first there, and Mindy was still nowhere to be seen as the class filled up. Sperg came in dangling Irwin from his underwear, bouncing him up and down like a yoyo. Mandy hated yoyos, so now she had one more reason to hate Irwin.

Ms Butterbean staggered in, heavy bags under her eyes, hair dishevelled, and even from a distance she could smell the odour of whiskey on her breath. _'I hope she doesn't puke. She already looks like she was puked out of something.'_

The dishevelled teacher let out a rancid belch before turning to the class.

"Good morning class, or is it-urp… afternoon?"

The class remained dead silent, knowing that in this state she wouldn't like to hear…

"GOOD MORNING MISS BUTTERBEAN!" Billy screeched so loud that even Mandy had to grit her teeth.

"Ooohhh, for god sake Billy you little bas… Never mind." Billy giggled hysterically at the drunken teacher's pain. His gaze turned to the doorway as Nergal Junior walked in, having not been present on the bus that morning.

"Sorry I'm late miss." He spoke, seemingly indifferent to the hateful glares he was receiving from the class. "The bus driver wouldn't let me on because-"

"Freak!" Sperg spat.

"Monster!"

"You're a crime against nature!"

"Maybe it's your fault for being a demon." Butterbean drawled out whilst regarding him with disgust.

Billy's concern again grew upon seeing his classmates, who to the best of his knowledge had always been good people, cursed and scorned the pale boy. Junior steeled himself against their taunts, making his way to his desk near the front of the class. And still the looks of disgust, hatred and suspicion continued.

'_Why they looking at him like that? Sure he's a bit weird but he's not a monster. Junior's nice and friendlyish. Why is they hating him so bad?'_

"Okay before you little halfwits start on your silent study, reading, or skipping class, or whatever you worthless brats do while I'm out, we have a new student to… welcome." Inside Mandy groaned. Part of her almost felt sorry for whatever poor mindless sap that was about to be fed to the sharks. At least Mindy wasn't here now to recruit another member to her pathetic possie.

"Now I espekt you-urp… little horrors to greet him nicely. After that he's all yours. Say hello to…" She narrowed her eyes and looked out the door. "Hey kid, what's your name again?"

"Max."

Mandy's eyes shot wide open at the sound of the smooth male voice.

"Just Max." He said as he walked in, smiling contentedly despite his dystopian surroundings. Almost immediately his eyes settled on a shocked Mandy while around the class the other students stared at him with some mixture of suspicion, hostility, malice or indifference.

Ms Butterbean was silently grateful in her inebriated state that the class didn't welcome him with a loud, obnoxious…

Wait for it…

"HELLO MAX!" Billy screeched, again.

"Why don't you take a seat just in front of Sperg. He'll show you the ropes." She gestured towards the hulking mass of muscle, who seemed to be just relishing in the opportunity to brutalise and humiliate some fresh new unprepared victim.

"My pleasure Miss Butterbean, heh heh." The bully replied, his cruel tone enough to send a shiver of fear up many of the students' spines.

Max made his way down the rows of desks, past Mandy, to sit directly in front of Sperg. He had seen the sadistic grin on his face, yet didn't seem at all fazed by it, as if the looming threat of what he would do to him just slid right off. Ms Butterbean slouched back in her seat at her desk, took out a shot glass and filled it with some form of strong amber spirit. Mandy watched with disgust as she threw back the throat burning concoction in a second, drinking it down straight without anything to dilute it, before filling her glass again. She hated this place for a good reason. Even Billy in his stupidity could tell that there was something about what he was seeing that wasn't right.

Mandy looked back across towards Max as he regarded her with a glance, vividly remembering his words from the park. A low snarl resonated in her throat as she grimaced back at the liar. She resolved that it was only a matter of time before she would have her slice of him, as soon as Sperg was done 'showing him the ropes' as the teacher had put it.

Max went straight to work studying an old history book. From behind he noticed a faint tearing and chewing sound coming from the sadistic psychopath sitting in the seat directly behind him. _'Spit balls.'_

Careful to not alert the thug behind him, he moved his desk ever so slightly so he was directly between Sperg and the wasted teacher. He waited for the sound of Sperg taking a deep breath. Right as he was about to shoot, he suddenly ducked his head down and to the left.

Spurg fired. The ball of putrid pulp streaked through the air, scoring a direct hit… on the wrong target.

Ms Butterbean glared out through her glasses, the spit ball having plastered itself to the left lens. Like an angry giant she rose from her desk, her rage enough to make Sperg pail.

"WHO THE HELL DID THAT?" She bellowed. Looking out across the class she saw Max with his head down and to the side, with Sperg still holding the drinking straw up to his mouth, shock and worry etched on his face.

"Sperg, you little f… sh… Principals office, now!" The drunken wreck snapped angrily. Sperg, his head lowered in an attempt to avoid the teacher's drunken wrath, slowly got to his feet and headed for the door. "And you've got detention at lunch too Mr Marksman." Butterbean sank back down to her desk, plunging into her drink again.

Sperg turned and glared back at Max, raising a fist furiously. Oh how he was going to pay for this insult.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU LITTLE TURD! YOU'RE GONNA DIE AFTER SCHOOL!" He roared, further angered that the object of his rage wasn't cowering in terror or begging for mercy. He would make him suffer dearly for what he'd done. The fact that he was the one responsible didn't matter, after all he was Sperg, and he had the right to do whatever he wanted.

Billy watched him go, uncomfortable with how he had blamed the new kid for what he himself had done. To distract himself he placed a maths book in front of him. He paused before opening it.

'_Hang on, something's weird about this book… Oh!'_ He turned the book around so it was facing him right side up. Opening it he looked over the first page. His eyes lit up in surprise.

'_Hey, they musta changed this book while I was asleep last night! Now it all makes sense instead of being all jumbers and numbles and stuff. Okay…'_ Selecting the first one on the page he furrowed his brow in thought.

'_Five… plus… three. So that means I have five… then I'm supposed to add on another three. Uhhh… so that's five… six… seven?'_ Counting off his fingers he confirmed what he'd worked out. _'Yeah seven.'_

Smiling triumphantly he moved onto the next one, not once realising that he'd never been able to do this before.

* * *

The morning went by without any other issues, as Ms Butterbean passed out shortly after Sperg left. After a long, boring hour and a half of time wasting, the bell for first break went. Everyone went to the cafeteria without the teacher waking up.

Billy stood in line with his tray waiting for a slab of meatloaf. Directly in front of him stood Junior. Looking around the cafeteria he was again worried by the number of suspicious and hateful glares towards his friend, even though the young demon-human hybrid didn't seem to care. As Junior moved up for his serve the lady behind the counter looked at him with surprise, her wide eyes soon turning to an angry snarl. Dutifully she turned over the slab of meatloaf onto his tray. Leaning out she harked up and spat on his serving, smirking at him as many people around the room sniggered.

Junior glanced at the woman with contempt and left. Stepping up to receive his piece the lunch lady deposited the slab without incident, as if she hadn't done anything wrong. Leaving the line Billy made his way over to where Mandy sat at their usual table, poking at the bland food with her fork. Looking across to the other side of the room as he sat he saw as Junior placed his lunch in the rubbish bin. He looked across to him, blue and green eyes locking on each other as still more people regarded him with scorn. From his place beside his friend Billy watched as Junior left through the doors, disappearing back into the decaying corridors of the school.

"Mandy." The youth spoke up, drawing the girl's attention. "Why are they looking at Junior like that?" Mandy raised an eyebrow. Never would she have thought that Billy, as stupid and ignorant as they came, would have ever been able to pick up on what was happening in the world around him. It intrigued her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well just today I noticed everyone's been sending him all these really bad looks. It's like they're angry at him for something. But Junior hasn't done nothing wrong to them." Billy explained as best he could what he'd seen and heard, Mandy listening intently on every word. "Why are they looking at him all bad and saying mean things to him?"

"Because he's a freak that's why." Irwin called out as he came over and sat in the seat opposite Mandy, much to her irritation. "Nergal Junior deserves everything he gets. He's not a normal person like you and me, he's a mutant demon from the centre of the earth. He's nothing but a weirdo freak Billy, and freaks like that deserve to suffer for what they've done so normal people can live normally." Mandy rolled her eyes while Irwin smirked. Billy looked at him incredulously.

"But Junior hasn't done anything wrong. Oh sure he's kinda weird with the tentacles and the green eyes, but just because he's different don't makes it right to spit in his food does it?"

"Of course it does!" Irwin spoke enthusiastically. "He's a demon and a monster and he should pay for being such a horrible freak! That little mutant should be on his, no, _its_ hands and knees thanking us for not getting rid of it sooner!"

"Shut up!" Mandy demanded at last, Irwin's bigoted rant cut off by her enraged glare and her fists clenched on the table. Confused Billy looked to her for guidance.

"Mandy, is this true? Should Junior really be hated for being who he is?" He asked her. Mandy gave a great heaving sigh as she shook her head.

"No Billy. Junior doesn't deserve to be called names and glared at, or to have people spit in his food, or to be hated at all. It's complicated why they do it. When people find something that's different to themselves, they usually think it's inferior to them, and they're afraid of it. You understand?" She paused to see if he was keeping up with her, to which he nodded. "Because they're afraid of it they become angry and start to hate it. People hate Junior because he's different. They think he's inferior to them, they're afraid and suspicious of him, and they hate anything that's not like them."

"So they're mean to Junior just cause he's different to them, even though he hasn't done nothing wrong?" Billy asked uncertainly, Mandy nodding quietly in response. "But… But that's… wrong."

"What's wrong is that freak is getting away with being a freak! Get it? HE'S NOTHING BUT A FREAK!"

"Irwin! Shut up! Now!" Mandy barked, her anger rising further. Billy looked at his friends face disturbed. Irwin's face had changed dramatically as he screamed, his eyes bulging and becoming bloodshot while his facial muscles twisted, with several veins in his forehead bulging outwards. It scared him. But more than that was what he had said, the bile and bitterness directed at his own cousin. The young red head lowered his face slightly away from his furious gaze.

"I don't like it when you call him that." He spoke in a quiet tone. Mandy turned to face him again at this.

"Hey relax yo. It's not like mutant freaks have rights."

"How many times do I have to tell you to shut up? Besides, you have no right to judge, you're a mummy and a vampire."

"So? What's that got to do with anything?" He asked confused, grating on Mandy even more, the hypocrisy glaringly obvious even to Billy. "I'm not the freak here Junior is."

"Irwin if you keep talking I'm gonna punch you in the face."

At this Irwin finally relented, turning his attention towards the meatloaf on his tray. Turning away from the three Mandy looked to the line at the counter again. She kept her eyes on Max who was collecting his food. He thanked the lunch lady who only grunted in reply, turning to looked over to where she sat with Billy and Irwin. Mandy turned away again, grimacing angrily as the dark youth walked calmly over towards them.

"Hi Mandy, Billy. Who's this?" He asked gesturing to Irwin.

"Sup, I'm Irwin, Mandy's love master." Irwin cooed and reached across the table to put his hand around Mandy's shoulder. She cringed in disgust at his touch.

"You were warned." She slapped away his arm and nailed him in the face with a fist, sending him flying out of his seat. Watching him fall Max casually stepped in and took his seat, pushing aside his lunch and replacing it with his own.

"Thank you Irwin."

"Uuurrgh." A large patch or Irwin's face was turning from its natural milk chocolate brown to purple as blood rushed from the burst capillaries. A trickle of blood was visible coming out his nose.

"So if it isn't the so-called lord of darkness himself." Mandy hissed as she glared at him.

"Alright why are you looking at me like that? You've been glaring at me practically all day. What did I do, please?" Max held his open hands up in front of his chest, not knowing what she was talking about. He had been open and polite towards her, and had agreed with her on her cynical world views. What had he done to anger her?

Mandy turned to him, glaring straight into his eyes. "You played me for a fool. You were actually stupid enough to think that you could just toy with me like some gullible idiot without facing dire consequences." She loomed over him with dark shadows eclipsing her angry onyx eyes. "That was a very bad choice, one you're going to regret."

Max leaned backwards under Mandy's aggressive advance, staring back with his hands up in surrender. "Mandy I never lied to you, and I never played with your head. I don't know what you're talking about." He held his hands up in defence as he tried to plead with the angry vixen. Unfortunately it did little to quell her fury.

"Don't bother acting innocent. You said you fought Fuzzy Lumpkins in Townsville. I've seen pictures of him. He would break you like a twig. And you said you were like me but you act like such a prissy little girl scout. What kind of idiot do you think I am?" She raised her voice with her still rising anger, leaning in towards his face. "You're just another lying cockroach who either wants to leech off of me like a parasite or have me as your own personal toy like Irwin. I do not tolerate such insults. Be thankful that you're still breathing. Now get out of my sight."

Max frowned slightly, a sullen and hard done by look on his face. Relenting he stepped out of his seat.

"If that's the way you feel, fine. I'll leave you alone. Bye Billy. Tell Irwin I said hi." With that he walked off out of the lunch hall, leaving the two alone again. Watching him disappear through the doors Mandy settled back down in her seat, her anger and need for retribution still not sated.

* * *

Afternoon.

The rest of the day went by much the same, spent quietly reading or doing whatever worthless jobs they wanted to do while Eleanor continued to snooze away in her drunken state. Mindy didn't show up for the rest of the day. Max, though he was still present throughout the classes, Sperg continuing to eye him from behind, quietly biding his time. As lunch came however the strange boy seemed to simply disappear, with neither Billy, Mandy or Sperg seeing him again until class went back.

At the end of the day having tired of her irritating surroundings Mandy decided to ditch the classroom to take a break outside. She hung around the until shortly before the three o'clock bell, wherein she waited outside the classroom door as everyone slowly left ahead of time.

…

"GOOD AFTERNOON MISS BUTTERBEAN!" Billy had to screech… AGAIN!

Truthfully though, by this stage it didn't matter. The teacher was already too intoxicated to hear him in her near comatose state. Mandy didn't need Grim there to know the teacher didn't have much time left before she succumbed to either alcohol poisoning, organ failure, bad choices or some mixture of the three.

'_I'd be glad to see you go, except they'll probably replace you with someone even worse.'_

"Guh… Urk-Gak!" The drunken teacher gave something between a burp, a cough and a retch, a foul smell of bile escaping her open mouth before she settled back down again. The blonde girl spared her a grimace of disgust as she left her slumped on her desk alone in the empty classroom.

Billy and Mandy slowly made their way out the doors, ignoring the bus parked out the front to walk home on foot, wanting to avoid the small-minded vanity and spite of their peers. As they stepped out onto the footpath, turning right down towards their suburb, Mandy paused. Looking back towards the school entrance she gazed over the last few students as they made their way home, a nearby scene taking her interest. Off to the left she spied Max walking away from them, completely ignorant to Sperg who was following from a distance behind, cracking his knuckles in anticipation of sating his ravenously bloated ego.

"Oh this I have to see." She commented. Following her gaze Billy looked over to settle on Sperg's sadistic grin.

He frowned. So much of what he had seen today had unsettled him. First he had been shocked by what he had seen his classmates do to that poor girl on the bus, then the abhorrent cruelty they imposed on his cousin simply for being different to them. And finally this, a cruel and vindictive boy who was actually grinning at the thought of brutally beating another boy for something he himself did.

Why? He had always thought his classmates were good, kind and caring people who did the right thing by others. Now though, with his mind opened to the realities of the world for the first time in his life, he wasn't so sure.

"Go home Billy." She ordered to the unusually serious boy. Watching her for a moment he obeyed and left for his home. His head swirled with everything he'd seen that day, every one of the blatant wrongs and injustices that had gone on like it was normal. No one had stood up against what was happening, even his friends Pudn and Irwin actively joining in and contributing to the frenzied bigotry and spitefulness . Everyone saw what was happening, yet outside of Mandy and he nobody lifted a finger. A burning feeling of anger stirred deep within him at that.

'_I won't forget this.'_ Billy promised himself, continuing on his way back home under the clear afternoon sky.

Locking her attention on Sperg and his prey Mandy ran to watch from afar. Sperg was about to give the liar his due punishment for her. His motives, as corrupt and deplorable as they were, didn't matter to her right now so much as what he was about to do for her.

Max walked quietly down the footpath away from school in his usual relaxed manner. Following him several metres behind Sperg hunkered himself down as he stalked his prey, silently catching up from behind his back. He stepped off the pavement onto the grass so his footsteps wouldn't be heard, and made sure the sun was in a position where his shadow couldn't be seen by his victim. From where he trailed behind the dark blue clad boy's back he was practically invisible to him as he continued on down the street, blissfully unaware of the peril that awaited just a few feet behind his back.

Mandy hopped and sprinted across the road, crouching down behind a white fence, watching from a distance as Sperg began closing in on his victim.

Smirking with glee Sperg now accelerated to within striking distance, his victim still seemingly completely unaware. Keeping a few last feet of distance he slowly reared back his muscular right arm, all the while Max continued to move along at the same leisurely pace, a small calm smile on his features. The bully grinned cruelly; he was now in striking range.

At the moment before he was about to make his attack, Max stoped dead in his tracks. Sperg quickly halted as before him the boy he had tailing turned on his heels to face his pursuer. As soon as he came face to face with his enemy, both Sperg and Mandy had the exact same thought.

'_This isn't Max.'_

The boy standing there, staring dead into Sperg's eyes, couldn't possibly have been Max. Whereas Max was always bright, polite and confident in his own somewhat cynical way, what they were seeing now was something very different. The youth facing the arrogant bully was looking into him with eyes so bitterly cold and heartless they froze him in place. From where she lay hidden across the road those black orbs looked remarkably similar to a pair that Mandy had seen before plenty of times, in the face staring back at her in the mirror. But it was just how inhospitable his gaze was that marked the difference between them, and the unfathomable depth, like two cosmic sinkholes to oblivion. The deep sense of piercing and crushing cold that came with the sight of those soulless black eyes was something she had never felt before in her life.

The stranger paid no heed to the boy's shock as he stared straight into Sperg, having sensed his malice and known from the beginning that he was being stalked. Even with his arm still reared back for a brutal punch he remained indifferent, not at all intimidated by his extremely aggressive stance. He just continued to stare back, not an ounce of fear shown for his hulking enemy, nor hassle over the situation, only detached, objective indifference.

Now that Sperg had gotten over the shock of the foreign gaze, he noticed the child's short hair was an unusual blue-black colour, done in a conservative short back and sides cut, his long sleeve shirt and pants were both a dark blue, and he had black leather boots, just like Max. Now that he looked more closely at the stranger's facial features, noting the dark eyes and handsome lines, he and Mandy realised that this supposed stranger actually was Max, upon which Sperg's face tightened into an enraged snarl. His fist clenched tightly again.

"You pathetic little squirt! No one disrespects me like that! You here me maggot? No one!" His arrogant fury rising with each second as he replayed the incident that morning in his head, he reared back his fist a little more, tightening the muscles in his arm as he continued. "I don't care that I launched the spit ball, you humiliated me! I offer to go easy on you and show you the ropes, show you how I rule this school, and what do you do? You, a pathetic, weak, worthless new guy, made me look stupid! I'LL KILL YOU!"

His pride and overwhelming ego had been shattered by this 'pathetic, weak, worthless new guy' who even now dared to stand up to him instead of cowering at his feet. Every second his anger and rage grew more and more violent and unstable, all the while Max just continued to stare back blankly, listening implicitly to everything he was saying, but not doing or saying anything in reply. He was not at all concerned with Sperg's jealous rage. The brute's pride and arrogance didn't matter to him whatsoever. For Sperg this lack of respect as he saw it was the final straw that pushed him over the edge.

Giving in to his rage he bought his fist forward with all his might, intent on breaking the young boy's face. In a flash Max bought his left hand up and snapped shut around it, holding and locking the bully's fist tight in his grasp with apparently little effort. His beady eyes shot wide as Max's already solid grip closed, trapping and crushing his fist like a vice.

Alarmed he struggled to free himself from the other boy as a spasm of pain shot through his hand. All his muscle mass and strength which had served him well to brutalise and terrorise those who couldn't defend themselves now rendered useless. He was being held back by an insignificant little creature who was by all means relatively diminutive in comparison, with no apparent strain on his part. Max continued to stare into him, not straining his hand at all as Sperg thrashed about, his arm as still and secure as a vice.

"WAAAAH! Lemme go you freak!" He screamed as panic set in.

Max complied, releasing him and letting Sperg stumble back, clutching his bruised and reddening right hand. He looked up again right as Max dealt his first blow, a back hand to his face with his right arm. Though he didn't put any great effort into it, Sperg was sent reeling from the impact.

Blood spattered from his perforated lip. He staggered back, holding his hand to his face. Looking down at his palm he saw the blood from his cut lip. Instantly his fury exploded. He glowered murderously at his opponent with a madness he had never felt before. Max stood straight, his hands by his side as he continued to regard him with the same passive expression.

"YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" With a frenzied scream he reared his left arm and attacked. "DIIIIEEEEE!"

Acting with calculated precision Max easily batted aside the blow with his right hand, counterattacking with another back hand with his left. Sperg was again sent reeling with another bloody trail from his mouth left in his wake.

As he again staggered back, getting himself securely positioned on his feet, he tried to pull his head together through the haze of pain and shock. Those two hits had been hard, and even with his bloated male ego he knew his victim now opponent could do a lot worse if he so desired. With his pride beaten down by the pain of his bruised cheeks Sperg knew that he was no match for this superior opponent, wherein his cowardice took over. Feigning self-control and apathy he lowered his fists, taking on a stance of boredom for the fight in the hope of saving his dignity.

"Whatever, you win. I don't have time for whelps like you anyw-o…"

Sperg was cut off as Max stepped forward and nailed him in the stomach with his left fist. The once proud top dog of the school doubled over as the air exploded out of his mouth. To him the force of the impact felt as if he had been hit with a sledge hammer, doubling him over in pain.

Max pulled his left fist back and, holding Sperg's badly bruised head up by the hair with his right hand, punched him in the face with the same iron force.

He barrelled backwards, stumbled and fell back against a tree, sliding down to slump against its base. He was in terrible pain. His nose was bleeding and from the god-awful feel of it probably broken, and possibly his cheek bones as well. His lip was bleeding on both sides of his mouth. With his diaphragm crushed in he couldn't breathe. He was terrified, lying helpless and broken, looking up at his would be victim in fear for his very life as Max again walked calmly towards him, staring down upon him with stoic, remorseless detachment.

"Wait… No, don't… Please…" Sperg had heard those very same words coming from the lips of other people many times before, and each time he had revelled in the feeling of power and the accompanying ego fix they bought him. For Max though it was just background noise.

Stepping up Max grabbed him by the throat with his left hand in an iron grip and dragged him up to eye level against the tree. He drew back his right fist as Sperg had done earlier to attack him, poised and ready to attack. Sperg closed his eyes, too afraid to face whatever came next.

Max bought his fist down right were Sperg's head was, just as he shifted him to the left at the very last moment. In Sperg's dark retreat he heard a deafeningly loud crack in his right ear, followed by several points of pain in the left side of his face. Upon realising he was still conscious he cracked his eyes open to peek out. Through the crack in his eyelids he could see Max standing in front of him, with his fist planted against the tree right beside his head. Pulling his hand back away from the dense wooden trunk he dropped him. Falling to the ground Sperg looked up to where the sound had come from as peering out from behind the fence Mandy looked in from her hiding spot.

What they saw amazed and shocked them both. There, in the spot on the tree trunk where Sperg's head had been moments ago, was a crater of splintered wood and sawdust right where Max's fist had landed. His head would have disintegrated had he hit him. Sensing the dull points of pain in his cheek Sperg bought his fingers in to touch them, and found the source easily. He now noticed several pieces of wood were stuck in the side of his face drawing even more blood. He looked back to his victorious foe, who in addition to looking down on him with his relentless cold stare, wasn't even breathing hard. In that instant all colour drained out of his face.

Max's hand shot out and grasped Sperg again around the throat, drawing him up close, making him struggle to breathe again. Holding him near his face he spoke in a low, dark voice, neither angry, nor sadistic, just a single straight statement.

"You belong to me now. From now on you will follow my orders and serve me without question. If you disobey my orders I will punish you severely. If you fight back I will kill you. Do you understand?"

Sperg nodded slightly as tears of pain and fear ran down his bloody face, too terrified to fight back or even speak a word. Already he found himself overwhelmed by the gravity of what had been thrust upon him, and all because he had chosen to punish Max because of something he himself had done. Never in his life of thuggish egotism and cruelty had he ever thought his choices would ever backfire so severely on him._ 'Oh god, what have I gotten myself into?'_

Contrary to what he thought at that moment though this was only the second worst mistake he would ever make in his life. His absolute worst mistake would come much later in his life, but inevitably it would come from the same reasons as this.

In one swift motion Max released his grip on Sperg's throat, striking the boy with two fingers on the nerve directly under his ear, dropping him to the ground unconscious in an instant.

Bending down the dark haired youth began to search his pockets. He pulled out his wallet. Rummaging through it he found fifteen dollars and twenty five cents. He pocketed the cash, dumped the wallet and moved onto his bag. He emptied it of a few books, a pencil case, his lunch box, and an empty milk carton. With methodical yet messy diligence he searched thoroughly through the upturned bag, finding something metallic underneath the base cover at the bottom. He pulled it out; a stiletto switchblade. Extending and examining the fold out knife he deemed it useful and dropped it in his pocket as well.

He rose from his crouching position, regarding the unconscious and badly beaten boy one more time with indifference. He kept his face on the bully as he turned his body around. Disregarding Sperg's unconscious form he bought his head around, settling his eyes to stare towards a fence across the street, straight at Mandy.

Her heart skipped a beat, her eyes and mouth widening as he continued to gaze at her hidden form. Taking a moment to still herself back to her normal controlled demeanour Mandy stepped out from behind the fence as she faced the other boy, staring back with the same stern expression.

She had been wrong. What she had just seen was proof of another side to him, a shadowed side that she hadn't known of when she had first met him. What little she had seen just now had explained to her that everything he had told her had been true. From this little fight, she had suspected that he may well have been able to successfully go up against Fuzzy Lumpkins and win. And the relentless detachment she had seen in his actions, and the stoic, remorseless control in the depths of his dark stare, was something she even aspired to.

Watching him as he stared back at her from across the road, cold, harsh, merciless, she suddenly came to respect him just as he had respected her. Quietly Mandy dipped her head to him, a sign of respect for someone just like her, all her thoughts expressed clearly in one simple action.

'_I was wrong about you. I apologise. You really are worthy of my respect. Together we could do great things. Will you join me?'_

Upon raising her head again she was faced with a smiling, polite, happy-go-lucky Max. Neither spoke a word to the other, nothing needed to be said. Turning away from each other they both went their separate ways.


	5. Days of Revenge

**Before we begin I wanted to pay respect to those killed, wounded or otherwise affected in Christchurch. The scenes of carnage and the stories of loss hit very close to home. New Zealand and Australia are two peas in a pod, so what's happened hits so much closer to the heart. Our thoughts go out to everyone involved in this disaster.**

**Now down to business. This chapter is sort of an intermission before the beginning of the main event. It will only come into any relevance later in the plot but overall it's not gonna be anything really crucial. I did it just for the fun of it really. By the way I got the name of this chapter from Ramallah's awesome song by the same name. Not sure if it was a good idea but it's better than anything else I can come up with.**

**This is the last chapter the story will be rated T. After this it'll be chaged to M because like most power, anarchy and revenge fics it gets progressively darker as time goes by.**

**Thanks for your reviews. The story continues.**

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**Days of Revenge.**

A few months later.

A futuristic dystopian metropolis somewhere in the north-east of the United States, a city not too different in its grimy atmosphere to Endsville, was in a state of total upheaval. Just a few short hours ago the city had been the epicentre of a major worldwide earthquake. The pump responsible for sucking out and then returning the planet's liquid magma had recently been seized and sealed off by an organisation of paranormal investigators and agents known as the Swollen Eyeball Network. Each of its members were currently in a frenzy of work, seeking out any information at all on who, or in their narrow eyes what, had caused this mayhem, and the location of said perpetrator.

Dib Membrane, a young member of their ranks going by the codename Agent Mothman, had soon informed them on all they needed to know about the one responsible. Later upon returning home he had by chance found the aliens ship as it crashed into his front yard, thus ensuring that their enemy was somewhere nearby, willing and ready to strike again.

Against what he believed, said Irken outcast currently held no desire to go anywhere near her enemy.

Tak gasped and heaved as she ran through the forest several miles outside the city, cloaked in her illusionary human disguise as a dark, semi-Gothic ten year old girl. She had been running almost non-stop since her ship had crashed back to the planet's surface roughly two hours ago. Luckily her escape pod landed elsewhere, namely in an enormous chemical plant just a few blocks away, meaning she didn't get much of a head start. It wasn't long before Dib had informed the organisation about her presence nearby, by which time she'd already disappeared into the contaminated undergrowth.

Her plan to turn the planet into a giant snack bowl was dead and buried. She could only hope the two towering tyrants she served with loyalty, courage and obedience would remember her contributions when she told them they would not be getting their planet sized treat. Some would think that such a fate for a planet to be wasteful and silly, but it was more a symbolic gesture of superiority, to show how the Irkens could use an entire world for such mundane purposes as a snack or a parking lot simply because they blindly professed they held the strongest empire in the known universe, which was debatable.

She was one of the incredibly few Irkens who did think it silly to use a planet for such mundane purposes, and to go about preaching that they were the most advanced and genetically perfect species in the universe. This little difference between her and the other masses of Irk was due to one major difference in her state of mind. This difference had cost her very dearly over the years, as shown by the tracer band planted in the side of her head to keep track of her.

With the burning pain in her limbs too much to bear she paused for a moment to lean against a tree, gasping for air for having pushed her body so hard for so long. She had trained herself with such will and extreme intensity at the Devastis Academy that she had become stronger and faster and with greater athletic endurance than any Irken she'd ever met. Yet even with all her strength and stamina she could not quite compete with the stronger humans she had immersed herself in. Though the Irkens preached fanatically that they were vastly superior to all other sentient beings, that they alone were the pinnacle of evolution, Tak wasn't fooled.

'… _How do… these humans… do this?'_ She thought while trying to overcome the pain in her body.

As she heaved and gasped for air she reached around to her pak, currently disguised as a brown bag on her back. Reaching into the compartment she retrieved the currently dormant form of her SIR unit MiMi, her eyes still black from having been shut off after going insane, causing her to loose control of her ship. Placing the still robot on the ground at her feet she reached around to the back of the neck to switch her back on. Immediately her eyes glowed cyan, not a good sign. MiMi looked up at her inquisitively.

"…"

"_My name's MiMi."_

"…"

"_I might be the last person you ever see."_ The robot extended her hand for her to shake as per the television show she'd watched a few days prior.

"Cut the act MiMi, I need you to patch me through to the Tallest on the Massive." She ordered in her distinct British accent.

Lowering the appendage the SIR's head opened up to project a large two dimensional holographic screen directly above. Tak backed away as the large screen dwarfed her, typical of the Irken programming to make inferiors feel inferior whenever possible. The static soon gave way to one of the signs of the Irken Empire, a stylised red Irken head against a black background.

After a short wait the sign gave way to an image of the bridge of the Massive, occupied by two Irkens, one dressed in a purple suit, the other in red; the current Tallest. Whereas normally it was the one who had grown to the greatest height who had the honour of being the head of state, a sign of perfection and supremacy, due to two individuals measuring up at the same height they had both been given the position as rulers. Along with their lofty height the two shared other traits, most notably their complete incompetence with regards to ruling an empire, their stupidity with regards to important decisions, their bigotry in relation to any other species, and their extreme arrogance and self-importance. Tak had been one of the very few of her people to realise it, instead of worshipping the two vile creatures as deities. Though she showed nothing but total respect and loyalty towards them, the sight of the two woefully incompetent, pompous idiots always made her ever so slightly sick.

"My Tallest." She got down on her knees in front of them, swallowing her pride as she bowed her head. "I regret to inform you that my plan to offer the planet Earth to you has failed. Though I performed my duties with all the strength and cunning our glorious race is known and feared for, I will be unable to give you both what is rightfully yours." To suck up to these people like this made her sick but she persisted, keeping her head bowed to the ground beneath the two figures.

Tallest Red and Purple; the most corrupt, arrogant and shockingly egomaniacal pair of deranged lunatics she had ever encountered anywhere. The two crazed despots had come to power at roughly the height of the empire's rule, riding on the back of the power hungry tyrants and genocidal maniacs who had come before them. But for all they shared with their predecessors, their bigotry and intolerant hatred for others, and all their fervent belief that the Irkens were the master race, they shared none of their genius or even common sense. When out and about giving speeches and catering to other such publicity events they would limit the extent of their insanity, portraying themselves as celebrities and glorious kings. When not on stage though, surrounded by the subordinates who served them, they would open up to reveal a level of delusional madness that paled in comparison to all that came before them.

Red was known amongst his inner circle of upper class cronies and servants for his screaming fits of self-possessed frenzied rage. He would regularly go into murderous and bloodthirsty rants, raving on and on about how he deserved more than he already had whenever something didn't go exactly as he desired. There were reports of messengers who had to report bad news either fleeing beyond the empires borders, or committing outright suicide in order to avoid the crazed despot's blind fury, and the torture and hideous execution that usually resulted. He would habitually claim he was divine, and clearly had come to believe he was in fact a god, flaunting left, right and centre about his absolute superiority in relation to all around him.

Purple was no better. Whilst he didn't tend to go into frenzies of rage whenever a messenger bought bad news like Red did, he was known for being exceptionally sleazy. Purple was a sexual deviant, a perverted psychopath known for his twisted urges to rape, brutalise and degrade women in every way conceivable. Tak knew about how he would forcibly bed the wives and daughters of his administrators while they were made to watch. She'd also heard a rumour that several hundred Vortian female prisoners captured in the war, many of which were just smeets, were pressed into servitude as sex slaves, and systematically violated one after another by the sick, twisted emperor.

They were also a catastrophe for the society that held them up, their extreme extravagance in ordering the building of countless monuments and ridiculous taxation almost having ruined the majority of the Irken economy. The economic situation had decayed to such an extent that the majority of the population was finding it difficult to find food. As for the various branches of the Irken military, they too had withered away under their stewardship. Though the huge taxation increase was in part to fund an enormous arms build-up in preparation for Operations Impending Doom One and Two, with the economic collapse that income had fallen to a mere trickle. Now it was becoming more and more difficult to simply feed and pay their troops, let alone undertake a galaxy wide invasion, their vast numbers of tanks and ships rendered largely immobile due to lack of fuel and parts.

In the insanely decadent upper-class gatherings and feasts the two monarchs would hold with their cronies, Red would regularly force his pompous subordinates to bow down and worship him They would get down on their knees crying out their inflated praise to him as he sat on his lavish throne, all the while Purple was most likely making himself busy with some poor slave girl. Together the two had taken an empire comparable to the Romans or British in world power, and in the space of just two hundred human years, almost completely destroyed what had taken generations of enslavement and genocide to create.

The two feeble tyrants looked across to each other, before they each sneered in a sleazy grin. They both knew all about Tak's nature towards Irk and them, and had taken measures to keep her in her place, at their feet. Tak struggled not to react as she heard the two snigger at her failure.

"_Tell us Tak, why did you fail?"_ Tallest Red asked mockingly.

"The magma pump was sabotaged by a human working against me. My SIR unit was infected with a virus from another defective SIR, with the aid of the humans, and a rival Irken defeated me in the ensuing mayhem. I am deeply regretful of my failure, but I assure you-" She was interrupted by Red again with another even more mocking question.

"_Tell us Tak, who was the Irken who defeated you?"_ They both sneered again at the kneeling figure displayed on the screen before them.

Tak struggled to remain in control. The thought of the one idiotic fool who had caused her so much trouble and anguish made her cringe. Steeling herself she answered them. "It was Zim."

"_You mean you were defeated by the looser who couldn't pass any of the tests, and was so incompetent he caused five years worth of setbacks? Are you referring to that Zim?"_ Purple asked her before they both sniggered at her again.

"Yes."

"_HAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!"_

Tak bit her lip as the two heads of state fell over laughing at her misfortune. To be defeated by the pinnacle of failure and the pinnacle of Irken arrogance and stupidity after everything she had struggled and built herself up through, to have to kneel before these two accursed creatures while they openly mocked her, made her writhe inside. She closed her eyes, willing herself not to break down, to stay strong in her humiliation.

"_Heh heh… Tak, you said repeatedly that you wanted to prove to us that you were worthy of serving us as an Invader, that you were beyond all these insane, treasonous ideas you seem to concoct in that malformed little head of yours."_ Red spoke of her past habit of rejecting the propaganda and bigotry they saturated the empire with, a trait classified as a defect. _"And yet here you are telling us that you were beaten by Zim? Heh heh heh…"_ They both laughed again while purple bought up Tak's records on a datapad.

"My Tallest… I assure you my defeat was no more than a fluke of bad luck. I… I will do better. I am fit to serve…" She stopped again, shutting her eyes tightly as they both howled with laughter again at her grovelling.

"_You're a disgrace Tak!"_ Purple called into the screen, seeing her head rise to look up at them, her face clearly displaying the hurt and betrayal she felt. _"You're a filthy defect and a failure!"_

"_Yeah, you were never even supposed to be an Invader anyway, ever since the moment you started asking questions."_ Red followed up. Tak froze in horror as he revealed the nature of her life of failure and heartache. _"You were a threat to our interests, so we hung you out to dry. We were going to send you to planet Dirt anyway regardless of wether or not you showed up for the testing or not. Zim blowing out the power just gave us a good enough excuse to dump you like the worthless garbage you are!"_

Tak couldn't bear to hear what she was hearing, that all her life had been a lie right from the start. No matter how hard she pushed herself, and no matter how much she did for the Tallest, the Control Brains, and Irk as a whole, she would always be everybody's whipping girl. Perhaps the worst part of this revelation was that despite her persistent hope that she could prove herself, deep down she too had known the cruel facts all along. The two emperors continued to sneer at her heartbroken form as she looked up at them on the screen.

"_Hey Tak, guess whose records these are."_ Purple called out, turning the datapad towards the camera so she could make out her own file with her picture displayed in the top right corner. She could do nothing but watch as he selected the icon to delete the file, before selecting yes.

"_You see that Tak, you're not an Irken anymore!"_ Red boomed form the screen, making her body go rigid with terror. _"You're banished!"_

"No…" She found herself barely able to breathe as they continued to sneer and mock her.

"_If you ever set foot on Irken territory again, you're worse than dead you hear? We'll torture you, dissect you, mutilate you, and show Irk what happens to anyone stupid enough to be our enemy."_ Red commanded before purple interjected.

"_Hey you know what Tak, you should make your way over her right now."_ He leered at her in a perverse manner that made her writhe as he continued in a low, seedy tone. _"That way I can have my way with you before we cut you up-AAA HA HA HA HA!"_

"Ugh…" Tak shuddered in revulsion as they both leered and mocked her still.

"_Hey you know this is stupid, we should just kill her now."_ Red suggested off handedly.

"_Heh heh yeah. I'll set it to record so we can watch it over and over."_ Purple commented as he played with the controls to record whatever MiMi saw through her optical sensors.

"_MiMi, we order you to kill her. But make it slow and gory. We wanna see her insides!"_ Red ordered.

"_Hey MiMi, strip her down before you kill her. I wana get a good look at her outsides too before she's strewn everywhere, heh heh!"_

Tak could only lower her head as the anguish of it all overwhelmed her. She could do nothing but stand there as her world came crashing down. All the hopes and dreams that had kept her going all turned to dust as the two arrogant, sadistic fools continued to smile menacingly at her.

"_Goodbye Tak, you worthless failure."_ Red called down from the screen before it shut off, MiMi's head closing back up again. Her eyes turned red as it processed its orders, surveying the target currently knelt before it.

Tak couldn't believe what had just happened. Everything she had struggled for throughout her life had all come to naught. So many years spent devoted to two beings who wanted nothing less than to publicly violate and mutilate her.

'_What am I supposed to do now? How can I go on when there's nothing to go on for? There's nothing left for me anymore. Why should I keep going? Why not just let MiMi kill me now? It would be so much easier to just put an end to it all before I can suffer anymore.'_

She stood in her spot, her head bowed low in defeat as the robot approached her. MiMi's arms extended up to grasp her by the shoulders, to tear apart her uniform so its superiors could leer at her nude form before she was destroyed altogether. As the cold metallic appendages clamped around her shoulders however, Tak felt her heart rate explode with a fervent mixture of panic, terror and rage, in an instant overcome with a primal desire to simply survive.

Now that the frenzied will to continue her existence had taken hold, she bought her arms up to bash away the mechanical hands from her shoulder. Before MiMi could react to the new resistance Tak lashed out with an enraged kick to the armoured head, knocking the machine on its back.

She wasted no time in turning and running as fast as her short legs could take her, while the SIR overcame the stun of the impact, looking down towards where its former master retreated through the scrub. Coiling its arms around it pushed itself upright, launching itself towards its mark.

Tak couldn't even breathe before the metal arm extended out and clamped around her arm, pulling back and flinging her form around.

"Whoa-AUGH!" She cried out as she felt herself slammed into the base of a tree, causing her world to go into a disorienting daze of pain and shock. MiMi didn't stop for a moment, driving a fist forward on its extending arm to deliver a punch to the young Irken's mid section.

"Guh!" She gasped as a few droplets of green blood ejected her mouth from her lungs. Struggling to rise up another brutal blow caught her on the shoulder, knocking her head back into the trunk of a tree. The tracer band was smashed on impact, pulling the ends out of her skin as the impact wrenched it flat. She held her gloved hand up to her head as emerald green blood ran down from the two wounds, disregarding it seeing as she had more important problems to deal with.

MiMi clamped its clawed arm around her throat and hauled her to her feet. She struggled to pull out of the mechanical grip, desperately trying to prize her fingers apart with her hands, but it seemed her creation was built just a little too well.

'_The spider legs. If I can just use them I can vaporise this treacherous little toy before-'_ Her plan was cut off as said toy slammed her back into the tree behind her, preventing the appendages from coming out of the pak. She struggled to will the mechanical extensions from their metal case, but the pressure of MiMi's arm crushing her against the tree made it impossible.

She struggled against the iron grip as her machine looked up at her with blood red eyes. Never had she envisioned when she created her loyal servant that those hostile eyes would one day be turned on herself, and the sense of hurt and betrayal was only magnified as her only companion closed the gap between them, retracting its extended arm back into its body as it moved in.

As her old friend closed in Tak's desperate bid for survival succumbed, her grip relenting as the despair and hopelessness of her entire life came down on her. She'd failed in her lifelong dream of being accepted. There was no point in fighting anymore, no reason for her courage or defiance now that it was clear there was no hope. There was nothing left to do now but to finally do the logical thing and give in, and at least let her old friend get it over with as soon as possible.

MiMi came to a halt before her, reaching up to her clothes to strip her like the Tallest had ordered. And yet again, despite her desire to just have it all over and done with, as soon as she felt the heavy fabric around her collar beginning to pull and tear apart, she again became overwhelmed by the relentless primal desire to fight and run and to continue living at all costs.

"NOOOO! GET AWAY!"

Fuelled by her terror and her fury Tak pushed with all her strength backwards against the tree, easing the pressure on her pak just enough for the two upper appendages to slip out. MiMi could only glance upwards for an instant before the left leg stabbed down into its head. Using it as a foot hold she levered the treacherous machine away, tearing the machine off her, taking a chunk of her collar with it as she put a few metres distance between her and it. Grimacing in anger she kept it pinned to the ground with the left leg, bringing the right in and blowing away MiMi's head with a blast of searing plasma from the tip.

She didn't stop there, continuing to blast each and every section of the mechanical body, not wanting to take any chances in her state of frenzied terror and rage. Her beloved MiMi's body became reduced to molten shrapnel as Tak vaporised it with multiple hits from both legs, moving onto the limbs and any remaining solid parts once they were all destroyed.

By the time she stood gasping for breath, leaning back against the tree, the charred metal remains of her once companion lay strewn about here and there, none any bigger than a pebble. She slid down the trunk to slump at its base, gaping in a daze of shock and grief. The ache of her anguish blurred her memories. Her years of scorn and exile, Zim, Dib and Gaz, the failed plan, crashing and running from her enemy, the Tallest telling her that her entire life had been a waste, and finally having to fight off and destroy MiMi.

MiMi, her SIR unit, the one friend she had ever had in her entire life. Now here she lay strewn all over the forest by her own hand. She sagged further down, staring up at the night sky blankly as she realised that once again, she was completely and utterly alone in a universe set against her. Tak had always been alone, scorned and despised right from the beginning, an outsider due to her free thinking nature. But she was an Irken, and Irken's as she had known at the time were a strong and resilient race of people. She had endeavoured to prove to her comrades that she was one of them, that she was worthy of their respect and not just a pitiful defective abomination. Every day she had pushed herself to the breaking point and beyond, fighting tooth and nail for her people and her leaders, the hope that one day in the distant future it would get better the only thing keeping her alive.

Now here she lay, betrayed by her leaders and her people, the ones she had served so valiantly for so long, her only loyal companion having turned against her too. It was clear to her now; it was never going to get better. There was nothing good left for her in life now. She was condemned to struggle and suffer day in and day out until the day she died.

All she could do now was stare up at the polluted night sky. All the soul crushing despair and heartbreak that had overwhelmed her slowly blurred and faded out into a cold, hollow pit of nothingness, a lifeless void that took away all feeling. She didn't cry, her tears had all been used up long ago. She could do nothing more now than stare blankly out into the darkness, the loneliness and empty grief for all that had been taken away from her .

Tak continued to gaze away in her trance of hopelessness as the minutes passed, all the goodness left in her life lost to her, sinking into the gaping wound in her heart leaving her to live in the dark. The thing was while she didn't want to go on living like this, she knew on every level that she simply could not bring herself to put an end to it either. Maybe it was just a natural instinct overriding logical thought. Maybe she was just cowardly, too cowardly even to take the easy way out. Either way she knew that she was now stuck in a life she didn't want, a prison of torment and misery for her entire existence.

In the depths of her despair she faintly heard sounds from outside. Lifting her head up she pushed aside the numbing haze to think, straining her antenna to hear and smell the source of the disturbance. A few hundred metres away she heard the distinct vibrations of dogs barking. A team of dogs sent to sniff her out, most likely let by a team of agents from the Swollen Eyeball Network, closing in on her from where she'd been just minutes earlier.

The terror she had felt, terror of death and the abyss, sprang to life within her. Forgetting all about her despair for the moment she jumped to her feet again, thinking on what to do.

'_They'll be here in maybe thirty seconds. They can smell me so I have to do something to throw them off the trail.'_

Looking at her surroundings she looked up to the treetops high overhead, away from the dogs sensitive noses. Turning down she looked to her torn and ruined clothes. An idea sprang to her mind, with maybe twenty five seconds left, and though she didn't particularly like parts of it, it would have to do if she wanted to live. She wanted to live more.

Working quickly she tore away the layers of ruined clothes, dropping them to the ground and covering them up with leaves and dirt, leaving her clad in little more than her boots, little more being her gloves. Extending the spider legs in her pak she scaled the tree trunk up into the canopy, leaping from one treetop to another as she put some distance between her and her clothes. Activating the invisibility shroud in the pak she waited nearby, stilling her breathing to silence, watching the group of cloaked figures approaching with the dogs in the lead.

"Leave it to an alien to drag us out to a goddamn radioactive waste." Accompanying the man's irritated grumbling the sound of a Geiger counter crackling dangerously.

"Get over it, it's only point four rads per hour or so." Another equally gruff male voice spat as he forcibly turned the counter 'd run into the radioactive forest in the hopes they would be discouraged from following her. Unfortunately it seemed neither of them had payed the dangerous environment any heed in coming after her.

The group of maybe ten individuals came to a halt at the foot of the tree. The dogs sniffed and barked at the ground where her clothes lay buried. The agents scanned the battlefield littered with scrap metal before they narrowed their eyes at the little mound at the foot of the tree.

"What the hell happened here?"

"Maybe we'll find out." One replied as he leaned down to sweep away the pile of leaf litter and dirt.

"Wait, it could be a bomb. You've seen Rambo haven't you?" Tak easily recognised the voice of the shorter figure.

"Agent Mothman I know a trap when I see one. If this were a trap, would all the other agents be so close around…" Said figure paused as he noticed that he and Dib were the only ones close to the mound, the others having backed away. Even the dogs had more sense than he as they took cover behind a tree. "Touché Mothman."

Tak watched in absolute silence as the two moved away, Dib grabbing a long stick with which he very carefully began to dig away at the layer of dirt. She had to admit from what she had seen when she'd sat and talked with him the Dib native had more sense than the majority of the indigenous people here, something that made her respect her enemy at least slightly, more so than the rest of the small-minded populace at least.

"One thing though. When we catch this thing, can I be the first to dissect it?" He called back as he scooped away tiny bits of dirt and leaves.

"Sure, why not. You found it."

"Great! I've always wanted to cut apart one of those alien vermin."

Tak's eyes widened as under the thin light she could see her so-called respectable enemy give a thin smile that sent a shiver down every fibre of her body. He sneered in a very particular manner, one she'd seen during her training, in the face of only the most evil and terrible Irkens. She could see the same delusions of supremacy, ravenous lust for power and wealth, and blind intolerance and hatred against all other peoples plain in his face, but worst of all was the apparent light hearted humour in his eyes. He viewed the horrific things he intended to do to her as being just a bit of harmless fun, something to be joked about.

"I'll have it recorded, that way I can watch it every night before bed, heh."

Dib Membrane, she realised, was a psychopath. In another few years he will surely grow into a sadistic and terrible fiend of a man. All the respect she had for him fled, followed by a feeling of deep anger for the big-headed bigot and the people with him.

Dib finished off moving away the layer of debris, pausing as the tip of the stick picked up… her underwear.

"What the…" He and the others moved in as they began to examine the contents of the pile. Dib leaned in and picked up the piece of clothing, holding her panties up to eye level as he regarded them with a mixture of curiosity and surprise. Tak blushed a slightly deeper green through her regular green skin as Dib sniggered.

"Okay so now we have a naked alien freak somewhere. Get the dogs to sniff out her trail."

Another of the shadowy agents bought in the team of dogs, getting them to sniff the surrounding area. Above them Tak watched as the dogs trailed around, looking off in every direction to try to sniff out her trail, remaining perfectly still all the while. She'd chosen to run into a radioactively contaminated area in the hope of discouraging her pursuers, but they showed no signs of wanting to give up anytime soon. After a few minutes of searching the field however they were yet to pick up on a scent leading off elsewhere.

"Alright spread out. Search for any sign of it. It couldn't have just gotten away so easily."

"These are still warm." Dib called as he fingered the panties much to Tak's discomfort. She wouldn't be surprised if he was entertaining thoughts about forcing himself upon her even at his age. "It has to be nearby."

He stuffed the undergarments into the pocket of his trench coat as the group began to scan the area for evidence. Tak remained absolutely still and silent, figuring the shroud would last another ten minutes at least before she was exposed.

Well… more exposed.

As the dogs sniffed the ground beneath her she became acutely aware of a drop of green blood running down from her forehead where a wound had been left by the tracer being torn out. She crossed her eyes as she felt it sliding down her face, across her lips and down towards her chin.

'_If that hits the ground the dogs will find it.'_ She thought alarmed. Careful as to not give away her position via the shimmering of the background she bought her arm up slowly towards her face. Every moment the drop grew in size as it dangled on the bottom of her chin. Before she could wipe it away it detached from her skin, falling towards the ground and the dogs below.

With a rapid swipe she caught the drop in her hand before it could escape her reach. The movement caught the attention of one of the agents, who shone a torchlight right where he had seen the slight flicker.

Tak froze solid, refusing to even breathe as the light shone on her position on the tree branch as the agent searched the highlighted area. She watched his eyes sweep back and forth, scanning for any anomalies to indicate something was hidden there, her invisible eyes staring back frozen in shock and fear. From across the field Dib turned to watch, looking up at the tree then down to the pile of clothes and dirt at its base.

"Do you see anything?" Dib asked as he approached the agent.

"No, there's nothing." He was about to lower the light when Dib reached up and positioned the other agents hands, keeping it pointing in her direction.

"Hold it there." He ordered as he reached into the agent's trench coat. Tak's eyes widened in alarm as he withdrew a black Beretta 92 from the man's coat. She forced herself to remain perfectly still as Dib disengaged the safety and took a two handed aim at the area under the light. She didn't really know if it was the right decision, to hide rather than run like hell, but she couldn't change her mind now.

"_BANG!"_

Dib braced his arms against the recoil as the nine millimetre round burst out, the loud explosion drawing the attention of the rest of the squad. The bullet smashed into the branch Tak was supporting herself on just beyond where her hands lay. The shards of wood blew out across the area, dispersing in a ballistic trajectory as they flew through the air before falling to the ground. Dib and the agents below searched methodically for anything unseen which had interrupted the spray of wood fibres, watching them as they drifted down to the ground. Glaring he kept the gun trained on the light as he searched, all the while Tak remained still, thanking chance that none of the shards had deflected off her invisible form.

"Grh!"

Dib snarled and lowered the weapon as the agent next to him lowered the beam, snatching the gun out of his young hands to re-engage the safety, returning it safely to its holster within his coat.

"Continue to search the area." The older man commanded as the two broke off, the other trench coat clad agents making their way past the tree away from the pile of clothes, continuing deeper into the radioactive forest.

Standing alone beside the pile of her clothes Dib glowered furiously. He clenched his hands until they were bone white as he huffed deeply. Looking up at where Tak remained perfectly hidden she watched with fascinated disgust as he sent her a hate filled glare. Snarling he reared his white fist back and punched the tree.

"Damn it!" He barked, his knuckles slightly bloodied as a result of his murderous rage. Turning away he looked down upon her torn clothes.

"Inferior Irken bitch thinks she can defy me?" Dib growled to the clothes in disgust. Lifting a foot he stepped on them with his boot. "You'll pay for this freak. I will find you, I swear. I will find you, and get you on that table, and I'll make you watch as I cut you open and pull out your organs, one-by-one." His ultimatum given he turned and made to rejoin the rest of his group as they made their way deeper into the forest.

Tak remained still for another few moments, watching the squad disappear into the distance before judging it safe enough to begin moving again. Extending the spider legs in her pak she pushed off from her branch, leaping from tree to tree back in the direction they had come, the only place that didn't involve going past another agent and risk getting spotted. After a minute of retracing her steps from earlier she turned right, racing off through the trees to somewhere the agents would never find her. She continued on as the camouflage field around her flickered and gave way, not slowing down as she raced west away from the city through the treetops on her mechanical legs.

After a good half hour or so of moving high above the ground she made her way back down again, the radiation meter in her pak settling down as she exited the contaminated area. Breathing deeply she felt the cold night air against her naked body as she came to a halt. It made her shiver slightly and reminded her of how she needed to find some new clothes, but it was fresh and clear, and it felt nice on her skin. As of right now though her nakedness didn't matter, no one could see her as she stood far away from the city and the agents combing around far behind.

'_What do I do now? Where should I go?'_ She thought, analysing what she knew about the various cities and towns nearby. _'I need a place where I could disappear, where no one would ever find me amongst the surroundings. A place where social decay and crime is rampant would do perfectly. I could just disappear into the urban decay and the street gangs, and no one would be able to track me down.'_ She remembered that while most large cities had areas where the lower class tended to congregate, one place stood out as being largely a mantelpiece of a complete social and economic decline. _'Townsville. That place is supposed to be deteriorating by the day from the crime and the monster attacks. That'll do perfectly.'_

She pushed onwards with her feet, running towards where she vaguely knew west to be amidst the forest. As she ran through the night air under the cover of the trees, she remembered the mocking sneers of her leaders, and how her fellow Irkens had labelled her as a criminal for the crime of thinking. How that intolerant little psychopath Dib had sworn to do all manner of hideous and perverse things to her, not for what she had done, but because she was not like him. Everywhere she'd been it was like this, that only the humans or the Irken species had a right to exist and all other forms of sentient life was a taint on their wonderful, perfect race and deserved to be exterminated.

Instead of falling into depression again she found herself rising with anger, and the desire to cast judgement upon the many corrupt and evil souls who after all she'd done for them had systematically made her life a living hell.

'_You won't get away with this. I won't let you win, not after what you've done to me. I will continue no matter how dark my world becomes. One day I will cast my revenge against those who betrayed me. One day they will all bow before my feet begging for mercy for what they've done, and I will give them none.'_

Tak continued in her musings as she made her way through the forest for the nearest town where she could find the little human food she could eat and new clothes. Her determination to continue on was driven by her fury and hatred at her betrayal. Where hope was now gone, anger would sustain her throughout the years to come. She would learn to channel her pain and her anguish into anger, and use it to force herself to go on. She would live off her anger until the day came when she would judge her enemies and find them guilty. Even though she knew it was unlikely that she would succeed in the long run, if she could just destroy some of the more perverse, corrupt and wicked humans in her new home, then she would continue.

The vengeful Irken outcast charged on through the undergrowth, as naked as an animal, her fury spurning her on with a newly found drive she had never felt before. As the wind rushed over her green skin, with the anger inside the power of a thousand Massives, she felt almost as if she were a divine spirit, sent from beyond to strike down those who were arrogant and proud and evil. An angel of vengeance who would not stop, would not rest, would barely sleep or eat, until her work was done.

Until that end she swore she would have her revenge no matter what.

* * *

**I used Caligula and Nero as templates for Red and Purple. As for Dib I'm going with the idea that his racist eugenecist father created him as the perfect human being to further the advancement of the Aryan race, but disowns him after he starts talking about aliens. But even without him he becomes as arrogant and intolerant as his father and the people around him, and over time becomes the Nazi prodigy his father wanted him to be.**

**This would explain why he says stuff like "They might ust name your autopsy after me," and "Pretty obvious who the superior being is here." He's really not a very nice person when you think about it. This intolerance would also explain why Gaz is always so angry and cynical.**

**Hope you liked it. Tell me what you think.**


	6. Invisible Clouds

**Okay before we begin with the main arc of the story there are some things I feel I should point out first regarding the content of this fic.**

**First is that this contains a lot of content that many people may find quite offensive, first and foremost being racism. I want to warn everyone that many ethnic groups will be subjected to severe intolerance and hatred, so if anyone is a little bit sensitive to racist material maybe this fic isn't for you. In addition anyone residing within the United States of America may be alarmed at how the country is portrayed.**

**About the issue of racial discrimination I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not writing racist things out of intolerance for anyone not like me. This is my way of protesting against prejudice and discrimination of all types. It's quite disturbing going through YouTube and seeing just how many racist and hateful comments there are under various videos. I want to expose racists and bigots for what they really are, and to inspire people in some little way to reject the mindless trash they spew from their mouths.**

**Other things this story will contain are swearing, death, blood, gore, guns, neo-Nazism, war, terrorism, nuclear holocaust and genocide. Like I said before this fic is gonna get quite dark later on. Also romance plays a large role in this and while there are definitely no lemons in this you should expect... 'intimate scenes'. I'll do my best to make it all as tasteful and non-sleazy as possible.**

**Anyway with that done welcome to the main event. Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

**Invisible Clouds.**

Four years later.

The early days of their 'Grim Adventures' were now old memories for two of Endsville's more distinctive citizens.

Billy and Mandy were now twelve years old, and in the time since they had first met Max much had changed for all of them.

In the early days following their acquisition of Grim to encountering their new friend, a quiet day was something of a rarity for the three, having to deal with all manner of difficult situations and power hungry enemies one after another. After that they found themselves in a time of relative peace, in which they had met Max. During that time there was a strong collective feeling that they had made it through the days of trouble and that they were free.

The truth however couldn't have been more different, the peace being nothing more than a breathing space before the main event. Beginning just a few weeks later came a new wave of relentless, massive attacks, plunging them all into a time of darkness and uncertainty. Time after time they faced off against armies of demons and monsters hundreds of times greater than previous. Their enemies came at them from all sides, forcing Grim, Billy and Mandy into a fight for their lives the likes of which they'd never known before, ever vigilant of where and when the next attack was to come from. Towards the end however the tides had changed, their enemies weakening and giving up as they in turn went on the attack. One by one their most persistent foes had fallen, until finally they had made it through to the other side. Now their days were quiet and calm, leaving them to settle down to a more relaxed state.

There were four distinct reasons for their victory through the hard times.

The first was the group's overall strength and ability to tough it out through any situation, as they had demonstrated from their first days together. It was this factor which gained them a reputation throughout the underworld for being dangerous foes not to be crossed. Over time this alone was enough to persuade half of their foes to let them be, but not some of the more proud and determined ones eagre to demonstrate their dominance by defeating them. Out of all their most ferocious and relentless enemies however it was their old foe Boogie that had been by far the most persistent.

The second reason for their many victories through the ages of nine, ten and eleven was the new member to their group, the polite yet mysterious dark haired boy known as Max. What Mandy had seen shortly after meeting him for the first time, how he had mercilessly and effortlessly beaten down Sperg, was nothing compared to what he was really capable of. Max was a powerhouse, able to run, jump, punch and kick almost endlessly without tire. His abilities were proven in combat performance on their first battle, when one of Velma Greens associates decided to take over her position and attacked Endsville again. Max had proven to be as capable in a fight as Billy, Mandy and Grim put together, hammering down one foe after another with calculated efficiency.

Accompanying Max was another new member to their closely knit group, their old friend Nergal Junior. Whereas previously the young demon-human hybrid had maintained his distance from the trouble his friends tended to attract, the people's growing suspicion and hostility towards him had bought him much closer to them. In an effort to try and prove to the people around him that he wasn't the monster they said he was he set about doing everything he could to protect them from harm. In his first major fight against the spiders it was he who had defeated the rogue general, casting him down into a flaming chasm.

Together Max and Junior had tripled the group's ability to fight as soon as they had joined. Unfortunately while Billy, Mandy and Max remained the same social outcasts they had always been, Junior found that his efforts to protect the citizens of Endsville only led them to hate and detest him even more.

The third reason for their success was the changes that had started to occur in Billy in the weeks and months following Mandy's little speech. Whereas others had tried time and again to get the stupid boy to listen and understand, and had always inevitably failed, Mandy had quite inadvertently kick started his brain. Though she had never intended it, her monologue on the corrupt nature of humanity and her vendetta against the wicked society around them had been the first thing Billy had ever taken to heart. Since then, slowly at first, Billy had begun bit by bit to leave his outrageous stupidity behind. On the outside few would have noticed, as he would continue to act like a fool, running up walls and swimming in mud in a tuxedo every now and again. But those few who were close to him had begun to see the changes gradually taking place. Though he would eat like a pig with a voracious appetite, he had ceased many of his more disgusting habits of eating matter which did not belong in the mouth. And though he continued to be the class clown, his grades told a different story. Mandy had once stumbled upon one of his report cards, and was amazed to see that he had been getting Cs and Bs. While he was still stupid and impulsive to an extent, his actions proving that, something was definitely going on inside his head. Thus as his mind had improved he no longer bumbled about falling for obvious traps, and would guide himself through thick and thin with a skill and tact he had never shown before.

The fourth and final nail in the coffins of Boogie and anyone else stupid enough to keep trying late into their eleventh year, long after all others had been defeated or seen sense to quit, was Mandy's acquisition of her own terrible, nightmarish, truly demonic scythe, the aptly named Judgement.

Whereas Grim's scythe was a tool for manually reaping tough souls, opening portals to and from places and dimensions and vanquishing enemies, Mandy's was created purely as a weapon brimming with tremendous destructive power, heightened by the user's deep burning anger and thirst for power and vengeance. Its cold black shaft bent to the users grip to properly adapt to her will, whilst every other time it was as hard as diamond, and constantly near ice cold to the touch. When looked at under just the right light the onyx shaft glistened with a brilliant crimson hue which glowed when its energy was used, making the weapon as beautiful as it was dark and terrible. In that sense it was again much like its master. The shining steel blade was not curved in the same way Grim's was. It matched the same scythe shape, but was set in an aggressive geometric shape made up of a rectangular blade with a sharp triangular piece at the head, bringing it to a razor sharp point.

It was as cold, hard and unforgiving as its wielder. Grim and the people at the research and development centre were understandably nervous when Mandy had ordered them to construct such a monstrous weapon and had initially tried to refuse. Unfortunately for them Mandy _'insisted'_ they reconsider, after which they saw the error in their lack of faith and set about creating it, all the while pleading with her for mercy. It was a weapon of mass destruction in every sense of the word, capable of causing titanic explosions of megaton yield, of wiping out entire cities in an instant, of raising towering waves and brewing massive storms.

So far Mandy had never really put it to the test, as by the time she came into possession of it most of their enemies were already gone. It had only ever been put to use on one occasion, on the very night her hands first wrapped around its cold staff.

Twisted and bent by his constant defeats at the hands of his enemies, when Boogie finally heard about Mandy's scythe almost finished construction his mind snapped. Gathering an army of millions of low level demons, mutants, ogres and behemoths, he led a last massive all out attack on Endsville. With the scythe in the final stages of creation Grim, Billy, Max, Nergal and Nergal Junior all fought to hold off the assault in the hope of biding time until it was ready. Though they fought tooth and nail ultimately they became overrun, and were forced to retreat from the devastated suburbs back into the city centre, leaving their enemies to close the noose around them. When at last Boogie had them surrounded and demanded for the scythe, Mandy finally answered. All around the city the demons shrieked in terror as she opened up Judgement's power upon them. Their world exploded into madness and agony as they were torn back down into the most nightmarish deeps of the underworld wherein they were pulled limb from limb by the horrors they were met with. The sight and sound of Boogie's otherworldly scream of freakish terror as she turned all her rage and hatred upon him was something that satisfied her desire for revenge on a deep level. Mandy had looked upon her new weapon in amazement of its power, enough to wipe out an entire army with only a fraction of its true potential.

From that day on no one had dared to cross them ever again, leaving the last year since they turned twelve to be spent in peace. Still Mandy had never let it slip her mind that an attack could come at any time. With the life they led it wasn't a case of if a serious threat would arise but when, and thus had continued to train and prepare to use it when that time came.

As of right now she had other matters of lesser importance on her mind.

* * *

It was a bright and clear Thursday afternoon and Mandy was spending her time playing video games over at Billy's again. He lay on his chest on the left of the old couch while Mandy lay back propped up on the right as per their usual places. She watched the screen idly as Billy selected his car, grinning ear to ear as he selected a bright green Dodge Charger perfectly suited to his wild and anarchic personality. Mandy rolled her head across to ease the tension out of her neck as she set her controller down beside her.

"Hold it there, I'm taking a break." She said as she stepped up from the lounge and made her way past her friend. "You go early and you're a dead man."

"Okay Mandy." Billy replied, watching her go. He sniggered quietly once she was out of earshot and made to start the race anyway.

Mandy stepped into the kitchen, standing beside the table opposite the front window, the morning paper splayed on the tabletop. She gazed out at the bright day with her usual brooding apathy, knowing that the people in the city she lived in deserved nothing but storm clouds day in day out.

Life was worse than ever in Endsville. The people had becoming even more prejudiced and greedy and selfish with time. The entire city exuded a malignant air, as if the vast majority of people were slowly sinking deeper and deeper into a vile pit of delusional madness. Just out the front she could see the cracks and potholes in the road that had never been filled because of the lack of funds due to corruption, and still no one protested. She was tired of always looking out the window and seeing that same city still there, a symbol that all was not right in the world.

'_Oh well. At least the weather's good.'_

Turning away she looked to the morning paper and noticed the title with interest.

'Cop and Street Gang Gunned Down.'

Mandy picked up the paper and skimmed over it.

'Police officer… five gang members selling drugs to officer… gunned down by one person… MP5K submachine gun stolen from National Guard base… also lost an M4 assault carbine… officer's pistol missing from body.'

She dropped the paper to the table again with disinterest. Such violence was becoming an almost everyday occurrence, not just in Endsville but all across the country. The only peculiarities in this case were that both police and gang members had been targeted and that the stolen military weapons had resurfaced again.

Turning back to the lounge room she heard the sound of the race starting without her. Stepping back in she watched him as he flung his Charger down the main straight in a cloud of tyre smoke, her blue WRX sitting idle at the start line. She gave him a disapproving stare.

"What did I say?"

"Mandy, you of all people's should know, if you wanna get anywhere in life you can't wait around for everyone else. Don't you agree?" He replied with a cheesy grin.

"Yes Billy…" She answered as she made he way over to his side, clamping her hands over his eyes. "I do."

In his dark recess Billy could hear the sound of tyres screeching as his car slid off the track, followed by a loud crash as it hit the sidewall head on, coming over the sound of his own slightly insane laughter. When Mandy released her grip around his eyes he saw his car now facing back towards the start line, nestled in some corner of the track far from where he was supposed to be. Grinning again he gunned the mighty engine and took off, all the while Mandy stood back and watched his hopelessly blunt driving skills as the car spun out again shortly after.

Billy still wore his old combination of blue and white striped tee shirt and jeans, both of which were frayed from the abuse they had suffered in their short period of use. Billy, unlike his father, had finally grown into his nose, and looked more like a normal, if somewhat wild and happy-sunshine looking person of Irish descent. She attributed his growing into correct proportions to have been the result of his brain having come online, something which never happened in his father. He was slightly taller than her with a lean build. His short red hair stuck out everywhere, making it virtually impossible for him to comfortably wear a hat anymore. His face had lost much of the plump fat of his youth due to his hyperactive lifestyle, leaving him with a set of features that even Mandy had to admit were quite striking.

Mandy had grown up too, evolving and developing parallel to Billy, if in different directions. She still wore the same pink dress, something she had gotten accustomed to, albeit with a pair of black bike shorts. Max had said it gave others a false sense of security by making them underestimate her as a sweet, defenceless little girl, although she begged to differ. Her hair still had the twin peaked devil horns held back by a black headband, though her fringe was longer, hanging over and framing the sides of her pale Germanic features. She had developed a slight hourglass figure as she grew up, still retaining all her ever commanding aura as her gentle curves and bust developed. Her nose had developed in line with her face though was still relatively small. Though she was absolutely loathe to admit it, her face looked incredibly cute because of it, something Mindy was beyond jealous of. Due to her ongoing status as a social outcast, now branded a race traitor by the rest of the populace, she was still looked upon with scorn despite her vengeful nature, limiting her to her small group of friends and acquaintances.

She was about to take her place again when she heard a knock on the door. Turning she left Billy and went to answer it. Opening the door she found Max there, complete with happy smile on his handsome face.

"Hi Mandy, how are you?" Max always greeted people politely, even her, despite the normally rude and stuck-up manner with which the vast majority of people reacted to him.

"Fine, get in." She barked, ushering him inside to where Billy was still hurtling on ahead, his Charger already half way around the track.

Over time Max had grown a relatively lithe and lean build, handsome but overall aside from his blue-black hair and onyx eyes fairly conservative and unremarkable. He wore the same dark blue long sleeve button up shirt and trousers and black shoes as he always had, and still carried himself with the same calm, quietly optimistic manner. He had come to be a close friend to the group, as he had a knack for being able to get along with each of them without issue. He laughed at what Billy laughed at, and showed the same polite respect to Grim, something which earned him the reapers respect to a vague extent. He was still primarily Mandy's friend though, with each sharing their own similarly dark philosophies.

"Hello Billy. Did you get impatient again?"

"Oh hey Max. Yeah, Mandy wasn't here at the start so now I'm winning!" Billy turned to Mandy and blew a raspberry with his tongue.

"Shall I?"

"Be my guest." Mandy had come to realize that Max had a natural affinity for video games. He sat down and picked up the controller. With a muffled roar the WRX tore off from the start line like a bat out of hell. He drifted around the corners with ease and had passed Billy before he had completed his first lap, ramming him into the side wall and then into the pit. It was the same story with anything else, be it driving, first person shooter or strategy, Max would smear Billy all over the place. She stood a better chance but in the end she too had always lost against him every time. Obviously he played a lot of video games.

Max smirked as Billy groaned and face planted into the ground. He handed the controller back to Mandy to finish the race on her own.

"Show off."

"Yeah!"

Max moved himself over as Mandy set herself down between the two boys and took up her controller and resumed the race. Billy's lounge room was perfectly suited to playing video games and movie marathons. More than anywhere else it was their unofficial meeting place, somewhere they could go to get away from the less lively aspects of life in Endsville. Just last week they had watched the first three Star Wars prequels in one sitting, before passing out on the couch for the night. Though Mandy's house was more luxuriously appointed with a larger TV and leather sofa, the upper class setting had always felt cold and impersonal, whereas Billy's house always felt more warm and welcoming.

"Did you hear about that shooting last night?" Mandy asked, trying and failing to imitate Max's ability to drift, instead managing to spin out across the tarmac, giving Billy time to catch up part of the distance. Max was smart enough to know not to laugh, after all Mandy wasn't one to take any disrespect.

"Yeah. Someone gunned down a cop and some gang members." He answered. "I wonder why? Could it be just some random attack?"

"It wouldn't surprise me if it was," Mandy replied with a cynical tone, "especially considering how many of these idiots are into drugs. It might have just been some crazy who thought it'd be fun to waste a few people. Seeing as how the cops are all corrupt you wouldn't have to be that insane to want to take one out." Max nodded in agreement as she kept driving.

"I see sense in that. The gang members could have just been bonuses."

"Maybe the killer wasn't after either of them. Maybe all he was after was the cop's gun. Remember it was missing from the body." Mandy added as she blasted her car across the finish line. "Oh well, it's not like it's anything new either way."

Max simply sat back as the two selected a new track and cars. Billy managed to stick close by Mandy for the first lap, before falling behind later.

"Okay this is boring." Billy spoke flatly as he stood and ejected the disc from the console, the TV screen turning back to a state news program.

"Aww, what's the matter? Getting your ass kicked time and time again not entertaining enough for the small-brained little Neanderthal?"

"Umm… yeah."

"Yeah me too, what do we do now?"

Mandy looked back and forth between Billy and Max. Neither of them had any good ideas, Billy content with picking his nose, Max leaning back in his seat in content absently watching the television. One of the few drawbacks of the peace they had secured over the past few years was their lives had gotten progressively more mundane, giving them a surplus of time with which they oftentimes struggled to fill.

"We could go into town." Max suggested. "I'll get us a pizza down at the shops."

"Bah, this is my time off. I don't wanna have to look at that scum on my time off."

"_We welcome these people into our country…"_ The three turned their attention to the television screen where standing behind a podium was a large white man in a blue suit, the steps of the Jefferson Memorial behind him. The man's name was Robert Johnson, the current President. _"We welcome this diseased vermin into our country, we give them homes, we give them paying jobs, which we payed for with our own sweat and toil, and how do they repay us? They poison us. This menace has infiltrated and tainted our great nation from within! The enemies of America are not just across our borders, they are here, living in our own cities and neighbourhoods! They are the ones responsible for the rise in gas prices, and the crime, and the dept, and unemployment, they have poisoned this country."_

The American Party for National Unity had come to power in a whirlwind of nationwide rage, ravenous greed and delusional bigotry. The key to their overwhelming victory was that they played on the voters own flaws and foolishness. Their propaganda pulled on the white majority's egotism, professing they were superior to everyone else, then their greed and materialism, promising them more money, status and luxury, and then finally giving them someone to blame for why they didn't get whatever they wanted. The effect was instantaneous, a wave of mindless national pride and racial intolerance throughout the majority white population, thus placing the Nationalist Party as it was otherwise known firmly in control.

"_Everywhere I walk I see them. Mexicans, Asians, homosexuals Muslims, Jews, each and every one of them a plague upon our nation! They are a plague, a plague that the good citizens of America have had to suffer for too long!"_

"Ugh…" Mandy groaned. "So much for my time off."

"_Too long have we suffered in silence! Too long have the god faring citizens of America had to endure such relentless and unprovoked assaults and humiliation from these parasites! Well I know that together, my colleagues and I, and you, the decent hard working people of America, I know we stand united when we say NO MORE!"_ He roared shaking a fist in the air as spit as foam sprayed from his mouth while a thunderous cacophony of applause resonated from the crowd.

"Turn it off." She spoke as the man launched into a screaming tirade, to which Billy seized the remote.

"_WE WILL CRUSH THIS VERMIN! WE WILL HUNT THEM DOWN AND-"_ Much to Mandy's relief the racist trash sprouting from the man's mouth was instantly shut off as the screen went blank. Billy stared flatly at the screen before his eyes widened with an idea.

"I knows! How abouts we throw bricks at expensive cars again!"

"Billy the last time we did that we only barely escaped capture by the police."

"Yeah but remember how we got that guy in the convertible?"

"Billy not everyone's as hyperactive as you. I don't run unless I have to. We'll disturb the peace some other time. Beside's it looks like it's gonna rain." Mandy pointed out, the bright sunlight coming in from outside having dimmed considerably.

"Come on, let's go over to my place. We'll watch a movie or something."

Max nodded his head in approval. "That sounds all right." Billy though just shrugged.

"Meh, I think I'm gonna stay here and play with Grim a bit." A creepy smile came upon his lips. Max raised an eyebrow.

"Where is Grim anyway?"

"He's upstairs giving a bath to-"

"RRRIIIIIIIIOOOOOWWWWWW!"

"AHHHH! STOP MILKSHAKES! I NEED MAH TONGUE!" Came a distinct semi-Jamaican voice from upstairs.

"… Heh heh… Heh heh heh…." Billy sniggered as he conjured up every imaginable horror he had in store for the flesh challenged immortal.

"Okay then, I'll see you tomorrow." Max spoke as he and Mandy stood to head out the door. Stepping out they looked back and watched as a grinning Billy vanished upstairs before they shut the door after them. Overhead the remainder of the day's clear blue sky was being quickly overshadowed by an ever expanding grey slate, whilst in the distance a mass of dark clouds could be seen gathering to the east beyond the city centre. Those heavy rain clouds would soon be here if the meteorologist's predictions were correct. As they walked away from Billy's house they thought they could hear the distant sound of Grim's awful howl of…

"NNNNOOOOOOOOOO!"

* * *

By the time the two had arrived at Mandy's house just a few moments later the meteorologist's prediction's had been proven correct. The heavy clouds once far off just moments ago now bore down upon them from above, a cold harsh wind picking up in its wake, buffeting the two youths as they made their way to the door unconcerned by the changed conditions. They made their way inside, shutting out the bitter gale outside, where they were quickly greeted by Claire's usual attempts to appease her draconian daughter.

"Hello Mandy, can I get you anything?" She seemed to exude anxiety from every pore while in her daughter's presence. Mandy dismissed her with a wave of her hand.

"No, now find something useful to do." Mandy ordered as she made her way past towards the lounge room with the large television. Claire bowed her head slightly as she passed by, raising her eyes as Max crossed her path.

"Hello Max, how are you?" She seemed to be more at peace around him due to his much more friendly and welcoming nature. Had she known of his other side, the cold-hearted, remorseless side he'd shown when he'd beaten down Sperg, she would more than likely see him the same way she saw Mandy, a dark and unforgiving person who should be treated with all the respect and caution of a hungry wolf.

The two sat down on the leather sofa before the large television and began flicking through the channels of trash. After stumbling past a reality television show, a report on the ever worsening financial situation in Australia and the ongoing arms build-up in Indonesia, they settled on a documentary on Julius Caesar's takeover of the Roman Empire. They each knew his story well, how he had posed as a friend to his accomplices, before they eventually turned against each other in the end, yet it was due to his mercy towards his enemies that he was ultimately killed. The television flickered ever so slightly every few minutes with some unseen interference, as it had been doing every once in a while for years now. It didn't bother them much as they digested the information the screen conveyed on the once powerful dictator.

"It's ironic isn't it, about his downfall."

Mandy turned to Max, at a loss to the cryptic meaning of his words. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it. If Caesar had eliminated any and all threats to his power instead of taking mercy on them, then he would likely have lived to have been the first true emperor. Everyone that had conspired against him would have already been killed in the proscriptions if he had liquidated the Senate like Sulla did, and he wouldn't have been killed. After everything he did, all his lust for power and wealth and glory, and all the people he killed in his campaigns," At this point Max smiled into the screen, a bust of the man shown looking out towards the horizon, "it was those few acts of kindness that bought about his demise."

Mandy could only nod, though quietly the thought struck a cord. If he had been bought down because of only a few minor weaknesses, what could happen to her? She was too busy thinking to notice Max had muted the television and was facing her.

"What do you think?" Max asked her.

She turned to him, slightly taken aback at the nature of his question. It was a deep subject, one that demanded her to reveal a lot of her inner thoughts and beliefs. On the other hand Max had always been relatively open with her. If he had trusted her enough to voice his beliefs to her why then should she not be able to trust him equally?

"I think he got soft. There's no room in the world for such weakness. If you have power you have to get rid of your weaker sentiments and make sure you always make the right decisions for yourself." She spoke with a cold tone. Max nodded in agreement.

"Yes. Any emotional attachment to others limits our potential because it detracts our ability to use logic, and would inevitably drag us down."

She could easily see the truth to his words, yet there was something about that simple fact which troubled her.

"What about Billy?" Max asked, having guessed what was going through her head at that moment.

"What about him?" She dismissed him casually, acting as if he didn't matter.

Max however saw through her act, looking across to her as she turned to face him again, a slightly more serious visage on his face than his usual smile. He turned away to face the muted screen before them. The room was dark now, the warmth from the previously clear skies fading out as the dense clouds above blocked out he sun, the howling wind outside growing in force by the second. Drops of rain began to patter down on the windows. Slowly the sound of the individual impacts got closer together as the rain increased, until a heavy downpour of driving rain pelted against the glass. Mandy looked at her friend tensely as he quietly faced the television screen.

"Mandy, you and I both know that in the coming years the world is going to change. The world we live in is slowly deteriorating. It's only a matter of time now before it descends into anarchy, and once that happens there will be no stopping it. Now I know you've got plans for the world, to bring it under your control, and that when you say something you always go through with it. But if you ever intend to go ahead with this you will have to start soon, because once the collapse begins, there will be nothing you can do but sit back and watch as the world destroys itself. One day soon you will be the one in control of billions of people. When that day comes you must be strong enough to enforce your will on all those beneath you."

Max turned to face her. "Mandy, if you have any attachment to others, particularly Billy, then the weakness such a burden will bring you will inevitably manifest itself in dire consequences. Unless you keep your sentiments in check they will eventually lead to your demise at the hands of those you once controlled. If you allow your attachment towards Billy to continue to weaken you from within, your innate strength and ability to dominate and control people's minds will fade away, and your society will crumble and fall from within, and you will go down with it. All the order and discipline you ever wanted to enforce upon the world will come to nothing. You _must_ detach yourself from him and leave him behind, and you must do it soon, because time is a luxury you don't have anymore."

Mandy listened and contemplated in silence.

"Billy has been a part of my life since the beginning. He and I have a history that can't simply be erased."

"Well you're going to have to find a way. If you're serious about this then you'll have to leave him behind. You can't have both, it will destroy you."

"Don't you think I know that already? You don't have to explain it to me." She retorted hotly.

Max gave her a soft smile. "Don't worry. You're a strong willed girl. Once you set your mind to it you shouldn't have any problem."

"Don't tell me what to do Max. Even as my friend you don't have that right. Like I said before you don't have to explain this to me. I'll get rid of Billy when the time suits me."

"Alright." Max relented at last, returning to the television. "But if you change your mind, remember there's always the alternative."

Mandy looked across to him questioningly before turning to the screen. There stood Julius Caesar, surrounded on all sides by men he had spared from death. As one they each closed in on him and struck with their daggers, cutting him down and bringing a violent end to the once powerful man. She gave out a slight sigh, knowing that while he was not being aggressive he did have her backed into a corner. It was frustrating, not so much that he would have the effrontery to put her in such a position but because she somehow didn't want to acknowledge the fact he was right.

"I'm not going soft, and I'm not sentimental. I will never allow that to happen to me. When the time comes I'll go it alone."

"Now going it alone isn't exactly what I meant." Max spoke up again. Mandy looked to him with a raised eyebrow. Hadn't he just said that attachment to others was unacceptable?

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that in order to properly stay in control you will need subordinates who are loyal to you. If you cannot trust or effectively control your subordinates, if they care more about their own wealth and status than properly governing the populace, then you will loose control over however many billions of people they govern. You need a dependable right hand to ensure the loyalty of your subordinates, a lieutenant to seek out and eliminate any who are incompetent or corrupt."

Mandy continued to stare at him, suspecting him to propose he become her toady.

Against her suspicions however Max just smirked light heartedly. "But enough of that, there's still plenty of time left, and all our enemies are gone. For now I think we can relax."

'_Guess I was wrong.'_ Mandy shrugged off the issue as the two turned their attention to the screen again. Getting to her feet she went over to the movie cabinet and pulled out her old favourite Mad Max.

"Mother." She called.

"Yes honey?"

"Get us two chicken and bacon pizzas." Claire moved to the phone to order then went out to the car as the movie started, her remaining fear of her daughter putting a slight spring in her step despite Mandy having relaxed her hold on them somewhat over time.

Max watched as the car sped off into the distance. "You still have them by the throat don't you."

Mandy however just shrugged, apathetic to her parents' situation. "Those two are fairly weak. It doesn't take much to keep them under control." A thought occurred to her. "What about you? I've never met your parents. What are they like?"

"They're dead." He answered flatly.

"Oh. I… I never knew."

"They were killed in a building collapse back in Townsville. It was another monster attack. Part of the reason I chose to leave." Mandy was again taken aback, not just by his answer, but by the carefree nature in which he spoke of it. "It doesn't matter."

"Then who takes care of you?" She was again unprepared for his reply.

"I do. I live by myself in an apartment on the north side of town on a government allowance. I used to live in an orphanage, but I proved to them that I was mature enough to take care of myself. I did have to intimidate them a little bit to get them to make up their minds though." Mandy outright stared in disbelief.

"You… live by yourself, in your own place … at the age of twelve?"

"Actually I was living alone when we first met back when I was eight."

Mandy was stunned, not just that an eight year old could take care of himself but that the bureaucracy could allow it, or cared at all. "How did you get them to agree to it?"

"Never underestimate just how willing corrupt bureaucrats will be to save face, especially when confronted with evidence of bribery, cocaine addiction and infidelity with a prostitute." Max spoke in a calm tone. "I just blackmailed three of the officials with threats to release photos of what they'd been doing if they didn't agree to it. I still have them in case they ever change their minds."

"But how do you get from place to place, and food, and power?"

"The government pays for everything. I just walk from place to place or take public transport." He answered her. She eyed him one last time, content that he was telling her the truth, and turned back to watch the television in silence.

Slumping back into the cold leather lounge Mandy breathed calmly in and out as she watched her movie, willing the tension from their discussion earlier to leave her system. But try as she did to quell it however she could not quite escape it, a sensation of unease that seemed to come from somewhere obscure.

This strange tension was not new to her. Perhaps it was simple paranoia left over from their earlier struggles but for the past few months Mandy had felt a simmering sense of doubt over her position, a feeling of every now and then wanting to glance over her shoulders. It was something in the deep recesses of her mind, as if the days of peace and comfort they had experienced since they'd vanquished the last of their enemies was not as safe and secure as they thought it was. Paranoia it may have been, but she could not deny that it could be something more. A well developed sense of instinct was not a foreign concept to her, wrought through their many trials and tribulations.

Still it was an annoyance, and it disrupted her tenuous piece of mind which was already under attack every day from the mindless idiots that surrounded her at every turn, making her want to watch for invisible enemies. Try as she might to suppress it though she could not make it go away. It still hung around in the back of her head, a feeling like heavy clouds brewing just beyond the horizon. But until such time as any potential threat showed itself she would not let it impede upon her life, not when she had other matters to attend to.

They turned to notice Clair return through the door with their pizzas.

"That was quick." Max added as she came in the door, slightly soggy from the rain.

"There you go, enjoy."

"Thank you." Max spoke as he sat the two pizza boxes down in front of them, while Mandy just nodded slightly as Clair left. They both dug in while watching the movie, neither saying another word on the topics they'd bought up. On the great screen two old muscle cars jostled for superiority, the black Holden desperately trying and failing to get away from the yellow Ford as they blasted down the road.

Out from the side of the highway a man came running waving a red warning flag and screaming for their attention. The Ford immediately screeched to a halt as the black Monaro continued on. The driver gave a scream of terror as he threw the car around trying to avoid the overturned truck, instead sending it careening out across the road in a wide arc.

The two continued eating their pizza while watching, neither of them so much as flinching as the black car ploughed into a pile of fuel drums and erupted in an enormous ball of flame and debris.

* * *

**It's sad that every second chapter or so I'm paying respect to those caught in some disaster but unfortunately the natural forces of this planet can cause catastrophe and despair in the blink of an eye, as has been demonstrated by the shocking devastation and death that has taken place in Japan. Some of what I have seen on the television is beyond belief. I saw a white people mover being carried off in the tsunami with its rear wiper going, meaning someone was inside the car at the time. With so much done it's going to take time to figure out the toll from the disaster.**

**In other news another disaster is happening elsewere in the world, this time due to the arrogance and selfishness of a few power hungry bastards. What we are seeing in Libya is six million people who have suffered and been beaten down to the point where they just can't take it any more, and have exploded into a rage of revenge and pride, saying with one collective voice to their tyrants that they will no longer stand by and let them beat and torture and murder us and our families just so you can line your own pockets and feel superior. In my eyes god is an ideal carried in the minds of every living person who believes that other people matter too, and what is happening in Libya is by my definition the wrath of god. May the people of Libya find the freedom they have sought for so long, and that they see sense to do the right thing with it and never take it for granted.**


	7. Give it Up Irwin

**Warning. Political crap begins here.**

**I don't know if anyone in UK or America or elsewhere knows but the Australian political scene is in upheval right now. The Labor Party (sort of like Democrats) has introduced a tax on carbon emissions, which they specifically denied they were going to do at the last election. The idea is that by taxing industries that put out carbon they will reduce their emissions. It's not hard to figure out that they'll just ramp up the price of their products to accomodate for it without doing anything about pollution. The reason Labor wants this tax is because their expenses are enormous. They get elected because they make big promises like the national broadband network, and to pay for these promises they have to scrounge for every bit of cash they can get while ignoring the growing mountain of dept.**

**This is the reason why democracy must be taken seriously. If people vote based on mindless promises and the climate change bandwagon (I'm unsure wether or not the science is real) then it inevitably manifests in consequences that make life very hard for everyone. All you have to do is consider what the underlying message and ideals are for each party and then choose what's best in the long run.**

**But enough with the crap. Here's the chapter.**

**

* * *

****Give it up Irwin.**

Afternoon the next day.

Mandy felt lethargic. She had felt lethargic all day. She had carried the sluggish feeling with her since this morning and hadn't quite worn it off. At least it had lessened partially throughout the day as she studied on her own in the poor excuse for a school.

Around her the other children rushed past in a frenzy of pushing and shoving, eager to get out the door to spread their depraved social habits throughout the rest of society. They gave her a wide berth, partly because they were still intimidated by the lingering feeling of hatred and retribution that she radiated from her being, but also because she was in their eyes a worthless scrap of human refuse, a pariah and a traitor to their own twisted sense of morality. Though they thought of her and all those like her with disdain and hostility they didn't dare voice their hatred for fear of the severe punishment those who would disrespect her would be met with. Their screeching voices only served to increase the haze of discomfort that had been clouding her brain.

The source of her lethargy came in the shape of one plump, nerdy little creature, a self-possessed boy who had awoken her in the early hours of the morning to sing her another 'love' song, his romantic lyrics overshadowed by the seedy feeling that always accompanied his presence. She had silenced him by hurling a brick at his head, knocking him out for a few minutes. Unfortunately before she could get back to sleep he began singing again, necessitating her to rise and hurl more bricks at him. He had unfortunately managed to evade them all, and had continued to press her to go out with him for another hour. Eventually she solved the issue by using Judgement to summon a large toad-like demon to chase him away. But by the time he was gone she had already missed out on the best part of her sleep, leaving her drowsy for the rest of the day.

'_Gee, thanks Irwin. What a perfectly accurate description of your love you've given me.'_

Ahead of her she spotted Billy and Junior standing nearby to Max, talking about whatever issues they felt relevant at the time, each dressed in their usual day clothes as opposed to the long defunct school uniform. Billy would most likely be boring them on something he saw on television or something that happened today in the rotting cesspool he called a class. Junior would more likely be discussing something more serious, possibly about something he read in some magazine or newspaper on the increasingly dire state of the world around them. Beside them Max stood placing his books in his locker near the exit. Billy and Junior turned to her as she joined them, each looking back and forth between each other silently.

Junior glanced across to his left, Mandy following his gaze. A number of government posters stuck on the wall next to Max's locker was the source of their attention. Reaching out with his hand he tore one off and studied it.

'Is your friend a traitor?'

'Know the warning signs. Have they ever expressed doubt over the superiority of America or the white race or shown sympathy for inferior races? Have they ever shown dissatisfaction or protested against national policy? Have they given indication of harbouring treasonous or treacherous thoughts?'

'If you suspect someone you know of being an enemy of America report them immediately to your nearest State Security office for a reward. Get them before they get you!'

He closed his hand on the mindless piece of propaganda, scrunching it up into a ball in his fist.

"I swear every time I take one of these down two more come up in its place." He lamented as he dropped it to the floor and tore the other three off the wall. "Who keeps putting these up anyway?"

"I don't know. One of the students or teachers must be working for the nationals." Mandy responded.

Max listened to them both as he collected his bag from the locker nearby. It was Friday, and he was expecting they would go over to Billy or Mandy's house again. Obviously they were in for another relatively dull, uneventful afternoon spent doing menial things, but it didn't bother him. There was always a good selection of movies and games to choose from over at their houses, and even to just sit and watch the afternoon television was alright by him. Most of what they did nowadays revolved around the television.

He was about to close the door to his locker when out of the corner of his eye he detected a familiar ugly face moving towards him. He turned his head to see Sperg coming his way, his face still holding the brutish, arrogant snarl he used to intimidate those who couldn't fight back. He had grown quite large and bulky for his age, and wore a white tank top with jeans and a beanie. His old love heart tattoo with 'mom' in it had been replaced with a swastika. Many of the students wore similar symbols on their skin and clothes.

Standing his ground he watched him approach, shoving his way through the other students with disregard, enjoying their cries and grunts of frustration as they were knocked down. Billy and Junior backed away as they saw him come closer, his interest seemingly fixated on Max. He walked right up to them, almost brushing past him, and simply kept on going out the front doors, not so much as batting an eye to his presence. Max dismissed the encounter, closing the locker and throwing his bag over his shoulder. Billy and Junior regarded each other with a questioning look before they followed him out towards the aging doors of the degenerate hellhole they called a school into the dreary grey afternoon.

Mandy was the only person besides Max and Sperg who knew of the little exchange that had taken place moments ago. No one else had ever noticed the envelope full of cash Sperg had been slipping him, even escaping the attention of Junior and Billy as they stood nearby. For years Sperg had extorted money from the other students. Now Max extorted that same money from him in secret, ever since he had taken control of him after school all those years ago. Junior was more attentive however, and though he had never seen it directly, he had always suspected something.

Max had constantly demanded at least twenty dollars every day in exchange for not 'disciplining' him, at least one hundred every week, collecting it each Friday. So far he had accumulated almost twenty thousand dollars over time. By using Sperg he kept his respectable reputation, whilst raking in a substantial amount of cash every week. What he did with the money though was anyone's guess.

"Hi guys, what's up?" He greeted his friends as he turned to face them.

"Uhhhh, lemme think…" Billy looked up and squinted. "Mountains, clouds and a bomb on a plane?" Mandy and Junior gave him a flat look while Max just smiled softly as he always did.

"Right. So what kinds of hell did we have to deal with today?"

"The usual." Junior replied. He looked to where a number of students glared at him with loathing, sneering in disgust as they dispersed across the patchy grass. Junior had come to be moulded by what he had experienced from the vast majority of the people around him. Having been made to witness with detached derision how the people of Endsville would hate him endlessly, even when he had done so much to protect them from harm, he had come to view them with contempt for their narrow-minded intolerance.

As such he had developed a strictly controlled sense of satisfaction in himself, for at least being able to cut through the fog of ignorance and idiocy to find the truth of the world. He was especially careful to never allowed himself to become as egotistically bloated as those around him, looking to Mandy and Max as role models for self-control, lest he end up like the shallow bastards who mocked him. He still wore the same long black shirt and trousers with the red scarf. His dark hair was brushed across to the side with a part down the left, with a slimmer more stylish pair of green tinted glasses than the bulky ones he wore previously. His voice, once sounding like he had a blocked nose had evolved into something like a smooth, mixed European accent. All up he exuded a sense of sophisticated dignity and confidence.

Still he hadn't given up hope that he could show the people around him that he wasn't the diseased mutant freak they claimed he was.

"You know I read an article in Time magazine today about something that's happening on Wall Street." Junior spoke primarily to Mandy and Max, knowing Billy would probably have no use for economics. Regardless he also listened in as his cousin explained what he had found. "You know the major share holders and professional stock traders, the ones who trade millions of dollars worth of stocks every day?"

"Yeah what about them?" Mandy replied.

"Apparently, though not much has been said about it, many of them are selling up their holdings in the market and pulling out. Now these traders come in and out of the market all the time but they don't all start pulling out at the same time. They all wouldn't do that unless they thought a major crash was imminent. But while they're selling up, they're also advising other people to buy their stocks, people who don't know anything about the market and go off what everyone else is doing. They don't know about any of this because they've never read into it at all. It hasn't come up in the media because no one seems to care about anything like that. They only want to hear stories that entertain them."

Mandy stood contemplating in silence.

"So you're saying the whole country is on the verge of collapse and almost nobody knows because it's all too boring for them." She spoke to which Junior nodded. She lowered her head slightly in thought. "I knew it was coming, that it was only a matter of time before, but… I just never thought it would begin so soon."

"It was bound to happen sooner or later. Canada, Europe and Australia's economies have all collapsed, and we're in no less dept than they are. It was only a matter of time before it was our turn." He explained. "It was always said that you can't live beyond your means, but we didn't listen. Now it's all come back to haunt us."

Throughout it all Billy had simply continued on smiling as optimistic as ever, despite having listened to and understood everything that was being said. No one bar himself knew of the smirk he was concealing under that happy grin.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw as a half dozen strong group of girls approached through the decaying hallway behind. Leading the group from the front was Mindy, slightly taller than them with a bony and plain figure, her face spotless with the cosmetics she indulged herself in. Instead of the old school uniform she wore a white designer tee shirt and designer jeans, with her orange hair still pulled back in a pony tail. She walked with the same proud posture as she always did. All around her the other students turned to focus on and admire her for her beauty and perfection, with the half dozen other girls crowded around behind her, eager to leech off the air of arrogance she exuded with every glance of her eyes. The epitome of beauty, wealth, luxury and status to the other students, Mindy's elite background placed her at the top of the social hierarchy within the school, and a poster girl for the white supremacist sentiment that had taken over the nation, although her reign had not gone without challenge.

The arrogant socialite gave him and the rest of the outcasts a contemptuous and scornful look over as they moved past.

"Ugh. It's so unfair that elites like me have to come to this place with losers and trash like them." She commented as she led her possie away. "The government should get rid of people like that, along with all those damn immigrants and other races of scum."

Following in their trail the group of outcasts watched on as the superior girl led her pretentious cohorts away towards where a gleaming white Lincoln Navigator parked out the front awaited her presence, a man clad in a white suit standing at attention. Around the front of the school those who hadn't already left on the buses turned to watch her go with admiration and esteem.

Billy's smile widened into a slightly insane grin, watching as the chauffer opened the door for the spoiled young brat to step into the back seat.

"Watch this."

Unhooking his backpack he placed it down and began to dig through it. Looking on the others watched as he withdrew a spherical object wrapped in newspaper. Unfurling the protective wrapper he revealed the object in question; a fat red water bomb the size of his palm.

Grinning he lined up his target with his eyes, Mindy looking down upon her followers and other commoners from the open window of the luxury SUV, a look of quiet satisfaction in her supremacy upon her features. Rearing his arm back he took aim and hurled it towards his target. Through the open window Mindy caught sight of the offending red missile as it hurtled high over the heads of the other youths and plummeted towards her. She could only gape at it as the object flew straight in, catching her and bursting across the side of her face, drenching her and the inside of the vehicle in a sticky red liquid.

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Billy cackled madly as Mindy sat in a state of shock, her skin, clothes and hair drenched in the red substance. Mandy, Junior and Max watched on satisfied.

"Nice aim… What's that she's covered in?" Mandy asked, Mindy looking down at her ruined outfit aghast, the red fluid splattered across the cream leather upholstery as well. "Is… that red dye?" She continued uncertainly. Billy however just sniggered.

"No." Grinning he watched as the snobby racist girl paused, leaning down to give her clothes a sniff. Suddenly realising what it was she gave a horrified gasp. "It's pig's blood."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Screaming hysterically the other students around the school ground stared in shock. Out of the silent crowd one girl with long black hair and purple clothes sniggered and began to laugh at her misfortune. Following the rival girl's lead the other mindless children roared with laughter, pointing and mocking her as Mindy shrieked and screamed as the SUV drove away, all to Billy's pleasure.

"Thanks Trixie, you're next. So whadda we do now?"

"Well we could go to your place and watch movies or play video games again." Max spoke up. "Or we could go into town. I know a burger place where the people aren't so bad."

"Or we could screw." They heard a whispered voice not far away. The four turned to look across towards a nearby bush, Mandy regarding it with a frown.

Without moving from his spot Junior willed a long tentacle to sprout from his back, reaching over and down behind it. Taking hold of the mysterious object he pulled out the speaker in question, their old 'friend' Irwin, 'friend' being a term they didn't use much anymore to describe their relationship with him. Pulling the plump nerd boy back over towards them Junior dumped him unceremoniously to the ground, the tentacle disappearing back inside him as Irwin looked up at the four in alarm at being caught.

"… Uhhh… Hey guys. Why hello Mandy my sweet." He cooed in her direction. Instantly her anger for the creepy slimeball doubled. Gritting her teeth she reached down to take hold of his collar, dragging him upright roughly to face her.

"For the last time Irwin, stop stalking me! And no, we are not going to screw you sick pervert!" Mandy growled out evenly as she dropped him face first onto the concrete. "What is wrong with you? You were always creepy but even by your standards this is just sick! Do this again and you're dead, now stay away from me." Leaving him splayed on the grimy concrete she walked away, Billy, Max and Junior regarding him with a mixture of concern and apathy before they left with her, turning up the street towards their houses.

Irwin sighed as he lay on the ground, his heavily bloated ego bruised. Yet as he watched his object of desire leave he gritted his teeth in anger and assured himself.

'_She's mine! MINE! How dare she defy me! It's not fair, I'm a vampire and a pharaoh, I am a god compared to you! And what are you, just another piece of white shit just like your god damn friends! Billy and Max and that monster Junior think they can just steal what's mine? I'll make them all pay for betraying me! How dare you all think you can defy my will! Mandy's mine! Mine to do with as I please! Oh Mandy… Stupid, worthless little Mandy… I love you with all my heart, and I know one day I will have you wether you want me or not. You should know better than to think you can disobey your master. Someday you'll learn your place. I'll force you to submit! I'll break your will! I'll hammer you down until you come to show me the respect a god like me deserves! You're my girl Mandy, mine to do with as I want!'_

Irwin looked back to his prize, the delicate curves of her figure highlighted by the afternoon sun. Ironically it was as Mindy had said years before, with the coming of his powers his soul had indeed rotted under the weight of his chauvinism and lust for dominance. As he got up and walked off, he turned to glare hatefully at Billy and Max, sending a particularly loathsome glower to the abominable monstrosity Junior, who had clearly stolen his toy.

'_MY toy!'_

Ignoring the depraved pig behind them the four continued to walk towards their houses, when Billy bought up a suggestion.

"Hey Max, we've never seen your place before." He spoke up, drawing his attention acutely. "Why don't we go to your place?"

"My place?"

"Yeah, you've been over at ours plenty of times but we've never been to yours before." Billy added, Mandy giving a nod in agreement. Max looked questioningly back and forth between the two.

"There's a reason for that. The allowance the government gives me isn't much, only enough to pay the bills and keep me alive. My apartment's pretty dingy and run down. It's on the north side." He answered them reluctantly.

"Yeah, well maybe we could learn a thing or two from how you live. Besides if you've lived there alone for the past few years it can't be all that bad can it?" Mandy added.

Max looked between the three uncertainly before he relented with a shrug. "Junior, do you want to come too?"

"I think I'll pass. I'm barely keeping the wolves from the door here let alone on the north. I'll see you tomorrow." Junior spoke as he turned away from the group back towards their suburb. The three watched as the youth walked away, accompanied by his only other friend Piff, noticing the hateful glares shot at him by the other students, before they turned to follow Max out towards the north.

* * *

They walked for what seemed like an eternity, up through the retail centre of the city into the lower class Endsville's lower class area. They needed only walk fifteen minutes to reach school from their houses, and by their watches they had been walking close to an hour now.

The grimy streets were lined with row after row of dull grey brick apartment buildings. Shady figures, scantily clad ladies and burnt out human wrecks walked the streets strewn with old newspapers and rubbish. Weathered old cars from the eighties and nineties drove from place to place. They had already passed a number of street gangs, encountering another one with every street, being careful to avoid attracting their attention as they made their way past. Billy and Mandy stayed close to their guide, wary of the many dangers around them. Neither of the two friends had ever seen this side of town before, and both were unfamiliar with the particular concentration of immorality and desolation, made all the worse by the fact they didn't even know where exactly they were going.

Much of the northern side of the city was taken up by such urban blight, in which roughly a quarter of the city's population resided. This was home to industrial workers and the various ethnic minority groups of the population, each of which tended to gather in their own neighbourhoods, largely divided into white, black, Hispanic and Asian, driven by their own prejudice and anger against the different groups living nearby. Each neighbourhood had its own gang, with each gang vying for dominance in the surrounding regions. Here the people were desperate and angry, their cover of respectability stripped away to reveal the brutal and depraved reality of life in Endsville. Murder, rape, drug use, prostitution, any kind of seedy conduct imaginable took place on these debris strewn streets in plain sight every day without anyone so much as batting an eye.

The three stood out like sore thumbs.

"How much further is it?" Mandy asked insistently, her and Billy scanning their surroundings warily.

"It's just up here." Max responded, seemingly unaffected by what lurked in the shadows cast by the looming brick buildings, even though the three middle class youths attracted far too much unwanted attention amidst the crowds of street gangs, thugs and pimps.

"This is where a lot of the gang violence happens. To the east of here is Chinatown. They don't like whites there at all so it's a good idea to stay well away from there. To the west is Hispanic territory, the gangs there are more violent there than anywhere else. A lot of the trade unions operate out of here too and they've always been at odds with the police and the industrialists in control of the city, though they've mostly been stamped out now." Crossing a street they looked down to the right as Max explained their surroundings. At the end of the road they could make out a large wooden archway boasting obvious oriental styling with a red and yellow roof and red wooden pillars, marking the boundary of where they were welcome. Behind it with several vertical other oriental designs, with many building signs written in Chinese characters hanging above the footpath.

"This is also where a lot of the pogroms and racial killings take place." He narrated as they passed the wreck of a car that appeared to have been burnt at some point. "Every few months a mob of people will sweep through here and kill anyone they come across. It's best to avoid being outdoors as much as possible around here. Indoors you're safer, not completely but more than out here."

Billy and Mandy stared blankly at him before turning to give each other a concerned look.

At last he turned into a doorway in one of the old decaying apartment buildings, pushing through into its dark interior. The air inside was musty and smelled of cigarette smoke and human bodies. Following his lead they ascended the tier of stairs, looking around at their bleak surroundings as they made their way up to the sixth floor. The long corridors of fading, dirty carpet were littered with the same calibre of burnt out people as outside. It held the same sense of pollution and social decay in its broken and cracked plaster walls. Stepping out from the stairs they made their way along the hallway, coming to a halt before one of the old wooden doors. He pulled out a key. Putting it into the faded brass handle and turning he unlocked the door, opening it inwards with a steady creak of worn out hinges.

The trio stepped through the threshold to behold what they had entered into as Max closed the door behind them, each setting their backpacks down beside the entrance. The first thing they noticed was, in layman's terms, his place sucked. The old plaster walls were peeling and decaying, the room itself was cramped and cold, and only one dirty window looked out into the grimy streets below. Ahead of them was a small rectangular living room with some basic furnishings. Adjoining to the right was a kitchen with a refrigerator, cupboard, sink and a stove, all of which showed their age. To the left leading off from the living room was a bedroom with a bed and a desk, with the bathroom joining onto it. It held enough space for one person, but even then it wasn't any sort of place either Mandy or Billy could expect to live in comfortably for a long time.

"Whoa you weren't kidding." Mandy spoke as they scrutinised the dingy apartment with morbid curiosity. "The person who coined the term 'Home Sweet Home' obviously wasn't thinking of your place."

"It does its job. I don't need anything bigger than this."

Stepping through the archway Billy pushed through the door into the bathroom, turning on an old fluorescent light which flickered constantly. The mirror was cracked. The tiny square tiles around the bath tub, shower and basin were yellowed and broken. Oddly however despite the place's decaying state, it appeared to be relatively well maintained, clean of any of the grime that seemed to permeate this place's existence in the rotting part of town.

Mandy looked around the living room as Max led her in. An old couch sat to the right facing a small, boxy old television set on a small wooden table. In front of her sat a table with chairs set against the left corner wall.

"You'll have to excuse this place. It was never meant for entertaining others." Max explained. Mandy just shrugged. She noticed that it was relatively well taken care of. It was clear of any clutter or dirt of any sort, and in perfect order. She walked over and knelt down in front of the television set. There was an old DVD and video player beneath it. She could see no gaming console anywhere. There were no movies either.

'_He's a pro at video games, but he doesn't have a single one himself?'_

Rising up she turned to the bedroom. Peering in she saw a small desk with a bulky laptop computer sitting on its surface.

"Do you have any games on your computer?" Max shook his head, but stepped in and opened it up anyway.

"No. Just the ones that came with it, chess and solitaire." He turned the computer on. "I don't play them."

Billy came over as the ageing machine went through its starting phase. He thought it a small miracle that he would have such an old machine still in use, long after it had become obsolete in both capabilities and programming. That it still ran was a miracle in itself. It came up with his log in, asking for a password. Max's fingers danced randomly across the keys typing in a long code; they counted twelve key strikes. It seemed he didn't take security lightly.

A dull blue background appeared with just a few icons on the left. The bulky old machine still ran what appeared to be the ancient Windows 98 programming. It gave the laptop a sense of nostalgia the two hadn't felt since they were both much younger. The old computer, oddly devoid of any entertainment value, served to heighten the strictly utilitarian feel of the apartment. He opened the start button, cycling through the few available programs. There were the games that came with the machine in one corner, which had more than likely never been played since he got it, and a few Microsoft Office programmes, but nothing other than that. It certainly wasn't there as a luxury, only as a fully functional piece of equipment, with leisure completely off the cards.

He closed the computer down, having shown off his clunky old machine. Though having been long since rendered obsolete, it seemed to fit his needs perfectly, something they both found unusual. Regarding it quietly Billy and Mandy turned around again, stepping back into the living room, taking in their surroundings in this strange place, broken and aging but perfect all the same.

"What do you do for fun here? There's nothing here to do, no games or movies or music, nothing." Billy spoke.

"Well I did say it was basic."

Mandy continued to look around in increasing interest. She noticed it wasn't just basic; it was hollow. There was very little evidence that that this was someone's home. Home, the word sounded out of place here, it couldn't even be used to describe this place for its lack of soul. Even the desk where Max used his very impersonal personal computer was devoid of any clutter whatsoever. There were no odd trinkets lying around, no remotes, MP3 players, pens, cups, loose papers, anything at all to show someone spent much of their life here. It felt as if no one lived here, or indeed had lived here for several years.

"What do you do here Max?"

"I eat, sleep, work on the computer, anything that I need to do." He answered bluntly and to the point. It gave her the picture he really didn't spend any more time here than necessary. But what then did he do with all his free time? Did he spend all his leisure time outside in the slowly perishing world below? She doubted it. A part of her told herself that there was more to it than he was letting on.

They turned to watch Billy slump down on an old chair at the table, clearly having grown bored from the lack of stimulation. He quickly rose a moment later as the old wooden thing creaked ominously, flexing under his weight as if it would break any second. The boy eyed the decaying furniture with an unpromising gaze, something he shared with the rest of the largely soulless little apartment.

"_BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!"_

Looking to the window with a start the three made their way over as outside the sound of gunfire broke out in the street below. Keeping clear either side of the glass the three peered out, Billy and Mandy searching frantically for the source. There on the other side of the street off to the left of the building a half dozen men hunkered down around the concrete steps of another building, two of their number lying motionless on the ground in front of them, their pistols drawn and firing at an old grey sedan. Taking cover on the other side of the car were another group, firing their handguns at the other men over the bonnet and through the windows.

Billy looked on concerned as the shots continued to ring out. Mandy glanced across to Max as he stood on the other side of the window frame, looking down on the scene in a mask of cold, silent apathy.

"It's the Triads. They're attacking… yes, that's MS-13." He spoke quietly, watching on as another two men fell under the fire from the car. "They've been fighting for control of this area for years. It's a border area between the two and MS has been trying to take over and extend into their territory. In response the Triads have been making attacks every month or so, but recently they've escalated."

Outside the remainder of the Hispanic gang fell under the hail of bullets, the perpetrators clambering back into the bullet riddled car and tearing away from the scene. Stunned by what they had just witnessed they continued to stare down at the six men lying dead in the streets, Max looking upon them with grim detachment.

"When MS finds out six of their men were killed they'll retaliate. They'll be here in maybe five minutes. We should leave now. If we don't we'll be caught in the crossfire."

Following his directions the two quickly returned to the door, picking up their bags as Max led them out. Locking the door he directed them back down the stairs with a particular haste in his step, neither of them taking the luxury of scrutinising their surroundings as they made their way out into the dystopian streets under the dreary grey sky. They could see the six men where they lay on the other side of the road as they walked quickly back in the direction they'd came. Billy and Mandy both stared at the bodies, neither having experienced what they were seeing up close before.

"So… How do you get from here to school and back every day?" Billy asked trying to change to another subject. "I mean it took ages to just get here from school. How do you get around every day?"

"I just walk, I'm used to it. Either that or I take the train or the bus, although the buses aren't reliable anymore, and the trains are full of thugs. You should stay off the street after dark too."

"Why did you ever want to live in this hellhole?" Mandy added warily as they made their way out of the vicinity.

"It's all I can afford on my budget. It doesn't bother me though, I'm used to this. It provides experience in dealing with people you would not receive in the middle and upper class neighbourhoods. I can learn from what I see here and gain information on people which may be useful to me in the future." Max spoke with a carefree attitude, seemingly impervious to the dangerous people around him whereas the other two were silently wary of it all.

"What do you mean useful? What the hell do you intend to do with this kind of information? What do you want?" She continued. Max smiled again and gave her a knowing sideways glance.

"The same thing you want." He answered matter-of-factly. "Power, control, everlasting life, the ability to reshape the world in my image, the same thing you've been after your whole life." He turned to Mandy and smiled, an eerie sparkle in his dark eyes. "Can you imagine what it would be like to reign over a great and powerful empire? Can you imagine having billions of arrogant, mindless little people living under your thumb from the moment they are born until the moment they die? It would be beautiful, don't you think?" Mandy just frowned.

"From the way you act you would be like a bunny trying to be powerful and threatening. You're always so nice, always smiling and polite. I know about your other side, I saw when you beat up Sperg, but no one else will ever take you seriously while you have that nice guy smile on your face."

"Mandy, you and I have been good friends for awhile now and we've come to know each other relatively well. But I will never be you, just as you will never be me. Only a person themselves can truly understand what they are thinking. Others can only take a guess based on what they have seen of their actions. Think about it for a moment, if I only ever acted like this, and never said anything otherwise, would you know about my beliefs of survival of the fittest and how passionate emotions are a weakness."

Billy turned to him as he spoke. "What do you mean? What's wrong with emotions?"

"Powerful emotions like love, hate, joy, anger and grief detract from logic. They make it difficult to successfully maintain self-control. If you cannot control yourself then you cannot control other people or the world around you. Emotions are a weakness that serve no purpose. They must be dealt with properly. It's best to detach from emotional bonds and sentiments and rely solely on logic."

Mandy listened in interest as they continued on down the footpath through the urban blight, now able to relax their hurried pace as they exited the area.

"If you loose your self-control, you become a mindless monster." He spoke sternly in a manner somewhat more serious and significant than before.

Mandy found herself deeply affected by his insight and saw logic in what he was saying. After all her increasing awareness of her growing emotional attachment towards Billy had become something of an issue for her, and was becoming a cause for problems. Billy however narrowed his eyes in reservation, part of which came from the last thing he'd said and the slightly disconcerting manner in which he said it.

"Wait a minute." He spoke up, Mandy and Max turning to face him. "Now I'm not real big on philosophy, or psychopathology, or whatever, but without emotions what other point is there in living?" Mandy raised an eyebrow, halfway agreeing that he had raised a very valid argument one she could also see some sense in. Max however just looked at him quietly. "I think feelings are important because they give us something to live for."

As they remained silent in contemplation Billy and Mandy both turned their heads back in the direction they had come, the sound of several cars, five in all, screeching and racing down the road behind them reaching heir ears. They were filled with gang members, all heading towards the entrance to Chinatown. Within mere moments of them passing came the repeated blasts of gunfire as the two rival gangs of marauding killers and rapists tore into each other.

Just as he had done before Max spared the brutal slaughter going on behind the buildings little more than an afterthought as he continued on without stopping, prompting the other two to forget about the gang war and move to catch up. Ignoring the resonating gunshots he returned to Billy's earlier question without falter, smirking slightly in response.

"Yes Billy, I know you think that." He replied in a calm tone. As Mandy kept pace with him she noticed something strange briefly flash across his eyes, some phantom of cold-hearted logic, in conflict with his polite smiling features. "That is why you will amount to nothing."

* * *

An hour later Billy, Mandy and Max stood a few streets away from the school, roughly halfway between their suburb and Max's apartment. Stopping to face each other their dark haired friend turned his eyes skyward, revealing the now growing orange hue of early evening, the harsh colours accentuated by the layer of acrid smog high overhead. Billy and Mandy each watched him curiously, scrutinising him as he seemed to withdraw back into the unknown depths of his mind.

"Alright." He spoke at last. "I have some work I need to do so I'll leave you two here." Max explained, having escorted them safely out of the most dangerous areas of the city.

"Fine. See you tomorrow maybe." Mandy answered bluntly, leaving Max to step past and continue back the way they had come.

"Bye Max!" Billy called back vibrantly as they themselves continued on their way home.

Billy gazed about their surroundings as they walked quietly, observing the shopfronts, offices, parked cars and grassy strips lining the concrete footpath, searching for any of what beauty was left. The air was cool from the low angle of the sun. Whereas normally the recent rains would have made the grass a lush emerald green with the recent rains, the state of the acidic clouds overhead meant it stayed pail and patchy. Finding nothing of any cheer in the natural side he looked to the shopfronts advertising various items, taking note of each in search of something that could occupy his overactive brain. As usual Mandy remained apathetic to it all, taking no interest in nature or in beauty as a whole.

As they walked Mandy began to get the distinct impression that she was being followed. When she turned her head around to look behind her though she saw nothing, they were alone in the deserted street. Disregarding the sensation she kept going with her friend.

A few seconds later though, as they passed by a shop front window she noticed in the reflection a familiar figure scurried from the wall of one shop to another behind them, watching them from afar.

Heaving a sigh through her teeth she closed her eyes, holding the bridge of her nose in disdain. _'Irwin.'_

"Billy, go on ahead. I'll catch up later." She spoke with a calm yet commanding quality. Billy looked from her to the figure hiding behind a shop and back.

"But Mandy…" He protested. He knew all about how Irwin had taken his egotistical obsession over Mandy to a dangerous level, and refused to let him or anyone else hurt her. He had been pushing Irwin away as of the last few months for that very reason, trying to distance him from Mandy in the hopes that he could protect her. Though he always kept up the friendly visage when speaking to him, careful not to disturb his unstable mind and ego, he no longer held any sort of friendship for the boy he had known for years.

"That's an order. I can handle myself." Mandy had no time for this. It was high time she put this issue of Irwin's lusting hunger for her to rest. Reluctantly Billy relented and left off down the street.

She waited until he was out of sight, before she turned and walked calmly across the road over towards the side of the store. As she strode purposefully over, the boy hiding behind the wall of the shop realised that he'd been caught and decided to show himself, Irwin stepping out from the cover of the brick structure.

"Hey Mandy baby. So you wanted to spend some time with me at last eh?" Irwin cooed with a sly smile. It only made Mandy's anger even greater, staring him down with a vengeful scowl as she marched up to him.

"Irwin, for the last time. _Stop stalking me._ It's sickening." She hissed menacingly.

"Sorry Mandy, can't help it. I'm in love! I'll make you a fair deal though. If you just be my girlfriend like I know deep down you want to, then I'll stop stalking you." He grinned that sleazy grin of his again, making Mandy's skin crawl and her stomach twist. How she hated that grin. "Honest, I'll just keep track of everything you do."

She sighed, holding the bridge of her nose. "Irwin, how long are you going to keep this up?"

"As long as it takes yo. I'm patient and determined, I can wait for years, it'll make it all the more rewarding in the end. My love for you will keep me going in the meantime."

Mandy had long since tired of his so called 'love'. _'I can see what Max was talking about, how strong emotions are a weakness. They've practically destroyed him.'_

"Irwin, do yourself a favour. Give it up. You've got to forget about this insane obsession you have with me. Accept that I will never be your girlfriend, build a bridge, get over it, and find someone better, someone who could give you what you need." Irwin stared at her as if she had grown another head, his jaw hanging open.

"Give up… On you… Mandy I could never abandon you, I love you too much." He grasped the spot of his shirt where his heart lay inside as he looked upon her in desperation. "And deep down, I know you feel the same way about me, but you're too afraid to-"

"OH SHUT UP IRWIN!" She roared at him in frustration. "I don't love you at all! I never loved you! And if you weren't so blinded by your god damn ego you would have seen that by now! I'm sick of it!"

"Mandy, my sweet, you can't deny it. Remember it was you who started me on my path to love with your own confession. You said that I was such a cutie, and that you liked me. This whole thing started because you secretly wanted it to start." He spoke of the incident years ago, shortly after they had first won Grim.

"Ohhh, Irwin..." Mandy rolled her eyes, grasping the bridge of her nose in frustration. "That wasn't me. Billy was controlling me at that time. He was messing with your head. Do you honestly think that I would harbour feelings like that? The very thought of it is enough to make me sick." Mandy remembered back to the embarrassing situation where Billy had quite literally 'jumped' into her head and taken control of her. To think such a little act of embarrassment would yield such a morbid result.

Irwin stood there, unable to comprehend this, the one he lusted after having never felt any attraction towards him at all. It was a hard body blow to his pride.

"And that so-called love you have for me, that isn't love at all Irwin." Mandy glared at him, while he stared back.

"What are you talking about? I love you more than night and day. I think about you constantly, and I dream of the day when you will be _mine."_ Mandy picked up on the way he seemed to emphasize the word 'mine' distinctly. She began to suspect that the thoughts he harboured of her were worse than she had thought, that maybe her idea of him using her as nothing more than a concubine might just be the tip of the iceberg. Not fully knowing how dangerously his arrogance and ego had become inflated she wondered just how low he could have stooped.

"When will you get it through your thick skull? That isn't love at all you sick freak! You have only ever wanted me to be your toy, to just roll over and play dead. That isn't love Irwin. If you really cared about me at al, you wouldn't be hunting me like you were just moments ago!" Mandy growled now bearing down on him, Irwin stepping back nervously like a rabbit before a wolf.

"Mandy, I pursue you because I want you so much, because I love you so-"

"For the last time, you do not love me. You lust after me because of some insane obsession you have. That obsession has destroyed you! Look at yourself! Do you have any idea how disgusting you've become?"

"I'm not disgusting, I'm a vampire pharaoh."

"You're a twisted pervert with sick fantasies" She inwardly shuddered, thinking about what he thought of her, and what he did while… _'Ugh!'_

Mandy continued scowling hatefully at the pervert as he backed away in fear, until she noticed a very distinct, very disturbing change in his appearance. In an instant he went from looking like a cornered rabbit, to smirking at her like an arrogant, sleazy pig.

"So what, maybe that's not love. But that doesn't mean a thing to me yo. I want you Mandy." He moved closer to her to caress her face as she stepped back "And I _will_ get whatever the hell I want."

He sneered at her, loving the surprised and slightly wary look in her dark eyes. "You pathetic little bitch, how dare you disobey me. You can try as hard as you like to resist my urges, you can push me away all you like, but in the end it won't make a difference. You belong to me Mandy, and I will have you. In time you'll learn some respect for your superiors my pet." He moved closer while Mandy took a step back anxiously.

"And if you don't want me, and you continue to choose to be a disobedient little bitch…" He grinned, his rows of teeth showing as he leered at her like a predator, the vampire in him causing his features to turn slightly feral. "… Then I will take you by force. Your defiance will only make it so much more satisfying when I break that spirit of yours. Either way you belong to me, and one day you will submit to my will. Now baby how bout we have some fun, hah hah!"

At this the sick minded youth leaned in to lick at her face, reaching out his hands to try and grope her breasts.

Disgusted and enraged beyond belief by his twisted advances Mandy finally snapped. Gritting her teeth furiously she belted his hands away, reared her tightly curled fist back and punched him in the nose. Irwin gaped and staggered back, holding his hand to his bleeding muzzle, before he was sent reeling by another brutal blow to his eye socket, followed by another that toppled him.

Irwin fell to the ground, holding his bruised and bloody cheeks as all the while the enraged young blonde kicked him in the chest and face again and again and again. Spurred on by her frenzied rage Mandy didn't stop, bending down to grasp him by the collar to continue punching him in the face, his blood mixing in with her own cut and bloodied fists until Irwin lay there gasping for breath in agony. By that stage he would have called on his demonic strength to subdue her and forcibly take her virginity then and there except he was already too battered and broken to focus them, struggling to simply hold himself together under the brutal assault.

Relenting at last Mandy rose back to her feet to look down on her onetime friend with hatred. She spat on his bloody face and turned to walk back to her house while surveying her bloody fists, seeing they would have to be bandaged.

Irwin lay still on the footpath, a collapsed and battered heap of internal bruising and fractured ribs. Letting out a low groan of pain he raised his swollen face up to watch her walk away into the distance, her back turned to his ruined body. He grimaced where he lay, his wounded pride at having been denied what he lusted for driving him insane with his own selfish rage. He snarled furiously at his woman's defiance despite his battered state.

'_How dare you do this to me! How dare you say no to me! I will make you my slave someday Mandy. I'll beat you into submission you little whore. I'll make you and all the lowly little shits like you submit to my will. I am the vampire pharaoh. I am an all powerful god, and you are nothing but an unruly little bitch!'_

He slowly got to his feet to limp away, plotting for the day he would mark her as his property, all the while delving head first into complete and utter madness.

* * *

'_I will kill you Irwin.'_

Billy was beyond livid.

Neither of them had known of the young red headed boy who had been watching from a distance behind the cover to the bushes. Now he stared down murderously at the bloodied creature limping away, wishing that he could run down from his hiding place and slash the pervert's throat where he stood. No one did that to his friend.

'_No one does that to Mandy! I swear to the vengeful god I'll make you pay for this Irwin!'_

Getting to his feet he took off at a run parallel to the footpath, intent on circling around in front of Mandy so she would think he had simply gone ahead as she'd told him. Yet as he ran through the park, he did not for a moment forget the sins Irwin had committed against the girl he called his best friend. _'And don't think I've forgotten about Junior too! I've heard what you call him you intolerant son of a bitch!'_

* * *

Evening.

A figure sitting alone in an old wooden chair worked its way through a telephone book under the light from an incandescent bulb. Working gradually it picked its way one by one through the various names and numbers beside an old round window, the remaining twilight from the deep blue sky outside still filtering in. Of the four resistance founders three were known to be hidden somewhere amidst the urban decay of Townsville, the original founding place of the resistance. The fourth target was a young man living right here in Endsville.

Searching methodically it found the last name, taking note memorise of the address and committing it to memory with the others. It closed the book, setting it down as it stood and made its way across the rotting wooden floor across to a very old mahogany cabinet. Opening the doors outwards it reached in and withdrew a dark grey Glock 17 pistol. Retrieving another black metal object it loaded a magazine up into the receiver with an audible 'click', pulling back the slide and letting it snap back into place. Reaching into the cabinet again it withdrew a black nylon backpack and another two magazines, placing them and the loaded weapon in the bag and zipping it up. Looking in it regarded the other two weapons, deciding they were not needed for this mission, leaving them where they'd been stored.

Closing the doors the figure lifted a white sheet up and over the cabinet, reaching up and pulling the chain to turn off the light, the room going dark. Stepping over to the chair its hand slipped around a long black cloak and hood, holding it as its eyes gazed out the window. Looking out at the starless dusk sky over the distant lights of the city it slipped the cloak over its shoulders, picking up and placing the bag onto its back and turning to walk calmly down the long staircase, emerging out the front door of the century old wooden house. The night air was cold, though it drew no clouds from its breath, as it in itself was even colder.

'_I will kill the three in Townsville tonight. Once they are dead I will kill the nearby target. After that I will begin my priority task.'_

Its objectives clear it advanced through the thick grass, moving out through the opening in the fence and set out down the footpath away from Endsville, towards where its targets were to be found.

It did not matter that they were far away. No distance was far enough to avoid its swift and lethal strike. No matter how far its targets would run, and no matter how deep they would hide, it would pursue them unremittingly until it had tracked them down and destroyed them. It was the ultimate hunter-killer, objective, logical and completely detached from both its prey and the effort needed to kill them. It was without compassion, without anger, without fear, and was utterly relentless and tireless in finding and terminating its prey. For its targets in Townsville death was already inevitable.

* * *

**My god that was exhausting, but it was all worth it. I like how it came out at least. Hope you enjoyed it.**


	8. The First Deaths

**It's unfortunate that I had to realise this only after the story was published but it never occured to me that the title 'Mandy of the Night' could easily be misconstrued. When I chose the title I wanted to convey her link to a life of darkness, hatred, revenge, isolation, negativity and other such things, but instead it sounds like she opted for a career as a street hooker.**

**Oops.**

**Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter now. Let's continue on with the deteriorating peace and slow descent into madness. We all know it'll happen in the real world eventually (if it hasn't already started that is)****so pay attention!**

* * *

**The First Deaths.**

Morning.

The hours since daybreak had been largely permeated by drizzling rain from the sheets of dark grey clouds overhead.

Billy was by his parents understanding still in his bed, sleeping in until early afternoon as he sometimes did on dismal days like this. At least that's what the sign on his bedroom door read. Were they to open the door they would have found the room empty, their son off elsewhere having climbed out through the open window. Mandy on the other hand really was in her room, spending her time watching a movie on her television, the rain pattering on the oval window.

Her room still held the same warm fuchsia colour on the walls and bedspread, albeit without many of the other girly elements. She had cleared out a lot of her room over time in the desire for a more minimalist environment, though nowhere near as sparse as Max's. This was where she found solitude, a place she could call her own, a comfortable sanctuary where she could escape everything that was wrong and evil with the world and the people outside her door.

Currently she was lying on her stomach across her bed looking up at the flat screen as it played the film. The screen showed a meeting of yakuza bosses unified under the leadership of one woman. At first there was celebration, drinking and joyous shouts of praise in her honour until one spiteful chauvinist of a man began furiously denouncing her for her mixed Japanese-Chinese-American background, an insult that received him a swift and well deserved decapitation. Normally she liked this movie, it was one of her favourites, but today she just couldn't get into the feel of it. Getting bored she reached for the remote beside her, stopping the movie and turning off the TV.

Laying back on her bed she rested her head against the pillow, staring up at the ceiling in thought.

'_Billy, what am I going to do with you?'_ She had been thinking about what Max had said for some time now, about how she would have to abandon their friendship in the near future if she wanted to pursue power. She knew this for a fact, she had always known it. But still, deep down some part of her had twisted when he had bought up the subject, her stomach and chest becoming tight with apprehension at the mere thought of having to leave him behind.

She had come to know this feeling once before, after seeing her friend supposedly killed by a sea creature. When she thought Billy had died, part of her felt like…

'_Like something was deeply wrong inside me. Like I had just received some awful wound that would never heal.'_

She also remembered the tremendous feeling of relief and elation she had felt when he came out alive. Though she had never told anyone about it she had secretly felt the very foreign urge to wrap her arms around him and never let go.

After that incident, those feelings had come to slowly pool somewhere in the deepest regions of her mind. Those strange feelings of wanting his company were now a permanent presence in the back of her head, and as much as she hated to admit it, they had steadily been getting stronger. The problem she faced now was that she didn't quite know what really to do about them.

Mandy sighed, tucking one arm up under her head. There was no point denying it, she had a strong emotional attachment to Billy, and try as she might she just couldn't will herself to let it go as she usually could. This was something against which she feared her willpower alone may not suffice. And as time went on the desire to simply give up and stay with him would only grow stronger, knitting him ever deeper into the fabric of her life.

She knew that in the future this attachment would come to hold her back in her drive for power and control over the world and the billions of despicable people living in it. She knew there was no way Billy would ever want a dictatorship. He would never accept what she planned to do. She would be forced to leave him behind, and the pain of involuntarily being separated from him would drive her insane. It was either that or she would have no choice but to give up on her ambitions for world domination, and accept the life of an ordinary girl, living in a dead end job, growing old, dying, and ultimately being forgotten far too quickly in a world filled with depraved scum.

'_Insanity and grief, or being a nobody all my life, dying, and letting those people get away with all they've done. Oh joy, what wonderful life prospects I have laid out for me.'_ Needless to say neither really appealed to her.

There was only one course of action she could take. She had to leave him of her own free will, and physically, permanently break the bond.

Mandy also knew that the longer she waited, the stronger the bond would become, and the worse the pain of separation would be when it came time. Yet she still didn't want to go through with it. A good part of her still wanted to be able to just hang out with her best friend, sitting around, tormenting Grim, going on dangerous missions together, and even just playing video games all day and night. She just wanted to sit next to him, finding contentment in his presence. Unfortunately that would not be possible. She realized and understood that her time with Billy was coming to an end. Soon she would have to abandon him, and he would call out to her, and that she wouldn't be able to turn back. Once more the mere thought of it made her chest feel tight.

Sighing in frustration she reached over to turn on her bedside radio in the hope of finding something to help ease the strain and take her mind off the subject.

"_Now one thing that has come to my attention is that many of Endsville's citizens and families have had to sell their SUVs, which have always been a staple of the American way of life, because of the rise in gas prices. The same can be said for many owners of muscle cars, and in fact anyone who drives a large auto. What's worse many people are finding they cannot afford standard home furnishings like high definition televisions and stereo systems. As Americans we have a god given right to these things. Now though it seems we're being made to go without the basic luxuries each and every one of you listening rightfully deserve."_

Mandy grimaced in disgust at the sound of the oily man's flattery, pandering to the ignorance and greed of the stupid people who made up the bulk of the local population. The owner of the voice was an obscenely fat, piggish man named Dick Roachspam. His name was well known in Endsville, as was his status as mayor, as well as his affiliation with the American Party for National Unity. He had made his millions as owner of a highly profitable open pit coal mine just outside the city, one of the reasons why Endsville's drinking water was not safe to drink unless it had been filtered, when the lure of easy money and power drew him to local politics. Mandy hated him vehemently, and the sound of his voice over the radio only further built her tension.

"_In my election campaign I promised that if elected I would ensure that yearly income would double for every Endsville citizen, that I would slash the price of fuel down to one dollar per gallon, and that I would ensure every Endsville family had at least two plasma screen TVs for every person. These promises would have already been met, were it not for one problem that denied us what was rightfully ours."_ Inwardly Mandy groaned, preparing herself for what was about to come.

"_It was the Jews! They are the ones who raised the price of gasoline! They were the ones that made it so you couldn't get your TVs! They have been stealing your hard earned money from your back pocket! It was the filthy Jewish vermin that is responsible! And the Mexicans! And the Asians! These filthy diseased vermin have made a pact, a pact to destroy our way of life from the inside out! And what's more, they have a leader. They have rallied around the filthiest, most abominable creature of all! We know who he is! We recognise him! IT'S NERGAL JUNIOR, THE FILTHY DEMON SPAWN!"_

She rolled over onto her side away from the radio, having now regretted turning it on in the first place.

"_My fellow citizens I assure you that with your continued electoral and economic support I will not only ensure the destruction of not only the child abomination himself but I hereby promise I will cleanse our beautiful city of all the vermin that inhabits our streets."_

Having had enough of the bile sprouting from the bloated man's mouth she reached across behind her and turned the radio off. Laying her head back down on the pillow she tried to suppress the outrage she felt. This was her room, her place to get away from everything she hated about the world, and now it felt like that last frontier between her and so many corrupt souls was being invaded. Eventually she managed to ease the anger that had disturbed her fragile peace, though she could not escape the state of unease that continued to linger on.

Taking a few sighing breaths through her nose she lay in her spot on her side, looking out her bedroom window to the dark skies and driving rain outside.

The world had changed in the past four years.

Peak oil had come and gone, and while there was still enough in the ground to sustain the world for another hundred years, the easily accessible deposits were each gradually being exhausted. Furthermore the effects of overpopulation, pollution, deforestation, the exhaustion of fertile soil, loss of fresh water supplies, and unsustainable life and society in general had all coming home to roost. So far the change had only been fairly negligible, but the global effects had been disturbing_._

A terrible plague had swept through the nations of the world, a disease which caused people to loose their minds, thinking only of themselves and of their own group. It bought about delusions of superiority, extreme paranoia and unreasonable anger and aggression, all of which ultimately manifested in a mindless intolerance and frenzied rage against anyone of different ethnicity, culture or beliefs. This virus had swept across every continent, infecting much of Asia and Western Europe, parts of Africa, South America, the Middle East and Oceania, with particularly strong epidemics in Indonesia, China, Russia and America. This disease went by the name of nationalism.

As the stress placed upon the people of the world grew, their first reaction was to immediately abandon their civil relationships with their neighbouring countries, dividing and isolating themselves along their own national groupings. This quickly led to each group growing arrogant and intolerant of all other peoples and cultures, leading them all into direct confrontation with each other as they began to argue and fight over the diminishing resources, furthering their hatred for anyone different.

With nations cutting off from each other and focussing inwards the once booming trade of raw materials and consumer goods from port to port decreased. For countries with decadent and materialistic populations and huge levels of dept, the loss of income was an instant death sentence. Australia was the first to go, one third of the nation's populace going out of work as one by one they turned on each other. It was a major blow to the west when it became clear that a militant Indonesia was now the real power in the South Pacific, the country looking upon the once proud great southern land's vast resources with envy. The demise of Australia was soon followed by its bigger sister Canada. Before long most of the European Union was falling into economic collapse, its member states gradually abandoning each other further as one by one the nations of the world spiralled into madness.

Closer to home the corruption and delusion that had contaminated Endsville had spread and infected the entire country. Anyone not of the white majority was viewed with contempt and derision, looked upon as being some kind of abomination simply because they did not fit their incredibly arrogant, narrow definition of perfection, of which the various minority groups mirrored with their own self-centred concepts of racial supremacy and purity. Conversely age old symbols of American pride, opulence and dominance had come into vogue. Icons like the star spangled banner, Christianity, sport utility vehicles and muscle cars, baseball and any symbol of wealth or success became wildly popular in amidst a surge of national pride by the masses wanting to feed their own egos. Just as it was here in Endsville bribery, extortion, embezzlement and nepotism were now seen as a normal occurrence in politics and business, unimportant next to more entertaining issues. It was never any wonder to her how the nationalists had come to power so easily.

Forlorn Mandy gazed in silent contemplation out at the pouring rain as it pattered down on her window, blurring her view of the grey world beyond and making her skin feel cold.

'_I just didn't think it would all start to happen so quickly. I thought we had another few years left at least. Max was right; there's not much time left for the world.'_

This unfortunately bought her back to the problem of her relationship with Billy. On top of that there was the issue of what would become of Grim. Though he was useful to her as a servant, guardian and part time tour guide throughout the various levels of the underworld, his usefulness had by now largely faded away, like that of her mother and father. Whereas before she relied on the power of Grim and his scythe for transport, defence and general chores, she now had her own scythe. Furthermore she was now much more self-sufficient, able to take care of herself with ease without the help of either Grim or her parents to wait on her every order.

But she still had plenty of time with which to deal with these issues, and besides that, she had more important topics to contemplate.

Mandy hadn't been spending all the free time she had amassed over the years on just whimsical plotting, constantly putting off any real action. She had in fact already begun taking the first steps towards that future she looked towards.

Rising up from her bed she stepped across her room towards her desk, taking a seat and turning on her computer, letting it start up as she sat back in thought.

'_I wonder how he's been getting along? It's been so long since I've spoken to him. I hope he hasn't forgotten about me.'_

Placing her hands on the mouse she opened a file of contacts. Cycling through them she stopped on one at the very bottom. There on the list it showed his name, mobile phone number and the location of his new laboratory outside Chicago. Logging onto the internet she typed out the address, entering it into the search engine. A moment later the name of the laboratory appeared at the top of the screen. Entering the website she was confronted by a stylish futuristic page, with lists of information about the company and its products.

'_Dark Systems. Looks like he's already got the new lab up and running.'_

Cycling through she found an image of the building displayed against the blue morning sky. Outside a number of cars could be seen in the parking lot, evidence that the company was up and running smoothly with customers and staff. Further down she found another image of the person in charge, the young boy who had created the laboratory as his brain child. He was roughly her age, wearing a pair of glasses and a long sleeve white shirt over a white lab coat. He smiled softly out from the webpage, so different to the evil self-possessed grin he'd presented her with when they'd first met years ago.

"You've come a long way Mandark. You're not the crazed fool you were when I first met you." She spoke softly to herself as she studied her old collaborator's face. Closing the website she glanced at the contact list again, gazing at his number. "I wonder how our plans have come along?"

Though previously she had limitless time with which to develop and build her army in preparation for her takeover, now the circumstances were different. From what she saw of society's slow decay into ever increasing anarchy and violence over the past few years, coupled with the now looming crash and economic collapse Junior and Max had told her about, the entire country and the entire western world appeared to be about to plunge into a depression so deep it would make the dark days of the nineteen thirties look like a boom. The nature of what happened after that was beyond what anyone could hope to predict. The one thing she did know was that it was the perfect time to launch her takeover, and in fact her only time. If she didn't plan to make her move at this precise moment then she would inherit a world too far gone to hope to rebuild any kind of empire on.

She didn't know when it would happen or what the last days leading up to the end of civilisation would look like, but she knew she would have to be ready to move to take advantage of any situation presented to her, lest she loose her chance at power altogether. _'I have to start focussing more on getting everything prepared. Maybe I should give him a call to see how everything's coming along.'_

Taking hold of her cell phone she flipped it open, resting her thumb over the keypad. Looking from it to the phone's screen she paused in thought. Raising her eyes up and away she looked out at her window again, seeing the rain coming down slowly beginning to ease in strength, more of the day's light making it through as the clouds thinned out.

She shut the phone, closing the file and shutting down her computer, content that she would get to it later. For now though she could relax, there was still plenty of time for her to just enjoy the status quo before she got to work. Stepping up she walked to the oval window. There she stood and continued to watch as the rain pattered down in solemn silence.

* * *

Meanwhile.

Elsewhere Billy was hunkered down outside, disregarding the pouring rain that chilled his skin, watching his so-called friend Irwin through a window into his room. He was safely hidden in the branches of a tree directly across the road which allowed him to see clearly into his house while not being seen by its owners. Though it did put him at risk of lightning, he figured it was necessary for what he had in mind for the backstabber inside.

His self assigned mission was to figure out what Irwin was doing, particularly with regards to the blonde haired angel of vengeance he called his best friend, and then to put an absolute stop to it.

Yesterday when Mandy had caught up to him he had feigned ignorance. They walked back to his house, wherein she told him what had happened between her and Irwin. He had only shown a fraction of the fury he felt as she regaled him with the events he had witnessed himself. He swore there was no way in hell he would ever allow the pervert who leered at her and treated her like a worthless sex toy to go unpunished. He had set out early that morning to make absolutely sure the sleazy bastard never set foot anywhere near her ever again. The very thought of him leering after her made his blood boil and freeze at the same time, and his desire to wrap his hands around his throat increased dramatically. He kept himself still though, channelling and focussing his anger into what he needed to do.

He planned to send a very clear message to him, as soon as he could get him alone. Slipping is hand into his pocket he took out the stiletto switch blade Max had given him years ago. He extended the blade, examined the dull steel surface, so crude yet so sharp as to cause fatal blood loss if run across just the right area. He held it against the palm of his hand, pushing down slightly, seeing how much pressure it would take to cut the skin. He kept pushing until the skin underneath began to turn pink as the blade grated against it.

He retracted the blade, examining his slightly wounded hand. It hadn't taken much force to begin to cut into the skin. He didn't plan to really hurt Irwin, though he had no intention of holding back, just to scare him so badly he would never so much as be in the same room as Mandy ever again. If everything went as he hoped it would, then Irwin would forever remember this day whenever he thought of his friend again.

From his vantage point he watched as Irwin left his room as the rain began to subside. He could see him coming down the stairs, collecting his wallet and an expensive camera on the way down. Stepping out the front door Irwin walked off down the street. Billy watched him leave until he was out of sight over a hill, before he climbed and set out to follow him from a distance.

Following him through the still slightly drizzling rain he tracked Irwin as he made the long walk into town, unaware of his follower. Billy remained on alert, careful not to let his presence be detected as he traced the pervert from afar for the next twenty minutes. He tracked him all the way to an outdoor sports shop selling hiking gear and the like.

Waiting patiently across the street Billy kept an eye on Irwin as he browsed through the store. Using an old newspaper he found discarded on the ground he disguised his presence while watching through the windows as his target quickly selected a product off the shelves, bringing it up to the counter to pay for it. From how many notes he handed over he guessed that whatever it was he'd bought it was something important. He returned to the street a minute later, a binocular case slung over his shoulder, his bulky camera hung around his neck. He dropped the papers and watched him walk away back the way they had come, before he decided to reveal himself.

"Hi Irwin." Hearing his name called Irwin turned around to see Billy approaching him from behind, a happy smile on his face. "Watcha got there?"

"Oh hey Billy." He turned down to his new acquisition. "I just got these, they're binoculars." He took the shiny new instrument out of its case, flipping off the lens covers. Billy nodded as he examined them, all the while hoping they and the camera weren't for what he thought they were.

"Nice. That's a nice camera too. Say what are you going to do with them?" Billy asked trying not to sound threatening or apprehensive. "I didn't think you were into nature and taking pretty pictures and stuff like that." Irwin broke out into an ugly grin.

"I'm gonna go watch over Mandy and take some shots of her for until I make her mine. Maybe I'll get a shot of her in the shower or something yo, heh heh."

Billy continued to smile softly, although the strain in his eyes hinted of the rage building up for the despicable creature who would dare violate his friend with his eyes.

"Huh. See that's funny, Mandy told me yesterday that she told you she wasn't interested in you. She also specifically told you to stop stalking her." He dipped his head towards him trying to urge him to see reason.

Irwin snorted and just laughed. "Hah, so? Who gives a crap what that little whore thinks yo? I'll have her no matter what, you'll see. She's just a dog."

At this the friendly mask Billy had kept on his face vanished, replaced by one of unforgiving disapproval as he regarded the perverted who dared threaten Mandy. Irwin's eyes widened at the change in his friends demeanour and the small sense of impending disaster that he began to feel coming from him.

"Irwin, listen to me. You're going to stop all this crap about going after Mandy. I'm telling you now to leave her alone and never harass her again. You think you're so special that you can have whatever you want but you're not. She doesn't belong to you and she doesn't deserve to be leered at or be made your slave. Do you understand me?" Billy asked firmly but controlled while holding back his desire to punch him in the face.

"Whatever yo. I'm gonna go spy on my bitch. See ya." Irwin retorted with a smirk as he turned to go. Billy looked upon him wide eyed with sheer murderous fury.

Irwin made to leave off down the street for Mandy's house, only to gag in surprise as his neck became constricted by something. Billy latched his hand around the camera still hung around his neck, yanking back on it hard so as to stop him from breathing or crying out. Holding him by the strap around his windpipe he dragged him gagging and chocking off the street into an alleyway between two nearby buildings, away from potential witnesses.

Once he had pulled him all the way to the end of the alley he released his hold on the camera. Before Irwin could regain his composure he darted out with his hand to rip the shiny new binoculars out of Irwin's grasp as he clutched his bruised throat. Raised them over his head he flung them violently to the ground, shattering both lenses.

"Hey yo, what the hell are you… Billy!" Irwin protested as Billy ripped away his camera, bashing it furiously against the brick wall again and again until it too shattered, the crystals of broken lenses flying to scatter across the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE Y-AUGH!"

Irwin recoiled as Billy lanced at him with a fist to the nose, earning a barely audible crack. Hammering down on his skull with his elbow he stepped around him as the pervert doubled over in pain. Clamping his hand on the back of his skull he forced Irwin's face into the wall, the vile creature crying out in pain as he savagely bashed him against the bricks again and again, his face bleeding profusely from his nose and lips. Letting go he reached around from behind to latch onto his chest, securing him tightly as he reached into his pocket, withdrawing and extending the blade of the knife. Irwin's eyes went wide with terror, the pain in his bloody nose forgotten as Billy held the blade against his throat, pressing just hard enough to draw a thin graze from which blood rose.

"Listen carefully you sick bastard cause I'll say it only once." Billy whispered to the deranged pervert in a low, dark tone. "You are never to go near Mandy again for as long as you live. Mandy is not your property, she is not your personal sex toy, and she is not a bitch. If you ever go near her or leer at her again…" He scowled with absolute hate as he scraped the blade against the pervert's skin, extending a bloody graze across his jugular, all the while relishing in his satisfying terror, "I _promise_ you, _I will kill you."_

"No, that bitch belongs to me! She's my proper-"

"SHUT UP! If you ever so much as glance at her again, I'll put you through a hell your twisted little brain could not imagine! I'll break your neck! I'll slit your throat! I will bleed you out like a stuck pig! I promise you!"

With that said Billy brutally shoved the sleazy pervert to the ground, moving forward to kick him in the waist, mercilessly crushing his diaphragm to prevent him from recovering for another few minutes. He scowled down at the loathsome creature with hatred. Breathing hard, his anger still unsated he turned and left him there clutching his throat in pain. Stepping out from the alley his dire expression persisted, his strides long and purposeful as he marched away with Irwin's blood on his fist. Before long though he noticed the unwanted attention his dark persona was drawing him, and soon had it covered over with the usual blissfully happy grin he always used. Had anyone laid eyes upon the bright-eyed boy they wouldn't have suspected that he had just brutally beaten and threatened to kill someone, his happy smile giving away no hint of his destructive rage.

Irwin managed to begin recovering a few minutes later. He was silently thankful that he had gone to the bathroom before he left as his pants were still unusually dry, even after experiencing such terror that he could barely move. He tried to get up, forcing his aching body to work once more so he could drag himself home, but the sheer shock and fear of it all had so overwhelmed him that he collapsed and fell flat on the ground. He immediately passed out there in the alley, going unnoticed by the few shoppers outside, not that they would have cared.

* * *

Later.

Having gotten bored of her room Mandy left her house to make the short walk across to Billy's shortly thereafter. Knocking on the door she was greeted by Grim. He looked distinctly like he had been scrubbing dishes again, as he was wearing an apron and rubber gloves dripping with soapy water. He held the usual deadpan expression he received from being the forced companion of the two for so long.

"Hello Mandy. If you're looking for Billy he went out for something." Grim said dully having been informed by Billy before he left.

"In the rain? Did he say where he was going or when he'd be back?"

"No, he just said dat he was going out for awhile. Speak of de devil, you can ask him yourself." Grim spoke as he looked up from her to the footpath. Mandy turned to see Billy walking up the street back towards the house. He had what at first glance would have been his average soft smile of optimism, but Mandy could immediately tell he was hiding something as he made his way across the lawn over to them.

"Hi Mandy! You wanna go slash some tyres or something?" Billy greeted her with his cheery smile.

"Not today Billy. Where were you going in the rain?" She asked immediately. Mandy and Grim noticed a strange and slightly ominous grin spread across his face. He giggled slightly behind his rapidly thinning mask of innocence.

"Oh I just went and had a little word with our good buddy Irwin." Digging into his pocket he held up and extended the switch blade, showing them the slightly bloody steel as an ominous shadow eclipsed his eyes. "I have a feeling he'll think twice before going after you again." His smile took on a very evil quality what both unnerved Mandy and made her desperate to hear what he did all the same.

"… What did you do?" She demanded regardless.

"I followed him from his house and saw him buy a pair of binoculars. He told me he was going to spy on you and take pictures of you naked. He even called you a bitch and a whore!" They could both sense his ire rising as he recalled how the vampire-mummy fiend had so blatantly abused her, and how he planned to abuse her further. The thought of him staring, leering at her while she was most vulnerable, all manner of sick and sadistic thoughts in his head, increased his rage tenfold. He clenched his fist and his jaw, before he grinned cruelly again. "So I trashed both his toys, and threatened him with mine." At this he wavered the slightly bloody blade in front of them. Grim looked at the knife in alarm.

"Good heavens Billy what have you done!" A reaper he may be he still did not approve of murder.

"Don't worry Grim, I didn't kill him. I just hurt him really really badly and threatened to kill him if he so much as glanced at Mandy again." Billy answered, a creepy grinning again. Mandy though gave a sombre sigh, running her hand through her fringe in disapproval.

"Billy, though I appreciate your violent defence of me, in the future let me handle this okay." Part of her hated to do this after he had been so loyal in protecting her honour, but if she wanted a knife held to Irwin's neck she would do so herself or under her own orders. "It's not that I disapprove, I just can't have loose cannons running around is all."

Billy looked down slightly in shame but nodded his head.

"Still, good job Billy." At this his happy smile sprang to his face once more.

Taking a step out the door Grim looked up toward the grey skies. It appeared as though the rain was going to get worse again as the clouds overhead darkened. Seeing this Billy stepped in, Mandy and Grim following as the rain began to fall.

They immediately sat down on the couch, turned on the game console and began playing an old World War Two shooting game. Mandy racked up many quick kills through the scope of a Gewehr-43, using her superior skills to lie in wait until the opportune moment. But Billy had learnt her habits, and had adapted to use tactics far left of field to what she could expect, on one occasion sending a Molotov cocktail down through the roof to land right on top of her. He crept up on her using the cover of the buildings to avoid her line of fire, attacking her at short range with his PPSH-41 while she fought for an escape, drawing him out where she turned the tables against him with a grenade. By the end of the game Mandy was the official winner, having racked up twelve kills to Billy's five.

Grim watched their last few engagements from the doorway to the living room. He observed the scenes of the ruined urban jungle and the old weapons with a faint nostalgia. "Aaah Nazis versus Soviets, dat takes me a looong way back."

"What do you mean? I thought you hated the Nazis." Mandy spoke as the game ended.

"I did, and those stupid reds, hypocritical idiots. It was de sheer madness and destruction they wreaked when dey met. I was at Stalingrad when they fought. I watched dem attack each other like rabid dogs, millions of blind little fools that just kept coming and kept annihilating each other like ants. I watched as they dumped all deir self-righteous morals and deir stupid pride and just butchered one another, and all deir humanity washed away in a mindless frenzy of blood and killing, in the buildings, in de fields, in de skies. It was… beautiful." Grim's hollow eyes seemed to disappear into the depths of time as he recalled the mad show, Billy and Mandy looking on as he gave an ominous, contented smile.

"… Get me a lemonade." Mandy spoke flatly. Grim deadpanned and relented, walking to the fridge and back to bring her what she'd ordered.

"What do I have to do to amuse you insufferable brats?" He grizzled as he handed her the cold can.

"You figure it out, it's your job." She replied as she opened the can and took a sip, Billy sniggering.

"Lovely. Anyway there's something I thought you two might be interested in that happened last night." The two turned to him as he spoke. "I got called out at one in de morning to Townsville to reap a soul who wouldn't go. It seems he'd been murdered, but there was no sign of the killer by the time I got there. Now I know murder's not really special in Townsville anymore but this was different. Over his heart dere were remnants of some kind of dark paranormal energy. Whoever or whatever it was who killed him used an energy strike to de heart to damage the surrounding tissue through internal bleeding and burns. Many of the cells around the area where he'd been hit had been killed off. It was like his heart had been hit by a bolt of lightning. No weapon I know of can do that." Grim explained, Billy and Mandy now listening intently.

"While I was dere I sensed that two others had been killed. I went to look and found one lying dead in the street. He had the same energy burns around his heart. The third one had been shot several times in da back by a nine millimetre, but I felt de same dark energy present in the area."

Mandy thought for a moment. "Dark energy? Could this be something dangerous?"

"I don't know. No normal human would ever be able to gain access to dark energy let alone control it. Dis hasta be some new demon we haven't encountered before."

"Why did it kill those people?" Billy asked, receiving a shake of Grim's skull.

"Sorry but those three people were unrelated so far as I know. Add to dat I'm not a detective. I never saw who did it, and I have no idea what would make dem a target."

Billy and Mandy each turned to each other with concern. "Should we be worried Grim?" Billy asked. Grim paused momentarily and shook his head.

"I doubt it. So far as we know there's no reason for it to want to attack us. Plus we wouldn't make an easy target now dat we have two scythes on our side. If it ever gives any indication dat it's coming after us den we'll deal with it but until then I wouldn't worry ma head about it."

Their fears put to rest Billy shrugged and with that they went back to their game without another thought on the murders. Grim sat down in a nearby armchair to watch and reminisce as the war continued to rage across the split screen as the heavy rain continued to pour down outside.

As for Mandy, though she wasn't particularly concerned by the appearance of some creature wielding dark powers, she still thought it best they keep an eye out for anything to follow. Either way it was of no worry to them. They had crushed hundreds of nightmare creatures wielding underworld powers in the past. If anything did come of this it would likely be no different. She stopped Billy's attempt to ambush her with her own ambush, blasting him with a stick grenade as she adapted to his tactics, turning them against him. During the brief lull in the fighting she cast her gaze out to the front window in the nearby living room, looking out into the dark sky as it pored down rain, her mind touching thinking one more time on the mysterious attacks in Townsville. Without a second thought she cast her gaze back to the game as she looked through her sniper scope, scanning the area downrange for the lone Red Army soldier.

* * *

Eight o'clock that night.

"Hey dad. Hey mom. How was you're trip?" Dick greeted his parents as he opened the door for them, his mummified wife Judy standing beside him as they welcomed their guests in from the pouring torrential rain outside.

"Bah, Dracula don't like ridin on busses. Too many old people. Dracula hate old people. Dang old folks taste kinda funny."

Dracula made his way into the house, collapsing his great black umbrella once he was inside, his wife Tanya accompanying him in. His son had invited them both to have dinner with him, and his wife, and most importantly his increasingly estranged son Irwin.

"Honey how many times do I have ta tell you, we are old people!" Tanya replied forcefully, trying to get through the old vampire's thick scull.

"Bah. Baby, you ain't never gonna tell Dracula what Dracula is or is not. Dracula is young cause he say he young. Dracula is whatever he say he is."

"Irwin, come on down dude. You're granddaddy and grandmomma's here and dinner's ready." He called up the stairs as he escorted his parents to the table, where Tanya and he had cooked up a wondrous banquet of pork, seafood, salad, roast vegetables, and a few ancient Egyptian delicacies. Few thought it unusual that Dracula and Irwin, two vampires who traditionally lived on the blood of humans, could live quite comfortably on a buffet style roast dinner.

"Too many young people on the busses too. Dracula don't like young people neither."

"But you just said you was young, and Dracula is whatever he-"

"Bah. Dracula ain't young you dummy. Dummy's like you think vampire's suck."

Irwin had been upstairs, locked away in his dimly lit room, brooding and festering in his hateful thoughts ever since he got home. His descent into madness had become complete in the time since he dragged himself back from the alley. He had immediately begun to curse and hate them both for their insults and how they had refused what was rightfully his. In his mind he was not just a vampire, or a mummy, or a mighty pharaoh, but a living god, to be hailed and feared as such. And as such everything he saw rightfully belonged to him. This was _his_ world, Mandy was _his_ sex slave, and Billy was both a betrayer and a heretic.

'_He betrayed me. Billy betrayed me. He stole my bitch and held a knife to my throat. He has been stabbing me in the back for years, always pushing me away, trying to take Mandy away from me. MY Mandy!'_

"Irwin come on down." His father called. He hadn't told him about the heartless betrayal he suffered from what was once his friend, but he would. Soon everyone would be bowed to his feet, watching as he took his rightful justice upon the evil traitors who were deluded enough to think they had rights as well. His skin paled as his canines grew into fangs, his eyes taking on a deranged green glow as he grimaced in anger and arrogant hate.

'_They have both betrayed me and lied to me from the very start. I proclaimed my love to Mandy over and over again, and instead of submitting to my will like she was supposed to, she beat me to a bloody pulp for no reason other than to see me suffer! And then Billy thought he would get his slice of me! And Max was in on it from the beginning, and that filthy demon spawn Junior. They made a pact to destroy me. They'll pay. Soon I will make them all pay. Soon they and the rest of the inferior life forms around me will learn to respect the will of their lord and master!'_

He rose and quietly exited his dark room to make his way down the stairs. He made sure to suppress his vampire features, also urging the possessed linen bandages of his mummy half back down as he made his presence known to his family.

"Hey grandpa yo." He greeted in a dull voice.

"Hey there champ. So like Dracula was saying, Dracula gonna explain the scrape and lick for a fourth time for dummies with hearing problems.

He sat at the far end of the table as the dinner began. Whilst everyone around him was busy passing bowls and plates of food and chattering endlessly amongst themselves, he retreated back to sink into the fowl black cesspool that had completely eclipsed his mind.

'_I will strike first. I'll kill Billy in his sleep, and once he is dead, I will take Mandy and force her to submit. She will come to respect my authority over time. A good beating should put her in her place. I'll make her submit to me in whatever way I wish. Yes, I'll wait until her parents are out of town and she is asleep, then I'll knock her out, take her somewhere we can be alone, and then mark her permanently as mine! I will soon break her will to resist! After all, I'm the vampire pharaoh. I am the one and only god. Mandy's sole purpose like all women is to please my every whim. But with her strong will to resist it will be so much more satisfying to break and humiliate her.'_

"Heh heh..." He sniggered darkly, no one else at the table noticing how his eyes once more glazed over with sick fantasies.

'_She will serve me as a one bitch harem!'_ A hideous, sick smirk crept across his face. Irwin's canines extended out as his skin became pallid and cold, his eyes returning to their light green state as his demonic features returned to set in place permanently.

His unspeakable thoughts of divinity and rape along with every one else's conversations were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door.

"Who would come over at this time, in this weather?" Dick asked out loud as he stood from the table and walked to the front door to the house. Putting his eye to the peephole he looked to see who it was, only to find the darkness of the storm veiled everything in shadow.

Turning the doorknob he cautiously opened the door inwards to face whoever had called. Looking out into the darkness and cold of the night he could make out only the dimensions of the overhang, beyond which everything was swallowed up in total blackness. Scanning what little he could see of the entrance the man looked into the deep void in front of him, searching for anyone or anything that could be hidden within.

From out of the depths of the void a strange shape began to emerge, an undefined object that at first glance appeared to be a mere phantom, an element of the darkness itself. But slowly the shape emerged from the darkness into the light of the doorway, revealing itself to be a relatively small figure, the contours of an all encompassing black hood covering the head of what could only be described as a living shadow looking back at him in silence.

The last thing the man in his early forties saw was a hand cloaked in a dark halo shooting forwards, striking him over the heart with two fingers.

The other occupants turned to gape in shock as the older man fell to the ground dead. Sparing no notice to the body the dark figure stepped over Dick's corpse, drew its pistol from under the cloak and stepped into the dining room. Around the table each of the occupants continued to stare at it in shock, eyes wide with terror having seen Dick's slumped body on the ground, followed by the sight of a pistol in its gloved hand.

Cold, pitiless eyes regarded the witnesses before them, taking only an instant to methodically scan each face. After only a moment of surveying the horror struck group it locked its eyes onto the terrified figure of its fourth and final target as he sat at the end of the table, staring into the shadow of the hood in mute horror as it made to deal death again.

* * *

**Some ideal theme music for the characters:**

**Mandy-Prayer by Disturbed (anything by Disturbed really), Slow Chemical by Finger Eleven, Days of Revenge by Ramallah.**

**Billy (so far, will evolve in the future)-Shut Me Up and Insane in the Brain by MSI, Twisted Transistor by Korn.**

**Nergal Junior-Erase and Rewind by The Cardigans.**

**The Spectre-Escape from the Hospital (And T1000) from Terminator 2 Judgement Day.**

**On the subject of Junior I'm moulding him sort of along the lines of Alan Rickman's character Hans Gruber in Die Hard, hence the semi-German accent and greater style and sophistication. I saw an amv on youtube for Hans Gruber set to this song so I figured why not. ****I just always felt there was a lot of untapped potential in Junior that was never explored so I'm interested to see how this new sophisticated Junior's gonna work out.**

**Also the three people who were killed in Townsville were just three randoms, not the Powerpuff Girls. They will have their own small part in this fic thouugh it will be at the very end. Just wanted to make that clear.**

**By now you some of you might have sensed that Grim, Billy and Mandy's time in their comfortable, safe lives in Endsville are coming to an end. If you thought that you'd be right. The issue of the mysterious veiled killer, as well as Mandy's indecision over Billy will come to a head soon so enjoy the familiar characters and scenery while it lasts.**


	9. A Disturbing Proposal

**I really feel like I dropped the ball on this one. Every time I rread it over it just didn't seem to inspire suspense or stir me up like I hoped it would. Problem is I can't figure out how normal people talk, so I'm always wondering if I'm making the characters sound wooden. Half the time it eels like I'm just waffeling over the same thing over and over again. Oh well, hopefully you won't find it too much like eating a big plate of beans.**

**Tell me what you think anyway, with your input maybe I can improve. Ta!**

* * *

**A Disturbing Proposal.**

The next morning.

The first thing to come to the young boy's mind was the sound of sirens permeating his ears, restarting his consciousness from his night's sleep.

'_Is that police going by?'_

Billy cracked open an eye, still groggy from sleep. His room was now lit by the early Sunday morning sun. It made him wince slightly at the bright yellow glare. Sometimes he vaguely disliked sunlight, and this was chiefly the time he did so straight after he awoke. Raising himself up in the bed he glanced to his window where he could still hear the sound of multiple sirens now fading into the distance.

He thought nothing more of it as he pulled himself out of bed, flexing his neck and rolling his bare shoulders, moving to the cupboard to select his clothes and made his way into the bathroom. He spent half an hour in the shower, enjoying the calming effect of the hot water running down over his tense muscles. All the worry he felt for Mandy's troubled state of mind and the madness that was overtaking the world all washed away with the relaxing flow over his body. Whatever fatigue and disparagement he may have felt from waking up became replaced with the same energetic reactor of fun and destructive glee he always fostered within himself.

With a confident smirk he got dressed and headed downstairs to start the day, ready to spread some kind of anarchy to disrupt the petty little lives of Endsville's many lazy and idiotic citizens. He stepped into the living room where his mother and father were already sitting at the table facing Grim, themselves often the targets of some of his more harmless pranks. Taking his seat at the he poured a bowl of something bright and colourful bearing a faint resemblance to cereal and chowed down with all the ravenous hunger of a nearly teenage boy.

"Hey guyfs. Hoifya Grib." He gurgled through the slush in his mouth.

"Hello Billy." Grim answered sounding dejected and miserable. Swallowing the sugary food Billy looked to see his companion looking as grim as his namesake as he balanced a cup of coffee in one hand while propping up his skull on the other.

"Busy last night were we?" Billy shovelled another scoop of his breakfast into his gaping maw.

"I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. I was up all night after… another job."

"Jeesh, dibn't mow swigin a big shtik waz so bmuch…" He swallowed the crunchy slurry of chemicals and dangerous toxins. "… effort." He scooped up another heap of cereal and shovelled it into his mouth, chewing loudly. From out of the corner of his eye he spotted his parents beside him. He noticed for the first time the look of concern on their faces, looking back and fourth from them with worry. He slowed the action of his jaw as he first began to sense that something was wrong.

Grim gave a long sigh of disparagement and ran his fingertips across his cranium. "Billy, last night Irwin and his entire family were murdered."

Needless to say Billy had now stopped chewing and was gaping wide eyed at him in shock.

He swallowed the sugary garbage and turned to him. "What! Killed? How! Why!" Grim had never seen the little goofball's face freeze and get so alarmingly serious so suddenly before. Billy continued to look to him for answers, eyes wide at the deaths of people who he had once been friends with.

'_Looks like Irwin got what was coming, not like the rest of his family though.'_ A pit formed in his stomach as he thought of the loss of the good people. While Irwin's death made it safer for Mandy, Junior and he, his family was a different story altogether. He knew of how they had tried as hard as possible to turn the deranged boy around on the right track again.

"They were killed around seven last night. Irwin, his parents, Dracula and Tanya, they're all dead. I arrived just after it happened. Dracula was the only one who needed reaping because he was so stubborn."

Billy stood and paced quickly over to the television. Switching it on he immediately cycled through to the morning news, where upon it was confirmed, an image of Irwin's house surrounded by police coming up.

"_-we can tell so far it appears the victims were killed between six and nine o'clock last night, as given by their loss of temperature."_ Spoke a pompous, buffoonish police commissioner. Billy knew the act well, he and his depraved colleagues wanting to put forward a front of professionalism for the camera. It insulted him that he would choose to do so in such a situation.

"_So far we've yet to find a murder weapon, and the mysterious heart wounds sustained by two of the victims remains unexplained, though we have deduced that the other three were killed by a gun."_ From their spot standing by the television they each heard the sound of running footsteps approaching rapidly from outside.

Leaving the television Grim willed his scythe to materialise in his hand just in case as he moved to open the door, revealing a panting and worried Mandy. She looked severely shaken, so unlike her usually hard and controlling self, a clear sign of just how serious the matter really was for them.

"It's him isn't it, the guy who killed those people in Townsville." Her breathing was somewhat laboured. She had actually run the whole way to get here from her house upon getting the news over the TV just moments ago.

Grim nodded as he let her inside. "I'm afraid so."

"So he's here, now in Endsville?" Mandy's voice waivered slightly from a rare sense of fear as she thought of the mysterious, powerful killer. Billy rounded the corner upon hearing her voice. He suddenly found himself grateful that he could see her standing there safe and unharmed, knowing it could just as easily have been either of them instead of Irwin.

"I got dere immediately after it happened. Whoever did it was gone, but there were the same energy wounds to the victims' hearts, just like de ones in Townsville." The nervous trio sat down at the table as Grim explained, Billy now having forgotten his breakfast. "Irwin and his father were killed with energy strikes to the chest, while everyone else was killed by bullets to de heart."

The kids listened in silence. Though by now they had gotten used to paranormal threats, Mandy especially so, neither of them had never dealt with the death of someone close to them before, and it was a shakeup for them both. While Irwin definitely wasn't a friend of theirs anymore, the fact that they had shared a long history together remained, and their relationship with his family had stayed positive even as their son decayed into madness. For Grim it was the loss of Dracula, a childhood idol and partial friend of his which hit hardest. Furthermore not only were they one time compatriots but Irwin's house was just ten minutes walk from theirs. It was how close to home the killer had struck now that had them all so caught off guard.

"Why would anyone go after Irwin?" Billy thought out loud. "I mean I know he's a deluded asshole but I don't think that would make someone wanna kill him unless they had a personal reason."

"He was a vampire and a mummy, so it could be someone hunting demons or after his power or something." Mandy suggested, prompting a new train of thought. "If that's it then what about the Nergals? They could be next on the list. And what about us?"

"I doubt it. Dem oder folks in Townsville weren't powerful or special. Dey were just nobodies. Don't worry, we'll just wait for whatever's doing this to show itself, den we'll go blow it to bits if necessary."

"That would be a really stupid idea. If this thing ever comes after us then we'll probably never get any warning. We'd be dead moments after it revealed itself. What are we supposed to do then?" Mandy answered.

"Yeah, I don't wanna get killed in my sleep or ambushed when I'm alone." Billy added. "Plus we'd always have to keep looking over our shoulders. That doesn't appeal to me much."

"Billy in case you haven't noticed-"

"Yes, we're going to have to do that from now on anyway." Mandy finished, her apprehension giving way to a feeling of frustration. In the last half hour their lives had just gotten as tense as they had been in the hard times. All the struggle and hard work they had to go through to get this far had all been swept away, and for Mandy it angered her to no end.

"I'm going to call Junior." She said as she got up, walked to the phone on the wall and dialled the number for the enormous caverns located somewhere within the mantle beneath them. She waited a moment before it was answered.

"_Yello?"_ A slightly British voice spoke from the other end, the voice of Nergal Senior.

"It's Mandy. Put Junior on." She ordered bluntly. Without fuss the elder demon called for his son.

"_Mandy?"_

"Yeah. Listen Junior, we have a problem. Something's happened and I need you and your family to come up here right away."

"_Wait what are you talking about? What's happened?"_

"Irwin's dead. He and his family were all killed last night." Mandy spoke without pause. It wasn't hard for her to sense her friend's shock through the line.

"_They're dead! Who did this? Why?"_ His disbelief was clearly evident in his voice, though she sensed there was little apparent grief considering what a lowlife he had become.

"Listen, there's a chance he may have been killed for his powers. If that's it is then you could be next. You and your family should get up here so we can talk about this."

"_Alright. We'll meet you there."_

"I'll see you soon."

Mandy hung up the phone as Junior went to explain everything he knew to his father and mother. Within minutes they had boarded their drill car and were boring their way towards the surface.

* * *

Later that morning.

Billy and Mandy, Grim, Harold and Gladys were soon joined by the arrival of the Nergals as they gathered at Billy's house. Shortly after Mandy's parents Phil and Claire had also made the quick walk across to join them. A little while later and she heard another knock. Opening it she found Max standing there, his face somewhat more restrained than his usual optimism. She was perplexed, no one had ever called for him.

"Is what they said on the news true? Are they really all dead?" Billy and the others looked to the door as Mandy nodded and let him in.

"Does all dese people gathered here talking about it answer yer question?" Grim retorted. Max sighed and lowered his head as Mandy's closed the door behind him, the concerned group milling around the living room away from the television which still played the news softly. Raising the remote Harold pointed it at the screen, a flash of static interference crossing it before he turned it off.

"Do you guys know anything that I don't?"

"We're pretty sure it's the guy who killed those people in Townsville." Mandy spoke from her position at the living room table, immediately taking charge as she usually did.

"How do you know?" Max responded to her answer.

"Grim said there was strange energy left on the victims. Irwin and his father were killed with a blow to the heart using this energy, but the others were killed with gunshots to the heart. They were all the same, all precisely attacking the heart."

"It's de same ting as those people in Townsville, de same energy and calibre of bullet. Dere was no trace of de killer when I got there but apparently whoever did it just walked in through the door after Irwin's father opened it." Grim remembered the water on the floor going past the man's body. "The killer just walked in from the rain, killed dem, and walked out again with no witnesses. It looked like Irwin tried to put up a fight cause he was in his vampire-mummy state when I found him, but it looks like de killer made short work of him."

Everyone was silent for a moment in thought when Junior spoke up.

"So what do we do? We've got a professional killer on the loose and we have no idea who's next on the list."

Again there was universal silence.

"Maybe we should take a break away from home for the night, just in case whoever it is comes to pay us a visit." Aunt Sis spoke up. To her this whole turn of events, shocking and tragic as they may be, were something completely new to her oftentimes mundane life. The fact they were in danger bought a sudden kick of adrenaline, a giddy thrill and excitement she had not experienced since her high school days.

_'That and the night Junior was conceived... Heh... Heh heh...'_ Her head was suddenly dizzy with somewhat sleazy thoughts about her husband. Nergal picked up on this due to the smirk across her lips as she eyed his figure up and down. Their son also recognised the signs with alarm and made to try and stop them before any humiliation could take place.

"What motel would take us in? You and dad won't have any trouble since there's no publicity on you but I'm known and hated across the entire country." Junior lamented dourly, hoping to break up their fantasies. "Everyone knows about Endsville's 'demon child'. They don't seem to care that I've saved their lives several times over, they just hate me anyway. Where are we supposed to go when I can barely set foot outside without getting a bottle thrown at me?" As unhappy as Junior's words were his parents still could'nt help but remain set on their own tangent.

"Well perhaps Junior could stay the night here if that's not any problem?" Nergal suggested with a sleazy smirk to his wife who returned it in full. Junior just buried his head in his hand in something similar to disgust and anguish, mixed together in a bucket, eaten, and vomited back up. His sobering story of woe didn't seem to have worked if the queasiness in his organs had anything to say about it.

"Oh that shouldn't be any hassle, we've had Mandy over plenty of times." Gladys answered them. "In fact we had her over just last week."

Mandy noticed Max turn to look across to her questioningly. She lowered her gaze away from his, slightly uncomfortable about the fact that she had started having sleepovers at Billy's again. She just wanted to enjoy the last days she had with him before she dropped him and went on alone. Surely there wasn't anything wrong with that right? After all, it wasn't like she enjoyed spending time alone with him. Thankfully Max looked away again, releasing her from the pressure of their collective scrutiny. She got the feeling he would be bringing the subject up again later. For now they went back to the matter at hand.

"Grim should stay over at Billy's house so if someone comes up there he will defend them. I can more than take care of myself so I have no use for him as a guard." She instructed, confident in her abilities to wake at the slightest hint of a threat, ready to destroy whatever danger presented itself.

"Alright, we'll pick up Junior in the morning." Nergal added "I'll ready the Nerglings at home so if anyone goes there they won't come out." He motioned for his wife to come.

"See you tomorrow son." He patted Junior on the head with a grin. Junior rolled his green eyes skywards.

"See you later dad. Have fun." He added sarcastically.

"Oh we will, heh heh…". They both ran off to the car, dropping the drill and racing off down the street in a hurry. Junior groaned in despair at his parent's antics. He somehow doubted what they did over the coming hours could accurately be described as 'making love'. Billy however giggled at his despair.

"Hee hee, you're parents are pervs." Suddenly he gagged with laughter as he continued. "What does your dad do with his tentacles?"

After a moment of simply unbearable silence Junior face planted into the floor, Mandy planted her face into her hands, and Max gagged and chocked. Everyone else's mouths just hung open as Billy roared with laughter, writhing on the floor while struggling to breathe through his screams and howls. Mandy tried to think of mushroom clouds before a very disturbing thought entered her head. Max appeared to have tried too late and shuddered in revulsion presumably at some unknown though likely extremely unwelcome image.

"Guuuhhhh…" Junior groaned pitifully as he writhed on the floor, stripped of the sophistication and dignity he usually carried himself with as Billy continued to shriek and howl in his insane laughter.

* * *

Afternoon.

Mandy's parents left a few hours before she did, leaving her to do little more than sit around Billy's house watching daytime television beside him, Junior and Max. Neither of them felt quite right to watch a movie or play games following the recent unsettling events. Later that day, when the sky over Endsville began to turn a dull orange with the lowering sun and smog haze, Mandy herself left to go back to her house where her parents were probably waiting for her authoritative presence.

Closing the door she noticed a small poster stuck onto the face of the wood. Pulling it off she examined the note with disdain.

'DEATH TO THE RACE TRAITORS!'

They popped up once a week or so, though neither of them had ever found out who was responsible. She tossed it aside contemptuously and resumed walking back to her house.

As she made her way out to the concrete path she heard the door open behind her. Turning she saw Max leaving the house and step towards her. She watched him approach, continuing on ahead as he caught up to her, walking alongside of her as she made her way back at her own steady pace.

"Why are you still looking after Billy?" He's nothing but a burden to you." Max questioned her immediately. Mandy didn't turn to face him, instead keeping her face set in an iron mask as she scowled straight ahead. "You've started having sleepovers at his place again, and you ordered Grim to protect him when you should have used him to protect you. Why?"

She shrugged slightly. "He's useful to me. He's a good minion and he shares my enthusiasm for burning things."

"Billy has nothing to offer you other than attachment. He's not worth endangering your life and your future when all he can do is bring you drinks." He retorted in a cool yet blunt manner, pressuring her as she continued regardless. "What good is he to you to warrant keeping him around?"

Mandy turned to give him a hard glare. "I don't have to explain myself to you!" She snapped angrily.

"I know you don't." Max replied as he relented somewhat. "I know you want to enjoy the last of you're time with him while he's still there, but all you're doing is just delaying the inevitable. That's not strength."

"I'll do it when I want to do it and no sooner, you got that?" She spoke with a threatening tone. Naturally however it didn't seem to work on Max, him keeping pace with her as she walked.

"You have to understand that the emotional attachment you have for Billy is a very dangerous thing for someone like you. The longer you wait around, the more time you spend close to him, the stronger that attachment will become. Every day you put off dropping him your chains get heavier. They'll crush you in the end." His words held weight and importance which impressed their message upon the girl.

Mandy knew exactly what he was saying, but the idea of actually leaving him right now made her uncomfortable. As much as she loathed to admit it she still wanted to enjoy the last moments she had with him.

"I know what I'm doing alright. Don't bother telling me what to do; you don't have control over me." She turned to keep walking, Max following beside her still.

"Mandy I know I can't demand you do this. All I can giving you is the right advice. My job is to make you see the truth, even when you don't want to face it. Now you already know what you have to do so I'm not going to repeat myself anymore." That said he walked in silence by her side as they made their way back to her house.

Stepping up to the entrance she paused and groaned inwardly again.

'DEATH TO THE RACE TRAITORS!'

Tearing it off she crushed it into a ball in her fist, tossing it into the bushes beside her, in which several dozen others lay. Opening the door she stepped inside, turning back to face Max again.

"How much do you want power?" He asked her softly. Her eyes widened, taken aback by the nature of his question as he went on. "How far would you go to get it?"

Giving him a questioning glare she gave her answer without hesitation. "I would do anything for power." Max nodded but continued.

"What would you sacrifice for power?" He spoke, drawing out and revealing all of her weaknesses from the cover of her control. "Would you sacrifice Billy?"

This time she kept her teeth clamped shut, staring into him hard as she tried to reign herself in and return her iron guard.

"I think the answer to that is obvious don't you?" She all but hissed out, her piercing icy stare warning him against any more attempts to probe her defences.

Relenting Max smiled and left. Mandy watched him walk away into the distance back the hour long journey to his apartment. She looked up to the sky, noticing the grey clouds above had started spitting rain again, the clouds moving to cover the harsh orange sky. The weather had taken a somewhat ominous turn the last few days, as if the invisible dark clouds just over the horizon were now overhead. She turned to go inside as she attempted to push the grim thoughts from her head and escape to some form of peace.

Max was deep in thought as he made the hour long journey back to his building.

'_She's not going to respond to me simply advising her on what to do. Persuading her has failed. She's too stubborn to listen to anyone else. I need to take more serious action or she will never leave him.'_

He did not speak a word to anyone or stop to look at anything as he returned to his grimy neighbourhood with his thoughts placed firmly on the matter at hand. On the outside he showed none of it, his face displaying the same carefree, light-hearted visage as he always did.

* * *

That evening was relatively quiet for all involved. Billy and Junior didn't bother looking for anything to do, instead they just sat watching television, Junior scanning through a copy of Time as the drizzling rain slowly increased.

"It feels like something's changed today doesn't it." Junior lamented as he glanced away to watch the drizzling rain outside. Billy didn't say anything, just watching the screen before him, an episode of Mysterious Mysteries playing. In truth though he couldn't have agreed more. The peace they had enjoyed the last few months was now over, and it hung like a heavy blanket over them both. Turning his head Billy also cast his gaze outside, the two youths sitting in quiet thought.

"Hey Junior." Billy spoke up. "What do you think your parents are doing right now?" Junior looked across and gave hin a revulted gape.

"Enough jokes."

Not far away Mandy was also gazing half-heartedly out at the rain pouring down outside. She was thinking about what Max had said, that it was time to let Billy go. The idea of just now dropping him like the lead weight he was still made her wince.

'_But if I don't leave him soon, then I never will, and I'll fail in my drive for power. I can't allow that. I'll have to start letting him go gradually. Oh why have I become so attached to thats idiot?'_ She let out a groan and held the bridge of her nose in frustration. _'Why is this all so hard?'_

Sinking down in the leather sofa she changed the channel of the TV, wherein she was greeted with more idiotic nationalist propaganda.

"Hey sweetheart. Another poster?" Her mother asked as she rounded the corner to her right, noticing her daughter's bleak state of mind. She gave a curt nod in response, never taking eyes off the screen as it gushed something about greater prosperity for all citizens before she muted it.

"It's nothing we haven't dealt with before. Why should we care what those insane little morons think?" She replied drawing a smirk to her mothers lips as her father joined them.

"We're gonna start getting dinner ready so what would you like? Sausages? Ravioli?" He asked her. She gave a wave of her hand.

"It's your kitchen."

Mandy's once cruel relationship with her parents had significantly improved in the past few years, though she still tented to be somewhat authoritarian with them whenever she felt they were stepping out of line, which wasn't often. She'd found that over time where once they'd been as materialistic and blissfully ignorant as most other people, they'd since come around to being far more active and driven in their work, and were starting to become more vocal against the injustices they saw happening around them. At times she almost felt a swell of pride for how they had come around, although she still kept their relationship cool and distant at all times.

Phil and Claire both left to go about their tasks, Mandy returning to the prior issue, bringing herself to look at the difficult situation reasonably. _'No, it can't possibly be that hard. It's just a stupid little friendship, something I would keep around out of nostalgia. Besides, I'm strong. I'm strong enough for this. This should be easy if I just look at it rationally instead of freaking out about it.'_

Nodding to herself she settled in for the evening, looking out to the grey sky outside her window. _'Still…'_

These convoluted thoughts continued into the night. She sat down to dinner around six. Ravioli again, she picked her way through slowly. Once she'd finished, savouring the last piece she handed them her plate and stepped away from the table without fuss.

She them made her way upstairs, procured a change of clothes for later and got into the shower, feeling the hot water open up her pores and wash away the tension she had been plagued by the entire disastrous day. The world always seemed a little bit less depressing when she was in the shower. After a relaxing half hour under the nozzle she got out, dried herself off, brushed her teeth, and fixed her hair up into her usual peaks without the headband. Putting on new underwear and her bike shorts she pulled on a short pink tee shirt which showed much of her arms and midriff, then made her way to her bed.

Lying back Mandy gently pulled the covers over her up to her shoulders and laid there in the darkness, taking in the feel of the cool fabric on her figure, the soft bed supporting her perfectly. She slowly began to drift off into the darkness, but was barred from complete sleep by a noise, an odd tap which echoed somewhere in the darkness.

She continued mellowing out in the cool darkness, but the strange, irritating tapping didn't cease, one taking place once every ten or so seconds. _'What is that? Is that some kind of insect or something? If it is I'll make sure it… no, it sounds familiar.'_ After another few moments thought she remembered from somewhere what the particular sound meant. _'A pebble on the window.'_

Lifting herself up Mandy switched on the bedside light, slipped out of the bed and opened the curtains to the dark world outside.

Below her standing alone in the dark was Max, his happy smile permeating the shadows of the night gloom. It was an odd sight really, that he would smile when the world around him was steeped in deep darkness and a harsh cold. It didn't quite add up. She couldn't help but feel there was something strange under that happy exterior, though as usual what it was remained concealed.

"Max? What are you doing out here?" She called down in a hushed tone.

"Get dressed. We're going out for a walk." He spoke with an authority masked by his polite nature. It wasn't really a question, more an important command she should follow for her own benefit.

"What? Why? It's late." The sky was beginning to clear, but there were still no stars visible. The air was bitterly cold even on the inside of the glass.

"We're going to have a little talk, somewhere no one will be able to hear us." The thought of being alone, unguarded, with no possible witnesses…

'_No, I have the scythe, plus I can trust Max. No one would take on both of us at the same time. This sound's important as well.'_

"Alright. But if this is a waste of my time, you're going to be in an extremely uncomfortable place very soon."

She left the window, got dressed back into her day clothes and headed down to the darkness outside, careful to avoid making any noise as she crept down the stairway, opened the door and shut it behind her. Off to the side of the house stood Max, the pale moonlight illuminating his kind features before it became cloaked by the clouds rolling in.

"Where are we going?" She asked him, while the moon gave glimpses of its presence through the clouds.

"An old abandoned house half an hour from here."

"Why?"

"The nationalists know you oppose them, they could have this street under surveillance. There we can guarantee no one will listen in on us so we can discuss something in private." His voice held a soft and reassuring quality, but it still didn't ease the lingering anxiety she felt. "Just follow me okay?"

He turned and began walking down the pathway away from her and Billy's house. She followed him, barely able to see him in the darkness. The concrete surface felt foreign to her, as she could barely see it through the gaps in the street lights glow. Nevertheless she followed him from one patch of light to another under the dark sky. The lights in the houses were all out as everyone was asleep by now, the silence broken only by their footsteps on the concrete below them. Mandy again picked up on the rhythmic sense that accompanied the sound of Max's walk, the sharp taps of his black formal shoes striking the ground in a way almost intoxicating in its precise and even grace.

"You know Mandy," Max spoke up out of the still silence, "I have to say that after being around you more or less every day for the past four years, I've found you to have the most tenacious and persistent force of will I've ever seen in a person."

Mandy raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"You never get tired or give up, and you never back down from a challenge no matter how great. You have courage and strength. It's such a shame you let yourself go soft." Now Mandy was genuinely interested.

"What are you saying? Don't talk crap you idiot, I'm the same as I've always been." She retorted firmly. Max turned his head slightly to glance back at her as he continued onwards.

"Are you sure about that?" He asked, Mandy going quiet in thought as he continued. "You still haven't been able to take full control of your own sentiments yet have you?"

Her eyes flickered, darting away at the mention of her weakness whilst wondering how much he knew. Though he hadn't even been facing her he'd sensed her subtle reaction almost instinctively.

"I see the truth behind you. I know how desperately you try to convince yourself that you are in control, that you aren't attaching yourself to the people around you while trying in vain to will away the faults that are tearing you apart inside. I see how you try to wean yourself off the sentiments that keep you up at night, trying to gradually break your dependency on the care and affection of those around you, people like your parents, like Billy." He spoke in a relaxed voice, not accusing or heavy, just stating what they both knew to be true. "You let yourself become too content with your comfortable life, and it's made you weak."

His words said Max once again fell silent, leaving Mandy to think quietly on his short sermon. She narrowed her eyes, looking down to the black pavement beneath her feet as they went on, the only sound now coming from the ever-present rhythm of Max's sharp footsteps as she led him onwards.

And still she kept walking, following him blindly ever deeper into the darkness of the suburbs further out. From where she stood she couldn't recognise anything around her. This was an alien part of the city to her, despite knowing that she had probably been around here on some occasion. Indeed somewhere in the back of her head she felt as if she had been here before a long time ago, the memory having since faded. This unknowing state of wandering deeper and deeper into the ethereal gloom continued for just a short wile longer, until the clouds opened up and the moon shone its cold, blue-white light on an old place she had come to know well from just one event long ago.

The Doolin house stood out in the moonlight, far away from the streetlights, cloaked in the chilling grip of the freezing night air, each of its long since derelict features lit up in a ghostly mixture of pail blues, brilliant white and deep inky blackness.

Mandy stopped in her place looking up at the stark image. All throughout her body a bitter chill swept through, every hair on her skin standing on end for a moment as she regarded the place sitting just beyond the broken fence.

'_Something's different.'_

There was something about this place as it stood now that had definitely not been there when she originally came nearly five years before. The first time she'd come to this house she had felt the presence of something unnatural, something haunting, but only after the house had been revealed in its true state when she left. The feeling of something unnatural residing within was there now, but it was nothing like what she'd felt before. The house stood now like a chilling void in the fabric of reality, a feeling that inside its walls the warmth and light of their universe came to an end. For Mandy it felt like she was staring into the cold empty maw of a black hole, distorting and swallowing everything around it, sucking it all in where it too would join the unnaturally pail and bitter world within. She could feel it taking the gravity out from under her, pulling her into its far reaching gravitational field, her feet standing still while her mind fell into the well, falling into the madness beyond. Acting before it could swallow her completely she set her features, willing herself back away from the event horizon, managing to forcibly drag herself all the way back from the brink.

Max led her through a hole in the decaying fence, Mandy steeling her nerves now that she was free of its influence to follow him in, picking through the dry grass until they came out into an empty pathway. From there Max led her onward past the remains of an old scarecrow, to another path which led directly to the entrance of the decaying mansion, Mandy following him all the way just a few steps behind as he walked up towards it. Reaching the middle of the empty path he stopped dead in his tracks. Watching him closely she scrutinized and examined him suspiciously before he turned around to stare her straight in the eye.

Mandy's heart froze over. For only the second time in her life she was seeing the strange other side of Max, only now those bitterly cold, unnatural black eyes were staring right into hers.

"Do you remember what I said before, about how you are going to need a right hand?" Max spoke in a cold flat voice. Mandy just stared back silently, just listening.

"… Yeah." She answered at last anxiously.

"I have a proposition for you. I will be your right hand. Under your control I will serve you as your second in command and will work towards advancing your ambition. Once in power I will continue to serve your will and destroy any threats to your position." He put forth with an even tongue, his stone cold features betraying no hint of emotion.

Mandy was lost for words. She had never been faced with such a serious and momentous matter before. Though at its most simple it was an offer to join her, it was the finality of it, that if she chose wrong now she may never get another chance that pressed upon her. She soon found herself paralysed by the dark nature of the figure standing before her, and the sheer gravity of what he was proposing, all the while she found herself being drawn into the two perfect black voids looking into her, both limitless in their power and determination, and yet so absolutely cold and detached in their method.

"You want me to make you my second in command?" She managed to speak at last, recovering to some semblance of her usual controlled persona. "Why should I do that?" Max didn't react in the slightest to the anxiety buried in her voice.

"You've become weak with your attachment to Billy. You cannot succeed on your own anymore. If you try you will fail and be killed." He spelled out to her in a manner she could not quite bring herself to deny. "You need me. My loyalty to you and my combat abilities have already been proven in battle. With me at your disposal we can work together towards accomplishing your ambitions."

Mandy was disturbed by the pulsating aura of harsh and cold malevolence emanating from her previously pleasant and kind friend. And yet those two deep dark eyes so similar to her own held an intoxicating quality, as if she wanted to dive into the abyss and just fall endlessly into the darkness and power they held within. She could already feel it, making her feel great and terrible, powerful enough to rise up and crush the contemptuous free world under her merciless steel fist.

"But before I will join you there is one thing you must do first."

She held her breath. The moonlight was lighting up his face, the eyes as bitterly cold and unfeeling as a Siberian blizzard. Automatically she felt the hairs all over her body stand on end. Mandy could instantly tell by his hard demeanour that it was to be a serious sacrifice. Only one thing came to mind.

He spoke without a trace of emotion, devoid of any care or compassion whatsoever. "You must leave Billy immediately. Cut him out of your life. Sever all connection to him, and then I will serve you."

At the mention of leaving Billy then and there she gave out a long and shaking sigh, closing her eyes as she took a step back away from her friend. As much an opportunity it was she simply could not accept this offer. The way he stared at her in such an uncaring way gave her a foreboding feeling deep within, as if the lingering sense of paranoia she had occasionally felt had come and manifested itself. Her instincts of fight and flight were telling her to get away from what she was beginning to feel was a threat regardless of their history together. Max noticed as she began to distance herself from him, loosening the piercing stare he had confronted her with. Mandy saw the stone face of the stranger before her fade away, replaced by the benevolent features of the young man who had befriended her.

"Mandy," His voice was now kind and caring, a soft smile shown on his face once more, "I know you're afraid, I know you don't want to give up your friendship with Billy, but you more than anyone should know deep down what I'm saying is true. You have nothing to be afraid of. I know what I'm asking of you sounds like a lot to have to face, you've never experienced life on your own before, but there's no point in fearing what you don't understand. And even though Billy's been good to you for most of your life, either way you'll have to leave him sooner or later, and I can be far more use to you than Billy, Grim or your parents ever could be." He leaned in to look her in the eye once more with his kind gaze.

"Don't let them hold you back. You can be so much more than this, and I can give it to you…" From his side he extended his pale hand for her to take, a symbolic message of a union between two living bastions of darkness and power. "… if you'll let me."

But Mandy could not be swayed by his inviting gestures or the limitless potential his words promised. The welcoming expression in his eyes and face that had once radiated warmth and friendliness now seemed to her as no more welcoming than a mask, underneath which remained the same detached stare he'd scrutinised her with before.

"No." She stated firmly. "I don't _need_ your help as you so blatantly put it. This is _my_ operation, and I intend to do it _my way_. If I needed you then I would call on you myself. Don't ever talk to me like you control me." She sharpened her gaze at him as she began to turn away. "I'm going to pretend this little talk never happened so the status quo remains. For your sake you should do the same."

Max just looked back at her. His smile gradually slid from his face, a blank look of puzzlement taking its place. It showed not of hurt, but recognising and understanding of the refusal nonetheless. She turned away from him and willed her scythe into her hand and began channelling a small portion of its power through her body, her irises turning an orange-amber as she concentrated and drew the energy out. In front of her a red portal formed leading back to her room, towards which she made to step through.

"You're making a mistake." He spoke with a cold quality. Mandy paused and turned around to face him again, the rings of her irises still holding the spectral orange glow as she gave him a hard stare.

"Next time you want to patronise me I suggest you hold your tongue. If you ever call me weak to my face again, I'll take off your arm, then we'll see just how weak and spineless I've really become." Giving him a scowl she stepped through the portal right before it closed on itself.

Max watched her disappear without a flicker of emotion as high above the clouds again drifted across the moon, leaving the old decaying mansion and the silent figure beneath to be intermittently consumed in the cold dark depths of the night, until the moonlight pierced through again and illuminated the world in its ghostly glow once more.

'_This is unexpected.'_ He had not anticipated his offer to be turned down, nor had he planned on how to deal with it. Now he was left with a dilemma. He knew the girl had no interest in taking him on board as her second in command, and by pressing his ultimatum upon her he had inadvertently made it very likely she never would. What was he to do now? What happened next?

After a moment's thought Max started forward and left through the paths, exiting the hole in the fence out onto the footpath again. Standing alone amidst the stark blue-white gloom of the world he cast his gaze back in the direction they had come, the rows after rows of lower-middle class dwellings each identical to the last extending all the way into oblivion under the streetlights and the cold light from above. He continued to stare dispassionately towards where Mandy had disappeared to, turning to look up to the deep night sky overhead. Mandy had commented to him once that the night sky was so much like them both, a perfect analogy for everything they each stood for.

He locked his eyes on the near full moon out in the open, a heavy band of clouds coming in to conceal it once more. It's eerie pail electric blue light shone down on the lone boy, constant, even, calm, controlled, cold. Whereas both Mandy and he were likened to the night sky, only he was like the moon.

The solitary figure gazed up dispassionately at the moon for a few moments more as the clouds moved across to obscure it, surrounding and engulfing him in an endless black abyss of quiet solitude, before he turned to slowly, calmly walk away, as if nothing had happened at all.

* * *

**There you go, hope it satisfied. If not then I just wasted, what twenty minutes of your life? Heh heh! Tune in again next time cause next chapter everything that's been building will all come to a head when the proverbial Pandora's Box is opened on them all, and I don't mean the one they used in the show.**


	10. The Spectre of Shadow

**The Spectre of Shadow.**

The next day.

After a few hours of so-called learning the morning bell rang throughout the rotting hallways of the school, wherein each of the two hundred or so students were released and made their way in a long line towards the cafeteria.

Billy stepped through the doorway at the back of the pack, most of his peers, Mandy included, having already taken their food and found their seat. Beside him stood Junior, and beside him stood Piff, his appearance much the same as it was when they were young. Standing together they stepped through where the double doors used to be, taking their place in the line with tray in hand. Moving up quickly Billy stoped before the lunch lady. The ugly, wrinkled old woman in her fifties gave him a flat stare and dropped a slab of something resembling meatloaf onto his plate. He moved away, looking back to see the woman drop another piece onto Junior's tray, wherein she also spat in it, giving him a derisive glare.

"Bon appetite freak." The woman sneered hatefully as she moved on to Piff's.

"Bitch." Billy murmured under his breath and sat down next to Mandy, Junior depositing his lunch in the garbage where he and Piff joined them at the table. Mandy was absently poking the offending piece of food substitute with a tarnished metal fork, not trusting it enough today to risk eating it.

"Hey this afternoon can we slash her tyres?"

"Neh." Mandy mumbled in response, wrapped up in her own troubled thoughts.

'_How am I supposed to leave him now that the bonds are so well attached? I know that if I don't leave him he will make me weak, but how can I forcibly push him out of my life and continue to keep him out until the attachment is gone. And how long will it take to break this god damn chain I have to him huh? A week? A year? Could it ever truly be broken, or will I just be torn by the loss forever?'_

He looked at her concerned before turning to his lunch. He could see little bits of something pail yellow in it, possibly sawdust or some ground up grain of some sort. Giving it a poke the heap suddenly split down the middle, crumbling into some dry pile of artificial aggregate which even by sight they could tell was irritating to the stomach.

Mandy, Piff and he joined Junior in pushing their trays aside. Even if it hadn't been inedible they probably wouldn't have touched it, due simply to the nature of the cafeteria. Everything in sight was old and grimy, the tables and cutlery were tarnished, the trays cracked, the walls turning a greeny brown with leaking plumbing and mould. The very air carried with it an almost overpowering smell of sweatiness and garbage. It was a damp smell that left a sickly sweet taste in his mouth, like that of something fermenting.

Then there were the people.

Since his awakening to the ways of the world Billy had taken a notice to the behavioural patterns of various individuals, and had even been able to organise them into separate groups based on their thoughts and actions. Looking around behind him he faced a table full of girls, including Mindy and her arch rival Trixie Tang, who had moved here a few months back and had quickly replaced her as top of the popularity ladder. Currently one of the dozen or so other girls, the name of which he didn't know or care about, was mouthing off about something.

What he noticed most was the particular way she spoke. Her mouth was opening and closing constantly with an endless stream of unintelligible words seemingly without pause for thought or breath, her lips opening and closing in a similar way to the mouth of a fish. After a minute of listening he was able to discern that she was talking about how her parents hadn't gotten her an iMirror for her birthday, and how it was the fault of the Jews and the Mexicans for stealing their money. Of course he could only figure this out after she'd repeated it three or four times over in the same minute, neither the girl herself nor the others around her noticing she was stuck on a loop.

Trixie and Mindy did of course, but they weren't going to say anything. This was how the social structure worked here. The rich and pretty girls used their parent's wealth to set the standards of status, which everyone below immediately tried to imitate. They were the ringleaders, and though they were themselves vain, stupid and bigoted, though not as much in Trixie's case, they did possess a vague edge in intelligence above their inferiors. The girl currently talking was one of the followers, which comprised eighty percent of the student population. Their job was, simply put, to be mindless and unthinking, to follow and agree with everything their ringleaders said without so much as a glimmer of intelligent thought or scepticism.

The pattern was similar with the boys, though instead of wealth, status and beauty their social strata was determined by who was the strongest and the cruellest, with the one being able to inflict the most amount of pain and suffering on innocent people being top dog. Sperg was of course the ringleader of their group, having tortured and killed several household pets as well as setting fire to one disabled man. Most of the boys in the school tried to imitate him, thereby establishing their place as followers.

Below the followers of course were the outcasts, otherwise known as themselves. They were the ones who somehow didn't conform, either being too weak or too unattractive, belonging to a supposedly inferior race, or in their case being race traitors. Mandy and he were lucky to have been able to escape direct confrontation, their vast numbers of enemies warded off largely by the evil girl and her scythe, but that had not saved them from being targets from their scorn and hatred, not that they cared. Mandy seemed to take it almost as a compliment that they weren't like them. Most others of course weren't so lucky.

"Where's Max?" Piff asked, drawing Billy's attention back to the table. "Isn't he usually here by now?"

"Hey yeah, I saw him in class. He hasn't said a word to us or anyone." He commented in thought. Mandy however kept her face low, her jaw balanced on her fist with a look of tire and trouble on her features. "He's still friendly and nice like he always is, but… it's like he's become sorta distant, know what I mean?"

"I've noticed. He's been withdrawn all day." She answered him. "I'm pretty sure he's avoiding us."

"Max doesn't usually change that much, he's always consistent. It's not like him to suddenly become so quiet all of a sudden." Junior added.

"Why is he avoiding us? Was it Irwin and his family?" Billy continued. Mandy remained still for a moment before giving a small shake of her head.

"Last night he and I had a little talk. He proposed we enter a… business partnership. I turned him down, and told him I'd do it my way." She neglected to inform them of the other part of the deal, how she was to drop Billy like the deadweight he was. After all, she still intended to abandon him, and was planning to do so shortly. "I guess he's still sore about being refused."

Billy knotted his brow at this. "Just for that? What kind of deal was it anyway?" Mandy in turn looked to him with a clear warning in her stare.

"A _business deal."_ She all but spelled out for him.

This time they each got the message perfectly. _'Don't ask. If anyone finds out they'll kill us all.'_

It was at this time that Grim materialised next to their table in a swirl of black flame, adding a little more to the big black burn mark on the floor and the ceiling. Mandy snarled as he withdrew four bags of fast food from his cloak.

"Took your friggin time! Do you know what they serve here?" She barked angrily, causing Grim to grizzle in response

"You're welcome! Four burgers! You little brats outta be grateful I didn't go to that Bloaty's Pizza joint instead!" He dumped the bags down in front of them, then paused. "Where's dat little Goth weirdo?"

"Piff's right here." Junior answered.

"No de creepy weirdo."

"Junior's right here." Piff answered.

"Max! Where is Max?"

"Not here, which is were you should be, so beat it!" Mandy barked. All at once she remembered the fulfilling feeling of stamping someone down in their place.

"Gruh! Little…" Grim disappeared in the same manner he arrived as the four opened their bags and took out their food.

Pausing Mandy looked out to the doorway previously blocked by Grim. There stood Max, his onyx eyes gazing at her across the cafeteria. She watched and waited, seeing if he was going to join them or not. Instead of making his way towards them Max continued on down the hallway, disappearing from view. Billy, Junior and Piff halted, looking at her as she turned her focus back to them, face still blank in thought.

"Don't worry about Max. He'll be fine by tomorrow." She answered at last, setting the group at ease.

* * *

Contrary to what Mandy had predicted Max didn't come around as she said he would.

Strangely his quiet, withdrawn behaviour continued throughout the next day. He still hadn't spoken to either of them before, during or after school on Tuesday, nor did they see him during either of their breaks. On the outside he still appeared as friendly and polite as he always had, except for the fact he wasn't actively reaching out to contact them, subtly keeping his distance throughout the entire day.

This continued throughout the rest of the week, getting noticeably more withdrawn with each passing day. Throughout Wednesday not only did they not see him during their breaks but they hadn't seen him before school either, only ever setting sights on him while in class, and even then he seemed to be shrinking back out of sight somehow. Gradually they each saw his demeanour getting quieter. He no longer talked to anyone in class, not even the teacher. He kept his face down in his books at all times, preferring to simply study or take time out than participate in anything. The teacher didn't mind of course, he sat in his chair, drunk from having to take them two years in a row after Eleanor Butterbean had died in a drink driving accident. After school he had simply vanished from that part of town, presumably back to the slowly decaying hellhole of apartments and urban blight he called a neighbourhood.

On Thursday neither of the two had seen him at all during school hours. Not once did they see him arrive or getting his books ready, or at lunch, or in class, he had as far as they knew vanished. It was only that afternoon after they were dismissed when they were leaving the grounds that Mandy had caught a glimpse of him as he left the old building. He had taken one look at her and left without uttering a word. It was only from that single glimpse that they'd known he'd been there at all.

But like Mandy predicted, though his unusually quiet behaviour lasted much longer than she had expected, it didn't last forever.

It was early afternoon on Friday. Billy and Mandy were sitting at the same old table as they had for years, the cafeteria mostly empty now that most of the students were outside. They sat side by side in relative silence, both merely content to stay in each other's company while reflecting on the events of the week. A van bomb explosion in downtown Cleveland, courtesy of an Islamic Socialist group, had sparked off a subsequent wave of brutality against the already dwindling Islamic population. Following shortly after the government announced the blast was the fault of all minority groups, claiming that they had formed a pact against them, extending and multiplying the people's frenzied rage to their advantage.

From her spot leaning back in her seat Mandy glanced up as she noticed a familiar face, Billy raising his head to follow her gaze. Together they laid eyes on Max, the navy clad youth striding over towards them with the same look of quiet optimism. For a moment neither of them were quite sure if what they were seeing was real, even as he pulled out a chair and sat down in his place next to Irwin's old seat.

"Hi guys, how are we?" He greeted them with a happy air. They gazed at him surprised. He spoke like his disappearance over the past few days had never occurred.

"I'm good." Billy replied.

"Where have you been?" Mandy spoke up incredulously. "All week we've barely seen you, what's going on?

"Yeah are you gonna be all quiet and weird again today cause it's getting kinda old. I mean jeez, it's not really that big a deal. Mandy told me about your little offer and how she turned ya down and all, but what else did you expect? Come on Max, just get over it already. You're dragging us all down with ya." Max listened quietly as Billy finished, running a hand through his orange hair at having gotten a frustrating load off his chest. He smiled and turned his eyes to the tabletop.

"You don't have to worry, I'm fine now. I just needed some time on my own that's all. I had a little thinking to do, but you can relax now, that's all finished."

"Good, because seeing you become so distant and quiet was getting unsettling." Mandy replied sternly. "If you ever wanna go all emo on us again you keep us in the loop, don't just leave us hanging again, got it?"

"I understand. Either way you don't have to worry about that anymore." He leaned back in his chair as he faced them in a contented, almost care-free manner. "I've been thinking about what we talked about a few nights ago, and you were right, I can't dictate to you how to live your life. It's your project, so it's your choice how you want to go about achieving it. "

"Thanks. Appreciate it."

"And Mandy, the offer's still open if you want. If you ever need me I'm always at your disposal, and I'll always be willing to serve you in whatever manner I can to help you on your path."

"I'll keep that in mind." Mandy responded. Max though easily sensed it; she really didn't intend to take him up on any offer he gave her. She didn't trust him, not the way she did before that night at the Doolin house. He however said nothing.

They sat in silence once more. After another minute or so many of the other students began to leak back into the building, milling around waiting for the bell for class to ring any second now.

"So what are you guys doing this afternoon?" Max asked, having seemed to once again taken an interest in building their friendship.

"Billy, Grim and I are going to the mall after school. You can come with us if you want."

In the time since their late night talk Mandy had decided that this afternoon they would go to the mall so she and Billy could enjoy some last minute time together, and that she would have a little talk with him while they were there. She would tell him that things were going to chance, and that he wouldn't be seeing her as much after that, keeping it simple, short and sounding as easy as possible. Her stomach still knotted at the thought of leaving him, but at least it would be a gradual process. She would slowly but surely step further and further away from Billy over time, seeing him less and less, until finally she would be free of him. She'd decided the best way to go about it was to tell Grim to go on ahead on the way back, leaving her to tell him when they were alone.

She hoped he didn't see through her ploy, she didn't want it to be messy, just smooth and as easy for both of them as possible. Unfortunately though she still knew that the coming weeks would demand a great deal of will power to get over him. She hoped she could endure.

Max thought her offer over for a moment, before he gave a short shake of his head.

"I think I'll pass. I have work I need to do." Mandy just shrugged and accepted his reply.

"Fine, I'll see you later then." She answered right as the bell rang throughout the school, a blaring metallic noise that reverberated off the dirty glass and hammered throughout the damp walls. They each stood, Billy following his partner out.

"Bye Max." He called back as they passed into the hallway again, Max smiling and giving a wave in response.

* * *

Later.

After the end of day bell rang Billy and Mandy collected their backpacks from their lockers, disregarding the other children as they made for the exit side by side. Casting a glance into one empty classroom Mandy spotted the principal and a small group of teachers dressed in cheap suits gathered tightly around a table. As Billy stepped in to look they saw them each taking turns to have a puff on a small crack pipe, paid for no doubt by what limited funds were supposed to go to sustaining the school itself.

"No surprises there." Mandy commented and kept walking. A moment later a voice kicked in over the loudspeakers.

"_Good afternoon good people of America! This is an announcement from the American Party for National Unity, helping to defend your pride!"_ Came a patronising voice that sounded distinctly like that of a sports commentator. Around them the other's looked up to the speakers, some displaying eagerness and delight, others appearing to be unconcerned but listening nonetheless.

"_We have all been shocked and outraged by the brutal and wholly unprovoked attack on our powerful and prosperous people, and we understand and share your anger against the vile creatures responsible for this insult. We know who they are, and we know what they look like, and we know where they live, but thanks to the spiteful efforts of a few traitors in our midst we have yet to be able to stamp this scum out. These undesirables have been a parasitic presence ever since the dawn of our nation, and day by day we have stood back and watched helplessly as they rob us of our prosperity and our supremacy."_

The speaker rattled on and on, sprouting one piece of nonsense after another until the two finally tired of it and continued on towards the exit, ignoring the other students and teachers as they nodded their heads in agreement to what they were being fed.

"_But no more will our hands be tied. We are pleased to inform you all that not long ago our leader President Johnson has enacted a decree that will allow our protectors in State Security to have far reaching powers with which to seek out these terrorists and grind them into the dust where they belong! Henceforth State Security will now control all previous national intelligence organisations including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency, as well as all branches of the National Guard."_

'_That can't be good.'_ They both thought to themselves. Then suddenly the voice on the radio changed course dramatically.

"_Furthermore in the interest of promoting peace and togetherness as a people we are proud to declare that we have begun construction of a network of sanctuary communities, each comfortable settlement a safe haven for America's numerous minority groups. We expect the first to be completed by the end of this month, wherein we will begin to invite the people of the various groups to move in. By giving Latinos, Jews, Muslims, Negroes and other ethnic groups a place of their own we will be able to protect them from harm, as is the goal of the Party for National Unity."_

At that both kids turned wide eyed to one another, betraying the shock they both felt at what they'd just heard. While both were used to being able to see through the various euphemisms and doublethink used by the Nationalists, neither wanted to believe what they were hearing through their translation of the plush party jargon. Mandy turned away and with a particularly forceful push marched her way through the corridor out onto the front steps, where they were greeted by Grim waiting for them below, the other children paying them all a wide berth.

"_Rest assured fellow citizens this vermin will be crushed where they stand! We will not tolerate their contaminating presence anymore! Together as one people we will make these abominations pay! Remember, you are an American, be proud! In other events the Department of Economics has reported an increase… "_

They ignored the dribble of lies as the two strode out to meet their old servant. He looked at them with disdain.

"So, de mall right?" He asked with a bitter taste on his tongue.

Mandy opened her mouth to answer, but paused momentarily as she noticed Max out the corner of her eye, standing atop the concrete stairs watching the three from a distance. "Just a sec."

She moved up towards her friend as he observed her quietly. "Hi Mandy. Are you heading off now?"

"Yeah." She answered, Max giving a short nod in reply. For a moment he two stood facing each other in an awkward silence, Mandy waiting for the strange polite boy's next move as he continued to stare passively upon her face. From where she stood she received the lingering impression that despite them having made up earlier it was almost like he was still slightly withdrawn from her. He was still yet to react, simply staring at her without uttering a word.

"Hey, you alright?"

Max just smiled softly to her again. "I'm fine Mandy, thank you. You don't have to worry about me anymore." Mandy continued to silently scrutinise him, until finally she relented.

"Alright. I'll see you later then." Max stepped out around her and walked away back towards his distant destination, never revealing a thing beyond his almost mask-like visage of confidence. Mandy made her way back to her friends as she watched him leave, both Grim and Billy now following her gaze.

"What's up with Max?" Grim asked. Mandy shook her head.

"Nothing."

"Well den are we going to de mall or what?"

"No, take us home first. I want to get ready."

Grim nodded, extending the scythe to form a wormhole back to their street. They stepped through and separated into their own houses. Billy rushed upstairs, dropping his bag and getting a clean change of clothes, still his usual blue and white shirt and jeans, rushing out again after bidding his parent hello and goodbye in one fast blur of sound.

Mandy took her time more, going up to her room and unpacking her bag, setting her few heavily worn textbooks aside. From her desk she picked up her wallet and moved to the bathroom to inspect herself in the mirror, quickly patting her hair into shape. Giving her reflection a hard stare she steeled herself for what lay ahead, welling up her confidence and inner strength, before she left down the stairs.

As she reached the bottom of the staircase Mandy encountered her parents as they stood in the hallway a few feet from the door, Saliva standing there with them. They turned to greet her happily.

"Hello Mandy, how was school?" Phillip asked her as she stepped into their presence. He halted and put his hand to his lips as his daughter gave him a deadpan stare, remembering she had implicitly stated that he not bring it up outside of school hours lest he spread the toxin to her home life. "Uh, sorry. Never mind."

Instead of grilling him however she just gave a shrug. "How was work?" As predicted her father's face flattened a bit, giving her a knowing smirk a second later.

"We just heard the announcement over the radio." Claire spoke with a look of despondency, shaking her head astounded. "I just can't believe that human beings actually believe these things. How can they do this to other people just because they're different?"

"Don't try to figure it out. People who think like that can't be reasoned with anyway so it doesn't have to make sense." Mandy responded, a heavy feeling of dejection hanging over the three until Phil spoke up.

"Look, no matter how much madness there is outside, we're safe from it all in here." He explained, bringing the two women back from their gloom. "As long as we live in this house, those people who think anyone not like then should die will not be able to drag us down to hell with them, thanks to you Mandy."

Though she remained stoic on the outside what he'd said touched her inside. Once more she found herself reminded of how lucky she was to have two of the only good people in Endsville as her mother and father. Despite this however she stayed her course, choosing to keep herself separated from family and friends. She didn't need their love or their affection and she didn't want it, so she remained stern.

"Where are you off to?" Claire asked in her caring motherly tone. Mandy never quite understood why she would use that tone for her. Why did they continue to shower her in love and care when they received none in return? It was however not something she should concern herself with.

"I'm going to the mall with Billy. I'll be back in a few hours." She answered flatly as she stepped past them heading for the front door. Reaching down she gave Saliva a scratch on the head and continued on.

"Okay, we love you." Her mother called out to her as she opened the door and stepped out.

At this she paused. Every time they told her this it had always left a lingering weight inside her chest, a feeling of guilt that she hadn't returned their love despite not wanting it in the first place. This time however it was different. Somehow a part of her insisted that now was the time to return their affection, not to leave until she had told them she loved or at least valued them too. Mandy remained in her place across the threshold debating wether or not to follow, all the while the reasoning behind the strange intuitive feeling remained unknown. There was no motive, no explanation of why she should tell them.

With that in mind Mandy kept her mouth closed, turned to them and gave them something between a nod and a bow, a subdued acknowledgement that she knew how they felt and respected them in return. She stepped through and shut the door behind her, returning to where Grim and Billy stood out by the road as they continued on foot towards the mall a few blocks away.

* * *

Grim and Billy walked the half hour journey calm and relaxed, not having to deal with the usual bile and crap people spewed fourth at every opportunity. Today the weather had broken and the skies were clear and blue, a far cry from the usual bleak mixture of dreary clouds and smog haze, and it seemed to make their world outlook a little bit more positive. Mandy took note of the route they were taking down the concrete path before them, past the cars and the other clusters of shops and offices. They walked past a park, wide open spaces, trees and green grass, with no one else around.

'_This is where I'll tell him.'_ She thought to herself of the confrontation ahead. This little outing wasn't just some simple time spent with friends she reminded herself; she was doing this for the reason of finishing up her friendship with Billy, and she had every intention of doing just that.

They continued to walk down the path for another minute until they arrived over a crest overlooking the local centre of commerce. The shopping centre was a great white structure made up of several large blocks, out the front of which was a large car park full of cars, and a service station to the left beside the road leading in and out.

The three made their way down and passed into the indoor marketplace through the sliding glass doors. The inside was cooler than the early autumn air outside due to the shade of the roof and the air conditioning. Unfortunately as soon as they made their way through the sliding doors they were greeted with their all time most hated of adversaries, the pinnacle of shallow-minded vanity herself, Mindy.

"Hello Mandy. I see you've come to try and make yourself a little bit respectable, like me." She sneered at the group with all her contemptible superiority. "But what's the point? After all, deep down you know you're a worthless looser who couldn't even hope to imitate my-"

Mindy didn't get to finish the condescending sentence as Mandy summoned her scythe, levelled it at her, and clicked her fingers. The vain red haired girl gaped in terror as a small plague of biting locusts materialised and burst from the tip. They homed in on their target in an instant, covering Mindy in an itchy shell.

"You were saying?"

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Mindy screamed, flailing around in a vain attempt to get the large insects off.

Billy, in a moment of sheer evil genius, whipped out his camera and took several pictures of her as she fled the mall with the plague on her tail. He regarded each of the pictures.

"Heh heh heh, oh these are some great shots. I should be a photographer." He spoke as he carefully scrutinising each of them, Mandy and Grim looking over in interest. "Hmmm. What shall I do with these?" His tone was of mocking thought; he knew exactly what he was going to do with them from the moment he reached for the device.

"What are you doing?" Mandy asked.

"See Mandy I think these photos of Mindy in all her glorious splendour are so great it'd be a terrible shame not to share them with some of her friends. I should send these to someone who would then spread them to everyone for me, that way the entire world can see just how beautiful and awesome Mindy really is. But who?" He thought and smiled evilly. "Perhaps our good friendly friend Trixie might want to see them." He quickly sent them through to the dark haired girl. Though she was an enemy of theirs no doubt, she was also a rival of Mindy's, and any opportunity to bring down Mindy was an opportunity regardless of what it entailed.

He put his phone away and continued onwards. Mandy thought fondly about how he had probably just ruined Mindy just as well as, if not even more completely than she had four years ago. She found herself swell with pride for her little idiot. Never had she seen such an inspirational act of malice and retribution come from the little goofball. It was something she would remember fondly, having marked this occasion as an accomplishment.

'_God I'm going to miss him, but I will not falter this time.'_

Putting the incident behind them they made their way through the shopping centre, surveying and taking in the atmosphere of their surroundings. It had been a long time since they had been here, the last being a year or so ago, and they were intrigued by what had changed in the time since. Around them they saw many other shoppers strolling to and fro with trolleys and bags of merchandise. They spied one man with two large televisions in his trolley. Around the food court a few shops away there were perhaps twenty or thirty people milling around. It was quite a refreshing change of setting, where normally these people would be exuding arrogance and insanity from every orifice they now held a happy, laid-back state of mind. From this it appeared that all was running nicely.

But then they began to notice other things that didn't add up with what they were seeing in the people. Whereas last time they had been here all the many stores and shops had been bustling with customers and staff, every second shop they passed had its shutters closed and locked, with others lying empty and deserted. Of the remaining half that were still open another half had 'Closing Down Sale' signs displayed.

Ahead of them lay a toy store, a place they remembered well, still open for business. They entered and began combing the isles. Throughout the entire store they saw no more than three or four other customers. Leading them down one isle Mandy looked at the products displayed and shook her head. Most of the shelves were almost completely bare, not having been restocked for what appeared to be months, with what little remained being old, dusty and broken. The store was staffed by nothing more than a skeleton crew, a single old man sitting behind a desk waiting for a customer to come by. Everyone else who had worked here previously had been laid off.

She spied something at the end of the isle. Running on ahead she stopped and looked down, an awkward feeling of reminiscence mixed with sadness welling up at the sight of a dust covered pink and purple tube-like object lying forgotten on the bottom shelf. Bending down she hefted the old device up, brushing off some of the dust as she remembered the one time years ago when she'd laid hands on it. Glancing back to her friends she swung the weapon around, taking aim at a terror-struck Grim, pulling back on the pump action to load it, and pulled the trigger.

There was a clunking sound and nothing happened. Her spirits plummeted once again as she lowered the old toy. The goo cannon was broken, as was the entire mall, the city, and the society. She felt cheated, like this was something that was specifically designed for a girl like her in mind, now ruined because of those people and their pathetic habits of short sighted greed and materialism and dept. Hardening her features she dropped it to the ground and led them out again back into the corridors of the once bustling marketplace.

After combing the rest of the mall for any signs of the prosperity they had become accustomed to they went to the food court. Here the decay wasn't as bad, but still it appeared one in three fast food stands had closed up permanently. Billy ordered an enormous burger, with Mandy and Grim ordering a kebab. Billy sat down at an empty table with his friends, and was about to dig in when he got a text back from Trixie.

'I luv u' It read, and there were heart shaped emoticons. Billy laughed and dug in to his meal. Shortly after he got another text from her. '4get the last txt thank u anyway.'

They kept eating as Mandy enjoyed the last real moments of their friendship. Sitting directly beside her Billy relished in the moment, a slight smile breaking out across his face despite the bleak nature of their surroundings. Here he was, sitting beside his closest friend, with a burger in his hands and stomach, on a Friday afternoon after school. All of life's problems just seemed to wash away when he was with her, and nothing quite compared with this moment they were spending together right now. Though no conclusive thoughts entered his head he continued to relax in her company, content to just glance across to her happily.

Unaware of her friend's vacant musings Mandy likewise simply continued to enjoy the unbroken peace of Billy's companionship as minute by minute they finished their food, leaving them to sit together in a state of blissful silence. A thought occurred to her, a faint desire. She just wanted to sit next to him and hold hands under the table, just so they could feel close to each other if only for once.

As soon as she realised what she was thinking her eyes widened in shock. She ripped the thoughts away and ruthlessly stamped them out.

'_What the hell, what am I thinking! I have to stop this!'_ If this went on any further than it already had it would destroy her. She had to start to put an end to it today before she got wound up in him more than she already had.

Billy picked up on her sudden shift in temperament intently as she quickly turned away from him, a hard set expression of frustration etched on her face. He frowned slightly in concern.

"Mandy?" She looked back to him, her eyes showing none of the authority and strength he admired, instead seeming tired and withdrawn. Grim saw their interaction too, as well as how Mandy had begun sleeping over at Billy's again, and spending even more time with him. He couldn't help but wonder what was going on in that girl's cold heart. Mandy however remained silent.

She took a deep breath and looked away again, Billy also turning his gaze elsewhere. It now occurred to her that for the past few minutes he had been gazing vacantly at her in a similar manner, but it mattered little now. With their attention returned outwards they suddenly realised that they were alone in the food court, with most of the remaining handful of shoppers and workers now leaving one by one.

"Let's go." She spoke. Together they got up and turned to leave the now deserted shopping centre. Mandy had been dreading this moment all day, when she would soon have to confront him. She sighed and tried to calm herself, reminding herself of all that she stood for, that she was a lone wolf, a spirit of darkness and strength in a world of weak-minded corrupt scum. She was strong and hard like steel, and she was not going to go soft on this, just as she would not go soft on anything or anyone. Mandy continued to remind herself of this as the lights of the mall went out around them and they left through the glass doors with Billy and Grim beside her.

Outside the temperature had dropped to be colder than the inside. The dusk sky overhead was now a deep blue colour, the last of the day's light coming in a dull orange-yellow strip across the horizon ahead of them. The car park was almost empty and the street lights had come on. Grim guessed the time at somewhere around a quarter to six, far later than they had actually planned on staying out. Mandy's face flattened slightly, she knew she'd been stalling, but now she could stall no more. The three walked out through the car park towards the path leading back to the park.

'_It's time.'_ She decided with resolve ready to put her plan into action, turning her eyes to the black asphalt as she thought over what she was to do. She was just about to open her mouth to tell Grim to go back on his own, when something caught her eye.

The trio stopped in their tracks as they gazed warily at the sight before them. Standing in their path a few metres ahead was a figure, a stranger dressed in an all encompassing onyx cloak, its stark image projected as a heavy black silhouette against the orange twilight behind it. They could feel it staring at them, its face an empty black shadow under the hood, each remaining tensely on edge as they continued to gaze nervously at the newcomer. Despite the lack of any movement or sound, the three could feel a strange, foreboding feel welling up around the figure, something that made the blood freeze in their fingers and toes.

Mandy spoke up at last and addressed the strange paranormal spectre. "Who are you?"

The veiled phantom just stared back at her without reaction.

"What do you want? Answer me." Mandy continued as the mysterious thing still didn't react. A thought crossed her mind, _'Is this the guy who killed Irwin?'_

"Speak!"

She was getting frustrated by the total silence the thing was showing them. Again the only answer they received was the ever present feeling of its cold, foreboding aura, and a blank stare from somewhere within the complete darkness of the cowl covering the head. Her answer came however when the stranger's hands began to glow with an unnatural dark blue-black corona, distorting the air around its fingers making them shimmer and ripple. It was charging up for an attack. Whoever this was, its intentions were now perfectly clear.

Mandy and Grim instantly summoned their weapons, and not a moment too soon as the spectre lunged for them. Bringing hers up Mandy parried a fast left handed strike with the side of the blade, the thing bringing its right arm around to strike, again being caught by the blood red scythe.

Mandy swung to destroy it with a chop to the left side, only for it to redirect the blade over its head with its hands before jumping back away. Grim and Mandy stood guarded ready for the next attack.

"Billy get out of here!" Grim ordered the boy, seeing as he was completely outclassed in this situation. He immediately complied and ran to hide away elsewhere, taking cover behind a parked car.

The stranger lunged at them again and attacked with a repeating flurry of charged short range blows. Mandy and Grim both found themselves too busy blocking the rapid strikes to make any counterattack of their own, having to slowly step back under the force of the relentless assault. The veiled spectre didn't show any mercy, keeping up with them as they retreated, continually probing their defences, seeking some gap with which to deal a fatal blow.

Turning its focus more on getting past Mandy's airtight guard it left a short pause in its attack on Grim, which he then used to put up a shimmering green wall to shield them momentarily from the attacks. The stranger's charged hands struck at the barrier to no effect. Seeing this Mandy took a step back, levelled the scythe at it and fired a blistering burst of red lightning and particles.

Catching the opponent off guard the blast went right through the barrier, catching it in the torso and hurling it backward, landing roughly its back several metres away. It barely had time to recover before Mandy surged in, coal black eyes ablaze with battle fury, and bought her scythe down onto it.

The dark figure rolled to the right before the blade of the scythe shattered the bitumen where it once lay. Rising to its feet it delivered a hard kick that struck Mandy in the side of her ribs, making her grit her teeth and back away in shock. Before it could close in on her Grim raced in and blocked its path with a swing to the abdomen. Jumping to avoid the deadly blade it kicked the reaper in the scull, sending him whipping around.

Mandy got to her feet in time to witness the stranger give Grim an energised shove in the body with its right hand, the spectral power delivering into him the force and momentum of a truck. Gaping in shock and pain Grim soared back, crashing into the side of an old grey Town and Country on the way. The middle aged woman behind the wheel shrieked and bailed from the vehicle, running away from the confrontation.

"Uuuhhh… That little…" Grim Struggled to his feet, having stayed conscious and intact after the attack, though his bones screamed in protest in their battered and weakened state.

The veiled spectre rounded on Mandy again as she set herself into a guarded position, feet spread, legs bent, scythe raised to block the next attack whatever form it should take.

Seeing its short range attacks were not penetrating her defences the stranger opted to change tactics. Bringing its hands together it began charging a small glowing electric blue sphere of some disturbing power between its palms, watching as it grew more and more intense with each moment. Mandy easily recognised a plasma bolt when she saw one, deciding it would be better to dodge the orb of destruction than to try and block it. Dropping to the right as it cast the blue charged ball she was thankful she did, as it rocketed past her head and detonated in a brilliant burst of blue light and superheated flame upon hitting the side of a parked sedan, searing the mid section into a burning and twisted heap. Her body tensed with panic as she saw it had been the car Billy had hidden behind. When she looked however she war relieved to see he was nowhere in sight, having crept off somewhere else beforehand. Without pause the stranger charged its hands again ready for another short ranged attack.

Before it could lunge to strike at her the figure noticed Grim out of the corner of its vision. Taking aim with his scythe Grim welled up a ball of fire into the blade. The stranger quickly forgot its attack on Mandy to raise a barely visible dark blue energy field around its form to stop the blast of flaming energy, leaping back out of the billowing ball of orange flame and black smoke. Using his mastery of the air element Grim sent another blast of flame at his foe, this time channelling it in a wide arc across the figure's front, forcing it to take one jump back after another as he followed up the blast with several more like it, pushing it in the direction he wanted it to go.

From her spot Mandy realised what his plan was as he herded the strange spectre towards the fuel station, with its great big liquid petroleum gas cylinder in clear sight.

Too late the black veiled figure saw her tense for impact, realising the trap as Grim fired a blast of flame straight past it, impacting and penetrating the tank and igniting the gas inside. Grim and Mandy both staggered back as a massive blast pulverised and incinerated the station, the heat of which prickled and seared her skin as the enormous ball of chocking fire billowed up into the sky. They steadied themselves as the burning debris from the roof and building rained down on the area. Grim had counted three or four people who'd been watching the fight from the vicinity, including the woman who'd ran from the old minivan with the dented side, all of which were now gone, the blast having set alight to the bowsers and nearby cars in the area they'd been standing.

Despite the raging inferno however the cloaked figure stepped calmly out from the flames, unconcerned with the carnage that had been wreaked as it set its chilling relentless gaze on the two standing before it. Grim and Mandy stared before they resumed their guarded state, both having half expected it to survive anyway.

Acting before it could attack again Grim charged up and fired a glowing orange stream of hot particles in an attempt to hold it back. The deadly searing mix of fire and electrical energy lashed out at its target, colliding with a transparent field as the figure raised one arm to block it effortlessly. Mandy held off from launching a similar offensive as she saw the transparent dome of dark energy wrapping around to shield from her side as well, keeping her guard up while searching for any potential opening she could exploit.

From behind their assailant Billy emerged from the tree line at the rear of the car park, a large piece of half charred wood clutched in his hands, dense and hard like an unhewn baseball bat. He squinted his eyes at the flash of Grim's attack striking the transparent barrier, shielding himself from the heat and light as the two engaged each other in a battle of cosmic strength, all the while avoiding the roaring flames of the gas station. Seeing his chance he rounded on its undefended back, charging in towards his target with a loud cry of anger.

The attacker held the shield for several seconds as Grim continued firing its deadly burning stream of energy. The screeching sound of the two energies blasting against one another was loud enough that it almost failed to hear the roar of a young boy coming up behind with a piece of wood in his hands. Almost.

"… rrraaaAAH-"

The figure turned its shrouded face upon hearing the growing sound of Billy's war cry. Raising its right hand it clamped down hard on his crude club, still holding the shield up with its left hand as Billy's eyes widened at having been caught.

This gave Mandy an opening. She charged the scythe ready to fry the creature with an attack like Grim's, but hesitated due to Billy being so close. She waited for him to move back away.

Continuing to hold Billy's crude weapon with its hand it felt the force acting on the outside of the shield slowly beginning to fade as Grim's scythe began to rapidly tire. As powerful as the ancient artefact was, it was not designed first and foremost as a weapon as Mandy's had. Billy struggled to free his club from the creatures grasp as the light and heat of Grim's attack gradually subsided.

"Uuuhh, Mandy… help!"

He continued to struggle and pull away until the hand grasping it opened, moving to attack the stick with a powerful charged chop. The club splintered in the middle where the stranger's hand blasted right through the thick wood, before bringing it down again on the upper side of Billy's arm with an audible crack, breaking it.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" Billy screamed in pain, dropping the remaining chunk of wood and clutching his injured arm to his body as the stranger delivered a brutal back fist to his face, sending him careening over onto the ground.

"BILLY!"

Mandy barely recognised her own cry of fright at the sight of her friend injured and in pain. Never had she felt such sheer panic for the safety of someone else. Regardless of all her hard hearted posturing, hearing Billy's agonised scream and seeing him fall to the ground, his face still contorted in anguish, simply overwhelmed any and all control over her once guarded state of mind. It eased her fright somewhat as she saw Billy drag himself back from the fight, still holding his arm to his chest, gritting his teeth against the excruciating pain emanating from his bones. She also noticed their cloaked attacker still fixing its cold gaze on him as he crawled away from danger, with the barely visible shield of dark energy weakening as the blast from Grim's scythe ran down.

With Billy hauling himself safely clear and the enemy's shield now lessened in strength Mandy now had the clear shot she'd been waiting for. Taking advantage of her opponent's momentary lapse in attention she aimed and charged her weapon, the blade growing a deep malevolent red, and let loose a concentrated blast of power. The blinding ruby stream of plasma struck the barrier, and like a spear penetrating a wooden shield it punched straight through, scoring a glancing hit on the back of its left shoulder. The robe where it had been struck caught fire as the beam blasted and burned into its flesh.

The stranger dropped the remainder of its shield, staggering back under the force of the impact. Turning on its heels it faced Mandy as she continued to aim her scythe at it, the blade glowing ruby red as she charged for another blast. Before she or Grim could fire again the wounded figure focussed on the area directly behind itself, forming a deep black egg shaped portal. The two still standing watched as the spectre stepped back into the rippling black ball to be swallowed up and obscured beyond its unnatural shimmering surface. The dark threshold dispersed a second later to reveal the assassin had vanished without a trace, only the carnage reigned down on the car park to show it had been there.

Grim and Mandy continued to stare agape, too stunned by what had just happened to form a clear-cut thought between them.

"Uhh." A soft groan of pain bought their attention back to their wounded friend. Mandy ran to check he was alright, kneeling down beside him as he sat upright exhausted.

"Billy…"

"Where is it?" He asked her still on edge.

"It's gone for now. Come on, we have to get out of here. We have to get you to a hospital." She answered him, her voice betraying the enduring fright she felt, still in a clear state of shock and alarm from their close call, too close by the state of Billy's arm.

Gently she helped him to his feet as Grim commandeered the abandoned grey people mover, wheeling it around and pulling up in front of the two youths, stepping out to open the dented side door for them. Easing him in she laid Billy up against the far right door in the back, his broken arm laid across his waist as he gasped for breath wearily. Mandy stayed in the back sitting in the seat opposite to take care of him. Shutting the door Grim stepped back in the driver's seat and drove off out of the shopping mall car park, disregarding the immense flaming pyre from the fuel station and the burning wreckage strewn across the way out, eager to get as far away from where they were before whatever it was that had attacked them returned. The great lumbering vehicle swayed and screeched as it rounded a right hand corner leaving the mall and accelerated off down the road as fast as its laboured front wheels could take it.


	11. Loss

**Loss.**

Five minutes after their escape Grim slowed the bulky people mover down somewhat after putting a few kilometres distance between themselves and the mall. As he figured so long as they were moving they couldn't be found, and were safe. But what about when they had to stop? Where were they going to eat, sleep and generally live where that thing that very nearly wiped them out couldn't get to them?

Mandy was sitting opposite Billy, both looking into each others eyes intensely. Billy occasionally winced in pain when they hit a bump in the road, jarring his broken arm and sending a blistering stab of pain up his nerves. All he could do was shut his eyes and hold his breath until it past. Mandy could practically feel his pain as well as if it was hers. Every time she saw Billy gasp and hold his breath, she held hers just the same.

Other than the blistering pain that racked his young being every few seconds, Billy was for all instances relatively calm. He just stared back at Mandy, neither upset nor excited. Despite this his friend could tell he was afraid. They had been so caught off guard by just one individual, and that single lone being took them all on with such ease, three on one, and they'd only made it out by luck.

Mandy on the other hand stared back at her friend with all her worry displayed openly in her face, worry for what was happening, for the thing that had just attacked them, and for her friend who was as of this moment in pain. It stabbed at her that she couldn't do anything to ease the pain for him. She knew she was just feeling this because of her emotional bonds, but right now she couldn't have cared less. Her plan for today had by default been put on hold indefinitely. Right now she would stick by him and protect him no matter what, just as he would for her.

Another bump made the boy flinch and clench his jaw. His breathing became shaky for a moment as he closed his eyes and waited out the hurt that made him want to cry out. Mandy wanted to go over to him and comfort him in some way, anything to make her friend feel better. Though she would never consciously do such a thing, right now she felt like laying his head on her shoulder, running her fingers through his hair, until his breathing relaxed again. But she couldn't, even in such a situation she would not permit it, for it would only make her weaker.

"God why do you two little monsters drag me into dis crap! I didn't have to deal wit dis before you two-"

"Shut it Grim! Not the time." She barked, silencing him immediately.

Looking out the front of the car the two noticing they were on the freeway, heading out away from Endsville.

"Grim where are you going? We have to get Billy to a hospital."

"Mandy you definitely didn't kill dat thing back there, so dere's a good chance it will be waiting where we're most likely to show up at next." He explained as he weaved in and out of traffic, ignoring the shouts of obscenities hurled at him by other impatient drivers. "It knows Billy is wounded, and dat we would most likely be taking him to de hospital, so it'll probably be waiting for us to show up dere."

"So what's your plan? Where are we going?" Billy called. He looked out to the road again, looking for a sign telling the location of any large town nearby, Grim searching the roadside likewise.

"I'm taking us to a hospital somewhere other dan Endsville where dat ting won't catch us."

Mandy turned back to Billy who looked across to her.

"If the guy who attacked us is gonna be waiting for us where we're likely to show up next, then we have to find a way to kill it now. If we don't and it keeps coming after us every chance it gets…" Her proposal was not easy considering how quickly it had gained the upper hand. Mandy being able to wound it was a simple case of utilising good luck to the fullest, and they more than anyone knew they could not count on good luck. But their troubles were greater than just that. Either they found some way of destroying it, or they were going to be seeing a lot more of the open road ahead of them. If they were faced with the worst case scenario they would have to go into hiding until they could figure out what to do about it, because with the phantom looking for them, they could not return home until it was gone. But that would only be a last resort. She really didn't like the idea of being a gypsy for any amount of time.

"We'll figure something out, don't worry child."

So they kept driving along the freeway north. After another ten miles they found an exit for a town listed as Scranton Hills on a road sign. Exiting the highway they drove off towards the town before them at an even pace. A few kilometres before they entered the town however Grim slowed the vehicle, pulling it over onto the side of the road with the buildings splayed out in the distance.

"What are we stopping for?" Mandy asked as he pulled the vehicle up.

"Just watch." Grim spoke in his typical Jamaican accent with a small smirk.

From his seat he summoned his scythe to his hand. Grasping it near the blade he pointed it towards himself with his right hand, the staff hanging over the passenger seat adjacent. Before either youths could speak he fired a blast of yellow and green energy at himself. The kids recoiled in surprise, neither of then having seen this before as the aurora swirled over his limbs and cloak. The murky whirl of energies covered his whole skeletal body, gradually taking solid form, building up into the shape of muscle, skin and clothing. When the ugly looking aura lifted and faded away, before them sat a mid thirties man boasting Caucasian skin, short brown hair and a chiselled muscular face. He had steely brown eyes and a short stubble around his face. He wore a grey short sleeve shirt, dark grey jeans, and rugged combat boots. As shown by his shirt they could tell this human Grim certainly wasn't flesh and bones, noting the muscular shape of his arms and the bulkier build of his body.

They both stared, at him, their mouths hanging open in wonder. He dispelled his scythe and continued on towards the centre of the town.

"Grim… what was that?" Billy asked hesitantly, as if maybe the person sitting in the drivers seat wasn't the reaper he had come to know.

"That was the result of months of development by myself and the tech department." His voice didn't have the misplaced Jamaican accent he usually had. He sounded like a hardened, street smart brawler from Max's part of town. His deep, hard tone of voice made him somewhat more respectable in the eyes of the two children who on some level needed an adult guardian to take shelter around. "This is based on the results from the time I came to life in the underworld hospital, with cells and flesh and all, just much more refined." Indeed he looked much better than the way he looked originally, the gangly man with a poor build structure.

"What's it for?"

"I'll be taking this as a disguise for when we're around others from now on, that way we won't stand out as much. If that thing hunting us hears that a walking skeleton was seen somewhere it'll know where we are. This way we can just disappear into the crowd." He explained as they made their way into town. As he drove through the streets, a few faces stopped to glance at the dented door, but no one glanced at the driver. Hence they didn't attract attention, and anyone looking for them would find it more difficult to trace them.

* * *

They drove on towards the centre of town, pulling into the hospital building. They got Billy into the emergency room, and soon had his arm being x-rayed.

"It's just a fairly simple straight fracture of the Radius. Both pieces are in place perfectly." The doctor explained, pointing to the straight split in the middle of one of the bones in his right arm. "All we have to do now is put it in a cast for about four weeks."

They soon had his arm wrapped in linen bandages and plaster. They showed great care and attention in doing so, unlike their counterparts in Endsville. It didn't hurt a bit.

As Mandy watched his arm getting its temporary exoskeleton, she looked out the window out over the small town to notice it was now late dusk, the time Billy and her should've been sitting down to dinner. The sky in the west held a weak blue glow following the sun having sunk below the horizon, with the deep darkness of the night sky overhead growing ever darker and colder with distance. The street lights had come on and the stars could be seen coming out.

She wasn't the only one watching the darkness slowly creeping across the sky from the east, the outside.

Atop the roof of the Endsville General Hospital, high above the many insignificant beings below, a wraith like figure knelt. Two cold eyes scanned the people moving in and out of the ground floor several floors down wholly unconcerned by the rapidly dropping temperature. It had been three hours now since its failed attack at the mall, and it was still yet to see its targets present themselves.

The large crater burnt into its shoulder had long since healed on itself without any trace of scarring or irritation of any kind, except for the badly burnt hole in the shoulder of its cloak.

'_They still haven't arrived. If they were coming they would have arrived here by now.'_

Indeed it was clear they weren't in Endsville anymore, as shown by the fact it had sensed an energy flux coming from some place kilometres beyond the city's borders. It was unmistakably that of the Grim Reaper's scythe being used which it had picked up on, but where it was and what he was doing with it remained, unfortunately, unknown.

'_They may have expected me to be here waiting for them. They have most likely gone to another hospital elsewhere.'_

Undeterred by its recent failure to find and kill the targets the raven-like figure stood, eyes scanning the vast plain of houses in the distance. Out over the city the lights of houses and office buildings lit up as the last of the twilight faded. Gazing down over the distant web of houses its eyes settled over Billy and Mandy's suburb, contemplating its next move in silence.

'_They will likely go back to their houses at some point soon to make sure their families are safe. I will wait for them there.'_ Its objective set the dark figure turned on its heels and left the roof, going completely unnoticed by the people below.

* * *

Billy sat back comfortably in a hospital bed, Mandy sitting in a chair next to him with Grim standing off by the door. His plastered-over arm was now supported in a sling across his chest. To his relief the constant pain he had been plagued with was now gone and the long process of healing could begin. Now he just had to deal with having to cart the cast around for a month, all the while having to deal with some maniac trying to and kill them all, but other than that he was just fine.

"Hey Mandy, wanna be the first to write on my cast?" He asked her holding out a felt tip pen for her, having gone back to his normal cheery personality.

Mandy though appeared to be in deep thought and didn't hear Billy's voice. Her mind was set on what they were going to do next. Naturally with their unknown enemy potentially hunting them at every turn they could not return home or go back to their normal safe lives just yet in case their attacker was waiting for them. Right now she had to figure out what to do or, if necessary, where to go should Endsville be rendered off limits for an extended period.

"Hey Mandy?"

This had led her to another thought, one which made her anxious and her insides tight. What would happen if that thing decided to go to her house? What if it was already there waiting for them, ready to mount an ambush once they got back. If so… then what would happen to-"

"Maaaandyyyy?" She was broken from her train of thought by Billy's constant calling, waving something back and forth in front of her face annoyingly.

"What is it, I'm busy." She snapped at him with a glare.

"Doing what? You looked like you were spacing out."

"I was thinking now what did you want?" Billy held out a black felt tip marker for her.

"Wanna be the first to write on my cast?" She hesitated for a moment, before she slowly stood up and took the pen from his hand. She took off the cap, taking in a whiff of the noxious fumes from the ink as she bought it down close to the white plaster surface. She paused.

'_What to write, what to write? Something commanding, which makes him remember and respect my power. Shut up. Sit down. Obey. That'll work.'_ She lowered the pen to the cast ready to write on its surface, when the thoughts she was having previously flashed through the forefront of her mind once more. She stopped, sighed in frustration, and returned the cap back on the pen handing it back to Billy.

Both Billy and Grim noticed her troubled state. It appeared something was tormenting her in the back of her mind.

'_If that thing goes to wait for us at home… What about mom and dad?'_

At that a deep fear began to grow inside her. This was the first time she had ever worried over those two, as she rarely showed any care for them so long as long as they were of use to her. Now though, faced with the possibility that the killer could be on its way to them…

"Billy, call your parents. Tell them that they could be in danger." Billy didn't quite understand and looked at her perplexed, until a moment later when he realised, Grim also picking up on it.

"Yeah, that thing could show up at your house next. It's the next most likely place where you'd show up." Billy's eyes widened in alarm before he quickly pulled out his phone, dialling the number with his left hand and holding it up to his ear.

The phone rang for just a few seconds before his mothers voice came over the other side.

"_Hello?"_

"Mom it's me." He could hear his mothers sigh of relief.

"_Billy! Oh thank heavens you're alright. What are you doing out so late."_

"Mom listen to me. We were attacked while we were at the mall. Grim, Mandy and me are in a hospital in a nearby town."

"_Oh Billy, are you…"_ Her voice was filled with worry over her only son.

"I'm fine mom. I've got a broken arm but it's in a cast now." He continued through his mothers panic. "Mom listen to me alright. The guy that attacked us might be on its way there. I need you and dad to get out of the house. In fact call the Nergals, tell them to come and get you, and just hide out underground with them for awhile okay?"

"_Uh, so we should call the Nergals and hide with them until its safe?"_ She spoke uncertainly.

"Yes. I'll call you later alright, but for now just call them and get them to pick you up right now. Just stay out of the house. Don't return until I tell you, alright?" Billy spoke with a commanding aura, not one which dominated others but one who directed like a leader.

"_Okay honey. Just you and Mandy stay safe. I love you, and I'll see you soon."_

"I love you too." Billy hung up the phone, while Gladys ran to tell Harold to get packing. She quickly called the Nergals, and three minutes of running around packing anything important later they were safely deep underground.

Billy passed the phone to Mandy. She dialled her houses number.

The phone rang… and rang… and rang… and kept ringing. Every second it went without an answer increased her anxiety. She had been waiting for two whole minutes for them to answer when she cancelled the call.

"They were there when I left this afternoon, and they knew I was coming back from the mall. But they're not answering." For the first time in her life Mandy's heart began to beat harder as she began to fill with a deep sense of dread. She quickly shoved the thoughts down, trying to remain as hard as steel. But try as she might she couldn't escape from the creeping anxiety that made her insides twist at every moment.

"Grim, we have to get home, now."

They all sensed the dire urgency in her voice, and quickly left through the front doors of the hospital. They made their way to the minivan and jumped in, Mandy taking the seat in the back. Right now, more than ever before she needed to be with Billy. She needed someone there to calm her, as she found herself struggling to breathe as her sense of dread rapidly increased with every second. Grim drove off out to the highway again, dispelling his human disguise as they drove as fast as they could back towards Endsville.

Mandy again tried to reach them, and again no one answered. She turned the phone of, handing it back to Billy. She stared out at the road ahead, the city of Endsville slowly coming into view in the distance ahead of them. Her breathing was rapid and laboured as she looked back across to Billy. Every ounce of the worry she was feeling was conveyed clearly through her gaze, and he felt it as clearly as if it was his own. Unbuckling his seatbelt he moved across the seat towards her, reaching out and taking a gentle, reassuring hold of her hand in his. Glancing back and forth between their linked hands and his comforting face she held his hand all the way back.

Frustrated with the great lumbering vehicle's lack of speed and inability to carve through traffic, Grim wound down the side window, extending his bony arm out and willed his scythe to form. The instant he felt it in his grasp he fired off a green ball of light, another vortex leading to their suburb forming dead ahead. A moment later the battered people mover disappeared into its event horizon, the portal vanishing instantly behind them.

* * *

It was seven thirty by the time Grim pulled the minivan up out the front of Mandy's house, having arrived back at Endsville just a few moments before. He parked the lumbering vehicle on the road just outside the house facing the road out and turned off the engine. From their seats the three looked out at the modern building, its white walls lit up by the full moon in a ghostly glow, before clouds moved across to veil its light. The lights were off, and not a sound or flicker of movement from within greeted their return. All was silent in the night.

Tentatively the three stepped out of the vehicle, Mandy opening the sliding side door for Billy to hop out behind her. In the driveway to their right the family car could be seen still parked out the front of the garage, so they hadn't left. Mandy could barely move, overwhelmed with the unholy dread for what she feared she would find within. Eventually, through an act of iron fortitude she willed herself to continue.

"Stay here." She commanded her friends, her voice as dire as her racing heartbeat. Billy stayed near the open door of the drivers side, ready to start the car should anything happen and they needed to make a getaway. Both Mandy and Grim called their scythes ready for an ambush. Mandy regarded the dark house before her and, hardening her heart against her fear, slowly walked forward, scythe in hand ready.

It didn't escape her mind for a moment that she may well be walking into a trap, and she was fully prepared for an attack to come. The problem was she didn't know where or when it would come from, or what form it may take. For all she knew the door could be wired to explode the moment it was opened. But the fear she felt for her mother and father completely eclipsed her fear of attack. She had to go in there regardless of wether or not it was a trap, because she had to know they were safe.

She laid her hand so the doorknob. It turned, therefore the house was unlocked, another bad sign. The pit in her stomach only got worse as she opened the door and stepped into her house, closing the door behind her. Brandishing her scythe she slowly surveyed the hall, the stairs on the right, the entry to the living room on the left, with the kitchen behind it. Moving ever so slowly she crept around the corner and gazed into the living room. The inside was dark, with only the slight glow from the street lights outside to illuminate it, leaving much of it obscured in shadow. From what she could see of the room there appeared nothing wrong with it, Mandy lowering her scythe just a bit. This eased her fears somewhat, as if the killer really had come here as she feared it would, then it would have been here in the living room where it would've most likely encountered Phil and Claire. From what she saw now she was being overly fretful. Relaxing slightly she made to move off to check the other rooms of the house.

Just before she turned to begin searching, she noticed the sky out through the wide front window. In the darkness high overhead the clouds began to drift apart. As Mandy watched on as they moved aside on the wind, they began to unveil the moon. With its surface now gradually revealed its cold light shone in through the window into the living room, pushing back the shadows that obscured the floor.

Mandy's eye caught upon something, a strange, unfamiliar shape on the floor directly in front of her that wasn't there before. Stepping in warily she focussed on the strange shape, unable to recognise it while it was still partly covered in the remaining darkness.

As she looked on the clouds continued to dissipate, finally allowing the full light of the moon to shine in. The cold white rays lit up every corner of the room, from the ceiling to the floor, illuminating the shapes lying beneath her.

They were the lifeless bodies of her mother and father.

All at once Mandy's eyes and mouth hung agape overcome by dismay, soon turning to an unbearable grief as she saw her mothers face staring back at her from the floor. She froze, unable to move as her eyes finally came to see her mother and father lying together on the floor, dead. Her father lay face down behind her mother lying on her back, her soulless empty eyes staring up at her only child.

Mandy couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't do anything but stare at her parents as they lay before her. Her heart twisted in a piercing stab of grief. She dropped the scythe and held her hands up to her chest. Her mom and dad were dead. She was alone. She closed her eyes, turning her head away from her mothers gaze. Her mother and father had loved her, and she had never repaid their care. Their last words to her had been to tell her that they loved her, and she had coldly rebuffed them. Now they were dead, her parents were dead, and she was an orphan.

She wanted to cry, more than anything she wanted to instinctively collapse to her knees and give into her grief, but right now there were other matters that had to be attended to. The fact she was still in mortal danger remained. So she hardened her heart, bringing back her cold and objective grimace as she turned away from the scene and bent back down to pick up her scythe, before making her way cautiously upstairs. Making sure it was safe she entered her room. Working quickly she opened her closet, reaching up to a black nylon backpack hidden high up away from prying eyes. Bringing it down into the moonlight she checked its contents. Rummaging through it quickly she roughly counted and set aside one stack of notes after another, satisfied the ten thousand dollar rainy day fund was still all accounted for, untouched since she'd last added to it. It had taken years to build it up to this level, and during those years it had been waiting exclusively for a time like this, though she had hoped she'd never have to use it for its intended purpose.

While she was there she pulled out the other part of her rainy day fund from the bottom of her bag. Reaching in and pulling out the remaining contents her eyes gazed over the heavy object in her hand, a dark grey, forty-five calibre 1911 handgun, along with four magazines and a box of extra rounds sitting on the bed beside the small pile of bills. Taking a moment she felt its weight in her petit hand, which managed to wrap around its narrow handle well enough. It was a large and heavy instrument, something not quite suited to her small build and light weight, and for a moment she wondered if she could even handle firing it. Taking one of the magazines she carefully loaded it up into the handle as best she knew how, hearing it lock into place, before putting it, the spare ammunition and the cash back in the bag.

Moving quickly she stuffed a few changes of clothes into the bag as well, her wallet and MP3 player, closed the doors to her closet before taking one last look around. She knew that even if she ever came out of hiding, she would likely never return here. This was a place of suffering and loss for her now, something which could never be undone.

At last her grim dark eyes settled on a draw of her desk. She walked over, opening it, finding a framed picture of her parents and her. It was one of the few objects she considered special. They were smiling, but she wasn't. What was special about it though was that while she didn't appear happy as such, her features displayed a feeling of content, free of the burden of the depraved world she lived in. It was the closest they had ever gotten to a good family photo. Keeping her mind detached to avoid the painful emotions she gently placed it into her back pack, picking it up in her left hand, her scythe in her right, and left what was once her room.

She walked down the stairs towards the front door, all the while contemplating on what lay ahead. Once she left she would most likely never return here again.

'_I never thought anything like this could ever happen. To think that just a few hours ago I lived here. That I had a family.'_

She stopped at the bottom, the entrance to the living room on her right. She didn't turn to face her parents; she couldn't bear the loss or the shame she felt. And she couldn't bring herself to say goodbye. _'That part of my life's over now. It doesn't matter. Only the future matters now._' Without saying a word she continued on, opening and closing the door behind her.

From the vehicle Grim and Billy looked to her, waiting for her to speak as she approached, a cold, hard grimace on her young features. They instantly knew what had happened by the way she stared back, a bleak yet hollow gaze that went right through them. She just hardened her features into her typical scowl, tossing the bag to Billy who caught it in his hands.

"It's all over." She barked commandingly. "Let's go."

Mandy walked over to the van, her friends watching her as she approached the rear door. She paused mid step however upon noticing Grim raise his face up from her to look at something else, something off behind her.

She knew exactly what it was as soon as she felt the dark, bitterly cold aura, making her skin shiver and the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Turning around she, Grim and Billy came to see the same raven-like spectre of shadow moving out from the darkness to the side of her house, stopping before them as it regarded them each with clinical intent, the moonlight making the stranger stand out from the pale white of everything around them. Mandy could feel its withering stare from within the darkness of its hooded cloak, a heartless, unnatural gaze that sucked the life out of her from within.

"Billy start de car." Grim ordered as he and Mandy got ready to shield themselves from the imminent attack. From what they had experienced earlier, the feel of the incredible strength and power in the air around it they doubted they could defeat it head to head. They would have to run, and continue running until they found some way to destroy it, some weakness with which to exploit to bring it down, because right now neither of them had the power to do so, they were its prey. Billy didn't waste an instant to jump into the driver's seat, turning the keys to start the engine. He then reached back to open the side door for them to get in.

The stranger began to step towards them, charging its hands with its blue-black corona. Acting before it could attack Grim and Mandy lashed out with two combined lances of energy from their scythes like they had before. Seeing their attacks the dark figure raising a hand to block. As the blasts met the figure's palm they exploded forwards against it, the combined shockwaves overpowering the energy in its hand and knocking the cloaked figure back several paces.

Seizing the opportunity Grim and Mandy backed away towards the doors of the minivan, Billy moving across to the front passenger side as Grim stepped into the driver's seat. Keeping her scythe trained on their enemy Mandy continued her attack with another blast of searing red power, finding this time it struck an invisible dome-like barrier around her staggered opponent, deflecting the energy around it, leaving a large burn mark in the grass at its feet.

Grim closed the door as Mandy turned and jumped into the bench seats in the middle of the vehicle and closed the sliding door. Releasing the hand brake Grim stomping down on the accelerator. With a laboured screech the front wheels spun, the three speeding off as fast as the lumbering people mover could carry them.

Recovering from the surprise attack the figure calmly walked out onto the road, watching it drive off into the distance, before taking off after them at a blistering sprint down the black strip in pursuit of the fleeing vehicle. Looking out through the back window Billy and Mandy watched as the distant dark figure raised its arm, a familiar blue orb of electric energy taking shape. They ducked down, bracing for impact as their pursuer levelled its right hand at them fully charge with the ungodly force.

Without slowing in its sprint the figure fired its terrible bolt of energy directly at the fleeing minivan. The luminous streak of destructive force lanced out toward them like a rocket, barrelling in straight for the back of the van.

To their great luck by the time the neon blue streak had crossed the fifty or so metres between them it had largely dissipated into the surrounding air. Coming at them with the force of a truck the now greatly expanded and weakened ball of power impacted on the back of the van and burst in a blinding flash of searing hot blue plasma, the force of the blast blowing out the rear window and knocking an enormous dent across the tailgate's surface, while the heat flash badly scorched the paint and upholstery in the back of the vehicle facing the blast.

Billy turned back around as Mandy raised her head to look out through the back of the vehicle as it swayed and careened wildly across the road before Grim regained control, the rear third looking like an atomic bomb had gone off directly behind it. In the distance the cloaked stranger continued to sprint after the car, a more or less hopeless gesture now they were so far away, it too having sensed defeat as its black veil billowed in the wind. As it began to slow its pace the hood blew backwards, exposing its previously hidden features to the night air. The two youths narrowed their eyes on the distant face as the cloaked phantom slowed to walking pace, only for the distance and darkness to obscure its features beyond any recognition.

Mandy however was not satisfied with their inability to defeat their foe. Moving fast she dug her hand into the backpack, pulling out the heavy steel gun. Billy looked on in surprise as Mandy jumped over into the back of the charred vehicle. Taking aim through the shattered rear window she levelled the powerful weapon at the now far distant figure, struggling to keep it within the small sights as the car bumped and sped down the road. Bracing herself ready for the blast and recoil of her first shot she nervously pulled the trigger.

Nothing budged. Frustrated she tried pulling harder, only for the weapon to remain rock hard in her grasp, not responding in the slightest.

'_What the hell? Damn!'_ She cursed silently as she lowered the gun, their enemy slowly receding into the distance behind them. Mandy had never fired a gun before in her life, and so didn't know how to turn the safety off, or chamber the first round. And even if she had, she knew it would have been unlikely for her to hit her target from such a range anyway. Ultimately it was a futile attempt from the start.

With a sigh she took one last look at her suburb, seeing the demonic spectre finally become enveloped in the darkness as they drove away. Turning away from her home she climbed back defeated over into her seat as the battered and burnt people mover charged on down the road towards the highway again.

* * *

The raven clad spectre came to a stop under the glow of the street lights out in the middle of the deserted road. From there it resigned itself to watch as its targets faded away into the blackness far ahead, knowing that it had lost them again. It stood in the cold blue glow of the moon for several seconds, just watching its targets escape its grasp.

It knew now that finding and killing them would no longer be a simple matter of waiting for where they were likely to show up next. Now it would be a slow and tedious matter of searching the entire country high and low for them, perhaps even beyond the boarders, to track them down to wherever they were going to run and hide. It would now have to search through any and every possible lead as to their location, as all the while they would be putting more and more distance between themselves and their hunter, a process that would take months if not years.

A very faint flicker of something occurred deep in the icy depths of the creature's soul, a slight glint of irritation at the monumental task it was now faced with. It didn't last though, as a second later the beings cold, detached will came down and eradicated it, leaving it as stoic and calm as per normal. Eventually their trails would go cold, but they would never be able to disappear completely. They would have to settle down somewhere, and eventually it would find them. Regardless of how far they ran, it knew how to track them down. It was patient, and had all the time in the world with which to do so.

Gazing on in silence as the vehicle disappeared into the darkness of the night, it reached up and over for its hood, drawing it up and over its face again, obscuring its features from view once more, before it simply turned on its heels and walked calmly back to her house.

* * *

"Mandy when did you get a gun?" Billy continued to stare at the bulky handheld pistol as she settled into her seat, Grim whipping his head around.

"Mandy has a what? A GUN!" He cried terrified at the thought.

"I got it a few months back. What are you gonna do about it?" Mandy spoke bluntly in response.

She put the currently useless weapon away in the bag and sat back in the corner of the damaged vehicle. The wind howled and whipped around inside from the blown out window, buffeting the occupants inside with the turbulent vortices coming off from the back of the car.

They sat in their seats, silently watching the world go by. They watched as gradually the outer suburbs of Endsville faded away into the trees and scrub beside the freeway east. They continued onwards, driving out far away from their home, Billy looking back to it as its lights faded in the distance.

'_I hope I live to go back there someday.'_ He thought of the place they were leaving behind. He looked over to Mandy, looking out the window to the streetlights flashing by, other cars on the road besides them, the fence going by in a blur of white plasterboard panels, all cast in an orange hue by the lights above. The night sky overhead continued to stare down, not moving at all, the stars peeking in and out through gaps in the thin layer of clouds.

She was currently trying to think only of what lay ahead, of what they had to do now, keeping her mind set solely on the future, so she wouldn't be reminded of the recent past. Billy noticed her blank state, her face a stone mask of composure in light of what had just happened.

'_She just lost her parents. Why doesn't she seem sad?'_ He knew Mandy never showed weakness, but it was probably expected that even she would cry or show some kind of grief at what she had just lost.

"Mandy." He called to her softly. She turned her head to face him, a serious look in her eyes, though it looked more like it was forced than her usual dominating stare.

"What?"

"Are you alright?" For a moment she didn't respond.

"I'm fine." She answered flatly. "I don't need them. It doesn't matter that…" She faltered for a moment. "It doesn't matter." Turning back she faced the lights going passed outside the car, listening to the buffeting howl of the wind. outside

Billy turned back to sit in his seat. _'She couldn't bring herself to say they're gone.'_

Grim knew what was doing through their minds, but decided to let it rest, to not open any very painful wounds. If they were to confront those issues they would be confronted later. For now he just kept his hollow eye sockets fixed on the very long road ahead as they drove long into the night.

* * *

The cloaked form rummaged objectively throughout the house's study, looking for any documentation that may provide answers to where they were going. It was looking for addresses, phone numbers, names of friends and relatives, and having retrieved many such documents now was focussed on financial records. It took all the files and books it could find that may provide avenues to explore, possible hiding places, people they may contact, and anything of any use, taking them all under its arm.

Leaving the study it moved on to Mandy's room. It opened her draws, messily looking through everything, searching for anything of use. Finding nothing around her desk it moved onto her closet, sifting through her clothes. Finding nothing of any importance it turned to her computer.

Turned it on and plugging in her flash drive it quickly scanned through any documents within the computer's memory. Picking up on the distant sound of police sirens, it abandoned its search and began to save every file and every program on her computer to the flash drive. It held no anxiety as it watched the progress metre slowly inch across as it saved the volumes of data, all the while the sound of sirens approached rapidly. After another few seconds of waiting it pulled the memory stick out, finishing just as the police arrived and stepped out of their cars, their flashing blue and red lights illuminating the bedroom through the window.

By the time the first officer barged in through the front door however it was already long gone.


	12. On the Run

**Hi readers. Hope you liked the last few chapters.**

**In this installment I'm hoping to try and steer the characters back a bit towards the way they were in the show; Mandy terrible and evil and unstoppable, Billy such an unstoppable force of chaos and anarchy that not even Eris could handle it, and still be able to switch them straight back to being serious as the situation calls for it.**

**As for Grim's mansuit I kinda pictured him to be sorta like the actor Sam Worthington. I thought he was good in Terminator Salvation so I'm gonna try and rip off him just a little, not easy considering I'm dealing with Billy and Mandy at the same time. Oh well, let the madness continue.**

* * *

**On the Run.**

Next morning.

Grim, Billy and Mandy spent the night on the side of the road somewhere in the vast deserts of Nevada. They had continued driving to some time past one in the morning, crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains, continuing onwards across the state border before Grim finally pulled over onto the side of the road. By that time both kids were sound asleep anyway, so he just pulled on the handbrake, reclined back in his chair and gave in to the constant feeling of fatigue the awful day had yielded.

It was around seven that Mandy began to stir from her uncomfortable slumber, her consciousness slowly coming back to her. The constant feel of the dry desert breeze blowing against her skin and hair irritated her enough to restart her mind. Grimacing she felt where she was, and realised she had just awoken from sleep.

'_I'm awake. But wait, does that mean everything that happened… It was all a dream.'_ At once she was so overcome by a flood of relief that she almost smiled, letting out a long sigh of rejoice. Unfortunately her respite of thinking her mother and father was still with her didn't last. Inevitably reality slowly leaked in to bring her crashing back to earth.

'_Why is my pillow so hard?'_ Bringing her hand up to touch what her cheek was currently resting on she found something that was hard and of a strange shape, and sloping up at an angle beyond vertical. It felt almost like plastic.

'_Wait, this can't be. It can't… Oh no. Not the van! Please not…'_

Her eyes shot wide open as she confronted the world again. The spacious interior of their stolen Town and Country again greeted her eyes, the smell of the scorched fabric still in the air. She noticed she had been resting her head on the door pillar, hence the hardness of what definitely wasn't her pillow.

Again she felt the deep, crushing weight of grief well up within, and had to take a moment to bring herself under her usual tight iron control. If she couldn't control herself or her own emotions, then there was no hope for her to ever control others. The anguish inside her quickly faded away as she mercilessly stamped it out and replaced it with her natural steel resolve. She would not let herself give in to weakness or let herself go soft…

'…_no matter how good it felt to hold Billy's hand.'_

Gritting her teeth angrily she pulled herself up and shook the offending thought out of her head. What was wrong with her? Why did she entertain such stupid notions, it was absurd! Where had it even come from in the first place? There was no place for such pathetic sentiments as companionship in her world, a world filled with the darkness and anger and sin of so many corrupt souls, especially when they were at this point refugees fleeing for their lives.

Reminded of their situation she resolved to get down to business once more. She looked around at her surroundings outside, not recognising the arid conditions around them.

'_Last I remember we were driving through the mountains. I guess I fell asleep before we stopped, I don't see any mountains nearby.'_ She checked out the ruined rear of the car, not seeing anything other than dry unforgiving wasteland. She noticed Billy and Grim still asleep in their seats in the front.

"Hey! Come on you two get up, we have to keep driving." She ordered leaning over to the front. The two slowly came around, Billy squinting and blinking his eyes noticing it was now daylight.

"What time is it?" Grim asked rubbing his bony features.

"I don't know, around seven or eight. Come on, we have work to do." She also needed a shower and breakfast, but that could wait for now.

Grim started the car as Billy stretched his arms in an enormous yawn, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and fixing up his hair. They drove off from the side of the road out onto the largely empty highway, continuing their journey along the seemingly endless black strip. They had been driving for only fifteen minutes when a sign told of a town up ahead. Perryton, a simple rail and transport centre, and a popular spot for truckers passing through the area. It had sprung up in the dessert like an oasis some time during the colonisation of the west, and was home to a population of roughly fifteen thousand or so. It was a good place for a small group of travellers like themselves to find everything they were likely to need for their going into hiding.

As they drove further towards the town Grim raised his scythe and put up his human disguise. The dry, dusty urban sprawl was fairly well equipped for their short stay, with a number of basic motels and inns scattered throughout, a small shopping centre, a bank to withdraw money for use while they were away, and a used car yard for them to ditch their moving crime scene and pick up a somewhat good used vehicle.

They pulled into a motel, paying for the day, and set themselves up in the little room. Opening the door they were relieved to find it was equipped with a shower and kitchen.

"Alright, first things first." Mandy immediately grabbed her backpack and locked herself in the bathroom. Billy pounded on the surface of the door until he realised…

"Billy hungry." He turned to Grim in the kitchen. "Where's the food?"

"Sorry. We'll go out and get breakfast this morning, and some stuff for the road." Grim answered him. Billy started searching the kitchen for anything edible, tearing the room apart only to come up short of anything except a few tiny containers of milk, which he gulped down greedily.

Mandy was currently washing away her stress under the steaming hot water, having not taken a shower since yesterday morning. Or gone to the bathroom, or eaten for that matter. She did her best to wash the oil and dust and grease out of her hair that had accumulated over night. She always hated the feel of bed hair, and couldn't do anything with it until it was washed clean. The sensation of the hot water on her bare back and petite shoulders was a feeling she relished, and she was sure to enjoy it to its fullest, as she was not sure if it would last in the coming days and weeks. She decided she would spend some time to just savour the feel of the hot water running through her blonde hair and across her face,

'_Why does the world have to be so full of crap? Why can't every day be like this?'_ The injustice struck her as she turned to face the oncoming stream front first, sighing in absolute content as it ran down her shoulders, breasts and waist.

Turning off the water she dried herself off, liking the feeling of being fully alive and healthy, along with the freshly showered rosy skin she saw in the mirror. When she first came in she had looked like, in her thoughts, the demented love child of a train and air crash, with heavy lines under her eyes and dishevelled hair, not surprising considering they were awake and driving into the early hours of the morning and slept in the back of a car. She quietly surveyed what she saw. Her figure had developed nicely, every curves filling out in the right places and in just the right magnitude for her small stature. Raising and tensing her arms she frowned slightly.

'_That could use some work.'_ She thought noting the lack of muscle density.

She got dressed with new clothes and underwear from the bag, fixed up her hair and headband, and left to find something to eat. Billy rushed in after her, in dire need of some basic maintenance if her sense of smell served her correctly. Noticing the now messy state of the room she eyed Grim.

"Fix it." Her direction came simple and blunt.

"What? Don't talk to me like that you little-" She cut him off with a withering death stare of unlimited doom.

"_Fix it."_

Even with his tough new human body Grim dared not disobey. Watching on Mandy surveyed his work as he cleaned up after Billy's little rampage. She leaned back against the wall in thought.

"So what're we gonna do?"

"First we'll need a new car."

"Good. The one we've got is a rolling crime scene."

"I'm going to ditch the van in the local junk yard for a bit of extra cash. We can use here to stock up on supplies for the road. We won't be able to make withdrawals later cause they'll give away our position, so I'll take out some cash out of my account before we go."

"You know depending on how long we're gonna be away, we're gonna need a lot of money to keep ourselves alive." Mandy said.

"Yes I know." Grim replied irritably. "I'll empty the whole thing and combine it with yours. There should be enough to last a couple of months."

Mandy shrugged and walked to lie down on one of the beds, turning on the old television and cycling through the channels for anything interesting. The closest thing to anything of any importance was a weather broadcast, which of course predicted nothing but sun for the next week, and some mindless pop music. She settled into a vaguely depressed state as she continued flicking through, her dour demeanour exasperated further by the sweltering desert heat.

Grim finished cleaning up and watched her in disinterest as she lay propped up on her elbows. Recalling back to last night he remembered how she had refrained from shooting the stranger back in Endsville. Though he knew she had tried, he heard no loud gunshots from the back of the car.

"Do you still have that gun?"

She looked over to him questioningly. "Yeah, it's in the bag. Why?"

"Have you ever fired a gun before?" Mandy stared back at him slightly caught off balance.

"No. I only ever held it once before when I found it." She had come across it a year back amidst the ruins of an Endsville gun shop. She'd been immediately drawn to it because of its cold utilitarian feel, and had quickly taken and hidden it before anyone saw. It was not a flashy chrome toy used to show off, rather it was a tool for ending lives, nothing more.

"Do you actually know how to fire it?" He asked her. Grim noticed she actually turned her eyes away, as if slightly embarrassed.

"I don't." She admitted.

"Would you like me to teach you?"

At this Mandy's eyes widened with a start. The idea of firing a gun for the first time actually made her feel unusually nervous. It made her feel like she was no more than a little girl in hopelessly over her head.

'_What about the kickback? How loud is it? Will I be able to control it? Will it hurt my wrists? What if I'm not strong enough to handle it?'_

The scythe hadn't been an issue for her as it still seemed almost like a toy, beautiful, powerful, and a bleak sort of fun when she unleashed its fury on her enemies. The 1911 on the other hand was the exact opposite, it was cold and unforgiving. The large, powerful forty-five calibre cartridges would be difficult for a novice to handle, let alone a twelve year old girl of relatively small stature. The weight of the weapon had in itself been slightly intimidating at first. This was probably the first time since she had momentarily lost her 'nerve' that Mandy had felt shy about anything. Still she couldn't be a weak little coward just over a tool.

… A powerful and lethal tool designed solely for blowing peoples organs out but a tool nonetheless.

"Alright." She spoke at last, summoning the little bit of extra grit needed to overcome her anxiety.

"Hey Grim!" Billy called as he stepped out of the bathroom. The two turned to face him, and found him wearing nothing more than a towel around his hips. Both Grim and Mandy's eyes shot wide in surprise at the sight of the half-naked youth.

"For god sake Billy put some clothes on!" Grim groaned.

"But I don't have any clean ones. All I has is the ones from yesterday." He said as he held the towel around his hips with his left hand, his dry cast-clad right arm hanging by his side.

"Who cares! Just put them on!" Mandy barked. Billy's face wrenched in disgust.

"Eww no way, sick!"

Mandy's eye twitched at that. After all he had done and eaten and rolled in he was saying that? "Billy we'll pick up new clothes at the mall. Besides, you're the disgusting filthy slob of the group who wears the same pair of clothes for days in a row. So… Uuuhh… Just shut up and get dressed already."

She trailed off slightly as her eyes began to drift away from his face. Mandy couldn't help but notice for the first time that her young friend seemed to be quite well toned for his age, with a relatively pronounced tone across his chest, back and arms. This was probably due to him being hyperactive and wild, leading a dangerous lifestyle, and the sheer volumes of food he wolfed down at every opportunity.

Billy cocked his head his head and turned back into the bathroom. "Despicable, vile people." With his body turned Mandy got a clear view of his back. Taking the opportunity she surveyed his figure with a kind of reserved curiosity, halfway aware that she shouldn't be showing such interest in the boy. In a way with his lean physique, handsome face and fiery blue eyes, you could be forgiven for thinking he was…

'_Did I… just think Billy was… hot!'_

At that Mandy's face froze in a look of self-revulsion, her eyes held wide and her teeth locked together like a vice. Grim smirked at the sight as her eye twitched, now blushing madly as she furiously admonished herself inside again and again.

"What were you just thinking?" He asked. Immediately the scary girl gave him another withering stare, making the man feel like a bomb had just been dropped on him. He held his hands up in defence.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Good."

Mandy eventually managed to pull her head together upon Billy's return, clothed in his old shirt and shorts. He looked and, more importantly smelt clean and new, with his damp hair brushed back. To her discomfort the image of his shirtless figure kept intruding upon her no matter how many times she tried to squash it flat.

"Alright, come on let's go." Grim spoke as Mandy got back to her feet, trying not to think about what she'd seen underneath Billy's shirt, which of course inadvertently made her think of it. Another blush and a spasm of disgust crossed her features again as she turned her face away before anyone could see her embarrassment.

"Good, we haven't eaten since lunch yesterday." She changed the subject and held her stomach as it gave a barely audible growl. Grim led the two ravenous youths out the door, locking it behind them as they strolled off in search of food, leaving the battered and burnt minivan out the front of their motel room.

* * *

"… What happened here?"

Max stood staring out the front of Mandy's house as scores of police and detectives worked through the area sealed off with yellow crime scene tape. His comrades Junior and Piff stood to his right, with Mindy, Trixie and Sperg standing off to his left nearby, all staring in different mixtures of shock, curiosity and amusement at what had happened.

"First Irwin and now Mandy." Junior spoke in a low tone. Max turned to him, his face packed with dread.

"You mean Mandy was…" He held his breath until Junior shook his head.

"No, but her parents Phil and Claire were. They were both found dead inside by the police last night." He explained grimly as the group watched the lazy buffoons going about their business throughout the house and front yard with minimal efficiency. The group was filled with mixed feelings, ranging from concern for their friend to spiteful joy at her loss, as well as disgust for the depraved police now forced to actually do the job they were supposed to be doing.

'_Ha! Take that bitch! Good thing you're still alive though, that way you can suffer while you miss your dear mommy and daddy so very much, before I finish you off myself!'_ Though Mindy didn't speak her thoughts out loud, they could all tell she was relishing in this from the cruel smirk on her face. They all knew about how she had plotted to bring down Mandy and Trixie, and her desire to be on top once again._ 'You're next Trixie!'_

A thought popped into Junior's head. _'Could it be her? No, she's too gutless and weak to kill two people in their homes. She'd be mentally capable of it though, if she wasn't such a coward.'_

Max spoke up upon seeing her smirk. "You know Mindy, you might want to wipe that smile off your face before the cops get suspicious." He continued as she glared at him "Or is there a good reason they should be suspicious of you?"

"I had nothing to do with this you little shits!" Max didn't listen as they all watched silently as the officers picked through the evidence within and without. One officer in her thirties with red hair and a heavily lined face came up to the six staring youths.

"Can I help you folks with anything?" She asked in a tone that implied obvious boredom and the desire to take her pay check and her bribes and go home to watch TV.

"We're friends of a girl who lives here. Please can you tell us what happened?" Max answered her in a pleading tone of voice. The grizzled woman didn't particularly seem to care, all sense of right and wrong long gone. She had become part of the corruption, laziness and egotism that plagued their world as a whole, and they all knew it. Junior found himself despising the self-important bitch as she silently projected all her contempt for them.

"We found two dead, probably the girl's parents. There are signs of a fight of some sort out the front, and evidence of a search inside. Were still cataloguing the evidence so it'll take some time to figure out what exactly happened here." Her words came drawling out like it was a labour to just open her mouth. At that instant Junior had the funny desire to take all her money and shoot her in the jaw with a Desert Eagle.

"What about the girl? Is she alright?" He asked ignoring the funny craving.

Again the officer just sighed silently as she began to explain. They noticed how she gave Junior a spiteful sneer on top of her usual apathy. "We found nothing of any girl. It's possible she's hiding away somewhere, possibly from whoever did this, and possibly from us." The officer spoke to them in an uncaring way.

"Do you have any idea where she is?" Max asked.

"No. Again we haven't been able to find or contact her."

He nodded downcast. "Thank you."

"Whatever. I'm sure your dead friend's fine, yada yada yada. Now fuck off!" She spat as she went back into the house, standing around with a cup of coffee, leaving a silently derisive Junior behind. People like her didn't particularly cause him any anguish or hurt, they just increased his contempt for the majority of humanity. Strangely Max seemed to be even less concerned by her arrogant nature, ignoring it to focus on the facts she had reluctantly given them. Junior noticed his strange objective indifference but thought nothing of it.

The group kept watch over the officers going over the house, the yard, and two sections of the road not far away with skid marks and broken glass in them. Trixie, Mindy and Sperg soon left for somewhere else, not particularly bothered by the event, with Piff taking his leave shortly after. Max and Junior continued to look on.

"You know last night," Max turned to face Junior as he spoke, "Billy's parents called us to come and pick them up in a hurry. After my mom and dad and bought them down, they told us that Billy had called them and told them that they had been attacked, and that they had to hide away with us. They're still down with us now, and they can't leave until Billy calls and tells them it's safe."

Max looked across to him, his interest perking up at the mention of Billy's parents. "Billy warned them in advance so they could get out? Then if Mandy called her house and they didn't answer…"

"Maybe she could have escaped the attack. Maybe she expected someone to be here." Junior answered. Max looked over to the nearby tyre tracks behind his friend.

"Could they have come back before going into hiding?"

"I don't know, but it does seem like a good idea." He continued. "If I thought my family was in danger, I wouldn't stay back and hide away, I would probably come to their rescue as well."

Max looked at the crime scene one last time. "If you hear anything about Mandy, Billy or Grim you tell me alright?" Junior nodded in reply.

"I will."

"Alright, I'll see you later." Max walked back the way he came, leaving Junior stood there watching in silence.

* * *

Later that morning.

"How much for this one?" Grim asked, Mandy standing by his side.

"Eight thousand." The salesman replied, an oily man in his mid thirties with a Texan accent, and a short, neatly trimmed moustache. He was dressed in a jacket that looked as if it were made from old curtains, and his black hair looked to be more of a silly toupee. He clearly fit the bill for the stereotypical greasy, money-grabbing prick.

After breakfast Grim and Mandy had given Billy two hundred dollars to stock up on food while they went to find a new car. They were half expecting him to return with junk food, something disgusting or him having already eaten it all by the time they got back to the motel, but it was always difficult to tell with him nowadays.

Right after they had left him they found the local used car lot and began searching through for something suitable. The business was clearly on its last legs. The tasteless decorations were bright and massively overblown, while everything behind the visage wailed of hopelessness. The two dozen or so cars for sale, built from the eighties, nineties and early naughties and originating from companies like Daihatsu and Daewoo, were of extremely poor quality. They all dripped oil from every orifice, had rust and in some cases moss growing through their bodies and frames, and had obviously had their tachometers wound back judging by the fact half of them probably would not run for more than five minutes. And yet despite this their prices were still high, the greedy and incompetent owner desperately trying to pay the interest on his massive depts.

Amidst this parking loss of despair they had come to rest on a burried gem, a mid nineties Honda Prelude VTEC with faded red paint. They had been quickly drawn to the agile coupe, yet they weren't exactly willing to give this guy an easy sell. Mandy had told Grim before arrival that she would accept nothing over seven thousand.

"Damn. Well we're willing to offer seven. That's all we got." He told the man flat out. He knew they would have to conserve their money for whatever lay ahead.

The man thought for a moment, clearly uncomfortable with such a narrow profit margin. "I can give you seven and a half, nothing less." Truth was hardly any business ever came his way, and he needed every sale he could get. Despite his mountainous debt he'd still bought himself a new Camaro. He figured it was the fault of the Jews for making him want it. Besides, the car they were looking at was only worth around six, and he would have taken every cent he could get his stubby little fingers on anyway.

Grim just raised his open palms. "Gee, sucks for you. Well, see ya." He twisted around to leave when…

"Alright, alright seven thousand! Jeez, can't believe this."

"No sale, make it six." Mandy spoke. The man recoiled and looked at her angrily.

"Six! Kiss my ass bitch!"

"Bank called. They want their money now."

"Ah! Okay okay!"

Grim smirked while Mandy folded her arms and nodded in silent approval.

'_It's so easy to bend the will of the desperate and greedy.'_ She would remember this in the future for when her time came to rise up and put the entire society under her hand.

He took them into the small stinking hot office where they signed the documents. The salesman was particularly interested and a little uneasy about their use of wads of cash as payment. He was about to say something when a harsh glare from the young girl swept over him like a burning desert wind. He swiftly handed over the keys so this guy and the disturbing girl with him would leave him alone.

Grim and Mandy made their way out to their new car.

"Well that was easy." Grim spoke of the desperate man on the edge's ease of manipulation, a slight smirk tugging at the edges of his face, Mandy just stoic as usual.

Opening the doors they sat down in the grey fabric seats, starting the engine before driving off back to the motel. The car handled relatively well, it was smooth and agile with its light, low slung body and taught suspension. Grim threw it into the driveway of the motel hard enough to make the front tyres screech, pulling up beside the Town and Country in a jerky movement. Shutting off the engine he and Mandy stepping out as Billy came to see their new getaway vehicle, which would hence forth be serving them for the duration of their time in hiding.

"Whoa nice a sports car! How's it go?" His unnaturally excited grin made Grim nervous as to his intentions for their new ride.

"It goes fine Billy. I might have to teach you two how to drive at some point in case we have to make a getaway." He and Mandy stepped back inside the room to find a great many bags of canned food, bread, water, rice, vegetables and other foods sitting on the kitchen bench. When he assigned Billy this job he'd forgotten about his broken arm, and so he would have probably had to go back and forth from the store several times to cart it all back here. What's more, it was all relatively good food, mostly canned spaghetti, beans, beef and the like.

"Good job Billy. I forgot you could only use one hand." Billy smiled sheepishly under Grim's praise.

"Heh, that's nothing. Lookie here." Billy walked across to the cupboard. Opening it an enormous cascade of bags of nachos and chips, soda bottles, chocolates and all kinds of sugary crap fell out onto the floor. Grim and Mandy eyes twitched at the sight of the enormous stash, turning up to give him a glare.

"How did you pay for all this?" Mandy all but hissed.

"Pay for what?" He replied, returning the two hundred dollars they'd given him. They looked at him incredulously.

"What did you do?"

"It wasn't my fault, I swear! The power went out when… Okay it was my fault. I put an axe through their powerbox so all their alarms and cameras would go down, then I just went in and carted it all out the front." He explained with a beaming proud grin.

Grim and Mandy's eyes twitched again.

"They had a sign that said no black people! What else was I gonna do?"

"Good point." Mandy reasoned as she and Grim began hefting the bags into the back of the car, which after several trips wasn't as light as it once was, though it was closer to the ground at the back. After Grim closed the back of the car he drew out the keys to the people mover.

"Alright, I'm gonna go find a wrecker who can give us a few bucks for this. Be back soon." He hoped back into the lumbering vehicle, throwing it around the corners like he had with their new, much better car. The front tyres spun uselessly as the weight fled to the back as Grim planted his foot to the floor, making the thing lurch forward under its over stressed engine and tyres.

'_These things suck. It's like I'm driving a bus. Oh wait, yeah.'_

* * *

Back at the motel room Mandy laid stretched out on the bed farthest from the road, watching the little television again. Some news presenter was denouncing the protests and riots that had broken out in response to the party's announcement yesterday. Luckily though, as the party's mindless puppet put it, the National Guard had been called in and was now crushing it brutally. She didn't particularly take notice; it wasn't the first time such things had happened. A thought crossed her mind.

"Hey Billy, why don't you call your parents. They should be with the Nergals right now. See how they're doing."

Billy hopped off his bed and making his way to a phone on a small desk on the other side of the room. He dialled the number for Nergal's place underground.

"_Yes?"_ Came the slightly faintly Germanic voice of Junior.

"Junior it's me."

"_Billy! Are you guys alright, we saw what happened at Mandy's. The police are swarming all over it."_

"We're all fine. Listen can you put mom and dad on the phone?"

"_Sure hang on."_

"_Billy! Oh thank god your okay!"_ Gladys gushed sounding incredibly relieved to hear her son's voice. They had been horrified when Junior told them about the death of Phil and Claire.

"Mom listen, we can't really tell you guys much about where we are or where we're going, I'm not even sure myself yet, but we're going to be gone for awhile. We've decided that we're gonna go hide out somewhere this thing can't find us anytime soon."

"_Wait Billy, you can always come and stay with us, with the Nergals. It's a huge place, and it's not safe for you to be out there alone with this person running around."_ They had found out upon their arrival that the Nergals could easily expand their tunnels into the rock, and their 'house' had grown enormous over time.

"I know mom but listen. If I go down there with you, then there's every chance I might draw that guy to come and attack everyone with us." He glanced across to the figure lying on the bed. "And I have to take care of Mandy."

Said girl looked over in surprise. Her friend was putting his life in serious danger for her. He cared about her, and wouldn't let anything happen to her despite the condition he was already in thanks to such heroics. It weighed on her conscience somewhat as unfortunately it would make no difference to the ultimate outcome of their friendship.

"_Alright Billy, I suppose you know what you're doing."_ Gladys sighed as a pit of anxiety opened up in her for her boy.

"Now you guys have to stay down there until this thing's gone. I'll come back to tell you when it's safe to come out okay?"

"_Uhhh… Alright Billy, we'll be 'safe' here with the Nergals."_ A thought occurred to her. "_Just a moment."_ She turned to speak to her dull witted husband for a moment.

Mandy continued listening to Billy's conversation. "Yeah… Huh… Really?… No, I like that, that's a great idea… I will… You stay safe too. Alright I love you guys... Bye." Billy hung up the phone, going back to the bed to keep watching TV, occasionally glancing across to his friend. He wondered how much longer these moments of peace would last.

* * *

Two hours later.

Grim returned without the battered people mover. He had a backpack in his hand filled with something unintelligible hidden within.

"I went to the bank after I dropped off the minivan. I emptied it of another three thousand dollars, enough to keep us going for awhile." He opened up the bag to reveal it was filled with hundred dollar notes wrapped together with tape. "Now I've also bought a few boxes of ammunition from a local gun shop, because over time I'm going to have to teach you two how to fight without using scythes."

"What? Why can't we use the scythes?" Billy asked with a curious-dog-like look on his face.

"Because whenever the scythes are used they give off a strong signal, and there's a good chance that the guy who's trying to kill us-"

"Can sense the signal and track us down whenever we use them." Mandy finished.

"Correct, so we'll have to limit how much we use them." He zipped the bag shut and took on a thinking pose, Mandy sitting up to pay attention.

"Now we have to figure out where we should go. Where can we go where we can hide away, where we could stay for a long time, and where no one searching for us would be able to find us?" The three sat and thought in silence.

"Why don't we just stay around here, moving around these little desert towns?" Billy suggested. "There aren't any people here who could recognise us."

Grim nodded, but had his reservations. "It would be a pretty obvious choice though, and it's not really that far from Endsville. Whoever it is wouldn't have to come far to find us, so maybe something else."

"How about we go south into Mexico and hide out there for a while? Or we could go north into Canada where we don't have to learn a new language. Or we could head overseas."

"The borders and airports are all guarded and the government will have everyone on the lookout for us."

Mandy had stayed silent throughout the conversation, bringing a finger to her cheek lost in thought. She had been quietly toying with an idea she had last night before she fell asleep in the back of her mind. Now though…

"I know a place."

Grim and Billy looked to her as she leaned forward on the bed, pressing the tips of her fingers together as she thought back to times past.

"Years ago before we found Grim my mom and dad built a little cabin up north in Washington state. It's in a national park, far from any towns or population centres, right up near the border. We only ever used it once because I hate nature. But it's still there, and it should be ready for use. We could hide away in there for months and no one would know we were there." The more they thought about it, the more the idea of the cabin sounded like a perfect idea. No one would find them in such a secluded place, and they'd be fine for months until they found a way to kill whatever it was after them. What's more, a cool place amongst the northern forests sounded good to Billy and Grim, even if it didn't particularly appeal to Mandy.

"That sounds perfect." Grim spoke. "Do you know where it is?"

"Yes, it's a few kilometres outside a town. I remember the turnoff."

"Good. Get ready cause we're leaving now."

* * *

**Shoplifting is a crime, and in reality it does little to spread any kind of message. I just wanted to point that out in case any bogans were reading. You never can be too careful with bogans. One guy was drunk and went diving, broke his neck. Long story short he sued the council and won. They also vote for our leaders.**

**Now I'm in a really pissed off mood.**

**In other news I've started work on a Ben 10 fic. It's gonna be really dark and evil so if you like this maybe you'll wanna give it a look once it's up. See ya!**


	13. Desert Days

**Hello readers.**

**Unfortunately we have come to a spot in the story which I call the 'dumping ground'. It's like that slow time of year when Adam Sandler movies are released. Basically the next few chapters are gonna focus primarily on how the characters interact and develop as they go into hiding, as well as how life slowly changes for their friends back home, and the world's continuing slow downslide into hell.**

**Also I'd like to warn you that this involves some pretty horrible ethnic slurs, as well as animal abuse and foul language. This will become more prevalent as the story goes on.**

**Hope it's still a good read. Enjoy.**

* * *

**Desert Days.**

Early afternoon.

They drove on for a good three hours through the parched desert without stopping. The car sat low on its rear wheels from the weight of its occupants and the supplies, but it still drove well, floating along the black strip at an easy pace. The rear seats were spacious enough for the growing boy in the back, sitting behind Grim with his feet up on the other seat, a few scattered bags of Doritos spread across and around him. Mandy sat in the front opposite Grim surrounded by bits of chips and soda cans, her head leaning against the door pillar bored out of her mind, not that she complained. It was an odd break to be away from Endsville with just the company of their old group. They had already searched through all the local radio stations and found nothing but country rock, each channel playing the same horrible dribble about things that were like an angry woman.

It was about three o'clock when Grim now back to his normal skeletal self began scanning the horizon nearby for developed cacti. The parched desert scrub was actually surprisingly sparse of the spiny plants, with the only ones too far off from the side of the road. After ten minutes or so he found what he was looking for, spotting two fully grown ones up ahead, both about twenty metres away from the side of the road.

"Dis looks like a good spot." He pulled the car over to the side of the road, the dry dirt crunching under the tyres.

"Good for what?" Mandy asked looking across to him. He pointed to the cactuses nearby, her eyes following.

"I'm sorry do we need water or something, because I tried that before and it didn't work out so good." Billy beamed his goofy smile. "I know, let's give it another try!"

"No stupid. Well slightly less stupid. We're going to teach Mandy how to shoot a gun."

Mandy's eyes shot wide open and her heart skipped a beat for a moment as the same nervous apprehension she'd felt earlier sprang up again at the thought. She took a moment to bring herself back under her iron control, ordering herself to remain stern and composed, though she still felt flustered inside. Grim opened the door and stepped out, before sliding the seat forward for Billy to hop out, still holding his cast arm to his body. Mandy opened the door and took a shaky step out of the car, still not quite fully able to purge the nervous streak she felt about firing a gun for the first time.

Grim opened up the back of the car so Mandy could retrieve her bag. She sat the backpack on the lid of the trunk, opening it up to display the dark steel weapon within. Grim reached in and casually took hold of the weapon, the two kids watching wide eyed as he scanned it over.

"There's already a magazine with bullets in it. I put it in when we left." Mandy spoke as Grim released the magazine to check, seeing it was fully loaded. Snapping the magazine back up inside he held the gun out for her to take it. Extending her hands out she watched as he transferred the weapon to her hands. She held the gun out flat across both hands, uncomfortable with taking a firm grip on it again. It was absurd really, that when she really needed to use it last night she'd been able to push past her anxiety and at least try to fire it, and yet now the cold metal felt that much heavier and more unforgiving.

'_God what the hell am I doing here? I'm not supposed to fire a gun, I'm only twelve! Oh this is all so stupid! I feel like some scared little girl!'_ Inwardly Mandy cursed herself for being afraid, even as her accelerated heart rate refused to come down.

"Alright, here I'll show you." Grim took the gun from her hands again while she watched him wide eyed with Billy.

"Now look closely. You see dis little button on the side of the handle?" He indicated to the small projection. The kids nodded their heads. "Dis is the magazine release catch. Press this to release the magazine once it's empty." He pressed it and once again the full magazine fell out the bottom of the handle into Grims hand.

"Now when you want to load a full one in, just make sure it's pointing de right way forwards, and slide it up into the receiver until it clicks into place like dis." He slid it up until an audible click of metal on metal was heard.

"Dis little catch here on the side is the thumb safety." He pointed to the large notch at the back. "You have to slide this down to do anything with the gun." He disengaged the safety as they watched

"Now before you can shoot the gun, you have to load de first round into the chamber. Simply hold the top of the slide, and pull it back like dis." He pulled the slide back all the way until it reached the back of its travel. "Then just bring it forward again to load the first round." He released the slide, letting it jump forward with a loud 'click'. "Now the gun is loaded and de hammer is cocked. Always have the thumb safety on when it is loaded, otherwise you'll end up blowing sometin off." He switched the safety back on again and presented the weapon handle first to Mandy.

Mandy eyed the now loaded weapon nervously, looking up to Grim as he gave her a bony smile. Turning down towards the gun she timidly reached out and took hold of it in her right hand, bringing her left in to grasp the handle in a light two handed grip. The thing felt dangerous to her, more so than it did earlier now that it was ready to kill someone.

"Now you see dem cactuses over dere?" He pointed with his bony finger to the spiky plants. "Dey are your targets. Now to shoot you point de gun at the target, lining up the sights over where you want to put de bullet." Taking a deep breath she raised the gun in her hands to point at the plants in the distance, keeping her arms straight as she aimed directly at the one on the right.

"Before you shoot, you must disengage de safety again so the gun will work." Following his instructions she turned down the notch on the side, freeing the pistol ready to fire. She tensed up ready for the powerful shock that was to come. Billy stayed behind Grim next to the car, also tense with anticipation. They both had to force themselves to breathe.

"Now hold de gun firmly, keep it pointed at the target, and gently squeeze de trigger."

Mandy sighed. _'Show time.'_ Still aiming the weapon at the distant target she held her breath, tensing her muscles as she slowly pulled the trigger.

"_BANG!"_

The gun blasted out the round with a shockwave that rammed it back forcefully into her hand, making her stagger back slightly under the power of the shot. She pointed the gun back towards the ground as she examined the target. She could still see little pieces of debris and a small green cloud blown out of a hole in the front of the cactus, a similar cloud of debris coming out the other side.

Grim examined the girl's handiwork. "Very good, you got it square in de middle." He studied the girls shocked face as she took note of the effects of her first shot. "Now you have another six shots left. Go for it." Mandy again levelled the gun at the target, slightly better prepared now for the shock. Bracing herself with her feet spread she fired again, managing to better recover from the powerful recoil. The heavy full metal jacketed bullet blasted out part of the side of the cactus as it deformed on impact, spraying wet greenery out over the dessert. She fired again, trying to keep it on target for the next shot. Again, with the shot blasting through one of its arms. Again, the blast ramming the gun back in her hands, pushing her back like she had caught a sledge hammer. The last two shots blew out the centre of the target, breaking the body of the cactus up so it was barely able to hold its own weight without collapsing.

"Very good, all of dem hit. I was thinking maybe these rounds would be too much for you because dey are very powerful." He regarded the girl again as she looked up at him. "But you managed to handle it pretty well. Not easy for someone of your size and stature." Mandy would have made an angry, snide remark, but she had to admit the weapon really was a handful for her. She had flinched away with every shot she made.

She looked down to her weapon again to notice the top was locked back. "Okay, what now?"

"Now you just press the button I showed you earlier and the empty magazine will come out." Grim instructed. She held her hand under the handle as she depressed the notch, catching the clip as it slid out the bottom.

"Now while the slide is held back take another magazine, and put it in like before." He spoke while handing her another magazine from the box. She took it and loaded the pistol once more as Grim pointed to the weapons slide stop. "Just pull dis little notch here down to release it and it will be ready again." She complied, feeling the slide snap forward violently into place. Taking aim she pointed it at the cactus on the left and fired away, bracing herself against the shock of each hammering blast. Again each of the seven rounds blew holes in the body of the plant, smearing green chlorophyll across the desert dust. Once she was finished she took out the magazine and released the slide, engaging the thumb safety as she did so.

"How do you know all this?" She asked turning to Grim. "You rely solely on underworld powers to do your job. How do you know about how to use human weapons?"

Grim just smirked. "Because child, dese are the tools of meh trade. I've been around for a long time, and I've been through a great many wars and madness since humanity came into existence. So I tink I should know a ting or two about what gives me a job." He dug into his robe and pulled out a small metal case the size of a match box. As he held it in his palm for the two to see, they could make out hundreds of very tiny details across its surface, latches, hinges, even the surface of the old steel. He placed it on the ground and stepped back. Willing his scythe to his hands he tapped the tiny case with the non-bladed end of his own weapon. The little box disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing a moment later as the gas disappeared in the same position, only this time it was about a metre and a half long and half a metre wide.

"Occasionally I like to take souvenirs from battlefields." Grim explained as he reached down and unlatched the steel lid, opening it for the kids to see. They peered into the steel container and gaped at the sight. The metal crate was filled to the brim with all manner of assault rifles, pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, plus ammunition for each of them. Billy even spotted an RPG-7 with several rockets buried within. The two watched as Grim took out one of the weapons within, one they recognised out of news reports and games. He loaded a curved magazine into it, completing the dangerous looking weapon.

"Dis is an AK-47. You've probably-" He was cut off by Billy.

"Seen it on TV and stuff, we know. There are millions of them. It's kinda common after years of use by terrorists who want to blow up corrupt American executives. I can sympathise with that."

Grim nodded as he drew back the cocking lever. He pushed the safety down to automatic, aimed it at the cactus on the right, before he fired off several bursts of automatic fire. Billy and Mandy winced, holding their hands over their ears at the sound of the rifle bursts. They managed to get accustomed to it by the time Grim had emptied the magazine, and the cactus had fallen to pieces.

He withdrew the empty magazine from the smoking weapon, putting it back in the case. "We should probably get out of here. It'd be bad if someone heard us and tipped off de cops. Dese weapons are all highly illegal. Dose maniacs in government would freak if dey found out a couple of dissidents had enough firepower to blow away a presidential convoy." He closed the case and shrunk it back down to normal size with a tap on the side.

"Are you gonna teach us how to use those while we're away?" Billy asked. Grim turned to look at him with his broken arm in thought.

"I'll be teaching Mandy later, but you'll have to wait until dat cast comes off." He pointed to the plaster shield around his arm. "Also you'll have to prove to me that you won't do sometin stupid like becoming some crazy anarchist terrorist and getting us all killed." Billy frowned at Grims remark.

"Hey look I know I used to be stupid and impulsive and dangerous like that, but you should've seen by now that I'm not an irresponsible moron anymore. I'm just as responsible as Mandy is, so I think I deserve a little more respect." He hadn't spoken in any kind of anger, only in a firm, serious tone belied by his age. Mandy watched his reply with interest, paying close attention to the surprising maturity her little court jester had just shown. Again she felt a slight swell of admiration for the bouncy little pyromaniac. Grim considered what he'd said.

"That as it may be, you still have to prove to me that you're worthy. That's why Mandy has a scythe and is learning how to shoot, because I can trust her not to do anything idiotic."

"Come on Grim, Billy hasn't done anything to get us in trouble in years, and you only got me the scythe because I threatened you with torture." Mandy chimed in much to Billy's appreciation. "I'd trust him." Grim looked back and forth between the two and huffed.

"Look, I'll make you a deal. If by the time Billy's arm heals he has proved himself to be responsible enough, den I will teach him how to fire a gun. Until den you won't be able to either way. Happy now?" Billy considered for a moment.

"No sale." He answered flatly. "Mandy didn't have to prove herself before you gave her the scythe so why should I? It used to be a constitutional right." Grim rolled his head in dismay.

"For god sake Billy I told you I'd teach you if I saw you were ready when yer arm's healed! Until then you can't do anything anyway! What more do you want?" He began to regret saying that almost immediately as a sly evil smile stretched across his features. Grabbing him by the collar of his robe Billy yanked Grim down to eye level with him, where he glared intently into his face and spoke with a dark tone.

"My own scythe."

Grim stared down at him in silence. He hesitated in thought.

"… Fine. If you're responsible enough to handle a gun, you're responsible enough to handle the dark side of the world, if dat's what you want."

Billy nodded his head as they got back in the car to continue on towards their first stop, Las Vegas, world centre for corruption, greed, glitz and decadence.

* * *

They drove throughout the remainder of the day, arriving at the neon metropolis in the late afternoon. Grim got into his human disguise before they came into the outer suburbs. The lights were yet to come on as they again made their way to a motel on the outskirts to stay the night. After that they had shifted most of their supplies into the small fridge, which by some miracle they had managed to store everything in, but only after Grim cleaned it out of several types of mould, some of which was sentient. As the sun set and they got ready for the evening they watched as the distant lights of the strip came on one by one. Tempted by the opportunity to see the sights and get a feel for what was happening in this back alley of society they left to tour the strip.

Billy sat glued to the window, his nose pressed up against the glass as they drove through the traffic. There was so much light and colour it dazzled the eyes if one were to look directly at it. The sound of the many cars and the helicopters overhead was overstimulation enough. All around them there was fervent activity and enthusiasm in the people walking to and fro in the streets as they ducked in and out of restaurants, casinos and hotels. From somewhere they heard Kanye West playing, from somewhere else electronica.

Mandy crossed her arms in front of her as she silently surveyed the particular expressions and mannerisms of the people walking the footpaths with a detached sort of curiosity. Las Vegas had always been an obscure out of the ordinary place when compared to the rest of the western world. Unlike New York or London there was no major commercial or financial engines at work, nor any kind of majour industry producing any kind of commodities. It was a place built on the back of people's desire's to do whatever they want, to let go of their responsibilities and their morality, however loosely defined they may be, and act on their more basic instincts like desire, greed, lust, hope and excitement. This place was, by nature and by design, the playground of the west.

'_If the rest of the world is being overcome by madness and despair, what about here?'_

Though she held nothing but contempt for the people around them, disgusted by their vanity and blindness in the face of greed, she was interested in what she saw of their behaviour and of the state of this particular remote corner of society. Oddly it appeared as if the vibrant activity the strip was known for was in the process of a massive boom. The streets were chocked with more people and cars than there was room for, and the particular enthusiasm with which they strutted about was particularly noticeable. What's more there appeared to be no less than a dozen new resorts and casinos under construction, evidence that demand had swollen dramatically.

'_But what is the cause?'_ She wondered.

Again she recalled the case of the fat pig who had sold them the car they currently sat in. He had been easily backed into selling for a low price by his desperation to pay off his depts, which he had gotten in the first place through his decadence and greed, notably in buying that new Camaro. This then, she reasoned, must be another facet of that same small-minded thought process. People were flocking here in droves driven by both their desire for more money, a bigger house, a better car, a sexier wife or husband, and a higher standing amongst their equally materialistic neighbours, as well as the looming presence of all the dept they had built up over the years and the possibility of losing their jobs due to 'un-American foreigners.'

But that, Mandy realised, was where Las Vegas was tied to the rest of the world, not as a place where hopes and dreams were realised, but where greed and stupidity were openly exploited. They came here to have fun by doing what they were too logical and moral to do. _'They all know that they are more likely to make a loss here than go home rich, but their greed and hope for something better make them forget the logical way to get ahead and come to this brightly lit… place.'_

She looked over to Billy in the back seat, still gaping at all of the lights. For a moment she felt her esteem for him and all the maturity he'd grown slip away, and found herself looking at him the same way she had years ago, as just another imbecile, one of a few billion, who's job it seemed was to drag her down to oblivion with the rest of the world.

"Hey Mandy," He spoke up, still facing the neon signs and attractions, "Watcha think these guys are gonna do when they leave here, and they've blown all their money, and they still gotta pay off their loans?"

Mandy just stared at him expressionless, Billy's eyes turning to look at hers as if to say _'I know you know, and I know too,'_

She turned away to face the front as she slowly recovered from the jolt of the dim witted boy's random insight as he turned back towards the strip. To say it was a surprise was a gross understatement, would in itself be a gross understatement. On the outside however she showed nothing but stern, stoic control. Grim just continued to drive through the neon metropolis, quietly having taken note of the incident and filed it away as Billy continued to stare in wonder at the lights and Mandy slowly came to return her attention on the people walking the streets, surveying them as a scientist would survey germs, or a queen would survey her subjects.

* * *

The next day.

The three refugees left their motel around nine after getting the supplies back in the car. Having to do it again they were reminded just how much Billy had gotten, and how little space they had for it all, having to struggle to fit it all in there. It occurred to them that as a result of his semi-petty act of rebellion the depraved pricks that had owned the store he'd stolen them from may well have gone out of business. They avoided the congested inner part of the city, going in an arc around the edges of the suburbs towards the road bound east. Passing through the city's less glamorous areas they saw the reality hidden behind the neon lights. Las Vegas was as much under the infectious hold of National Unity as anywhere else, with posters and slogans adorning every corner, as well as gangs of armed youths in black and red uniforms patrolling the streets; the Street Army they were called, or SA for short. The nationals had a habit of copying their German predecessors.

Before leaving the mid-desert oasis, Grim fuelled up for the long journey ahead. They had planned to make as few stops as possible, taking the back roads away from towns if possible to avoid being seen. Their plan was to head out east instead of due north, intent on taking a great sweeping curve to reach their destination. After that they headed on out to the vast desert beyond, soon swallowed up in their dry arid surroundings. The heat haze on the road made their little red car practically invisible to the trucks and anything else on the roads.

At about the same time as they were on the road, Junior was sitting down at a park bench outside the local shopping district. It was a Sunday and the morning sky was bright and clear, save for a tinge of smog. Braving the glares and bile-filled words hurled at him by the other citizens he had made his way into the heart of town towards this very spot looking out across the city centre, compelled by the faint hope of reaching out to someone, that despite all their madness and evil that he could at least make them question their judgement of him.

The reason why he still clung to this dying hope however was almost completely beyond his ability to rationally explain anymore.

Maybe it was instinct, to keep fighting on to the bitter end no matter what. Then again, maybe he still believed they could change simply because he had no other choice but to believe, to hold onto that faith no matter how completely it had been held up to the light and had all its gaping holes exposed. Either way, though he had proved to them time and time again he was not the abomination they called him as, and had only received ever worsening scorn and hatred and abuse as a result, though every conscious thought told him they were beyond saving, he had still yet to acknowledge defeat.

Taking a step back from his own bleak reflection on the slow downwards slide of the other people around him he turned his thoughts towards another pressing topic. He couldn't help but think about what his friends were doing at this moment, running, hiding, struggling to survive without being found. He wondered what it was like to live off the grid.

'_It's probably hell.'_ He thought with all his cynicism. _'But then again, they have each other for company, and they're getting away from this place. Maybe it's not so bad.'_

After he had heard about Gladys' conversation with her son, he had pressed for any details he could gather. Billy however had anticipated that people everywhere would want information, and it would be best not to tell them too much for fear of the killer hearing. He understood that secrecy was a good idea, but it did pain him greatly to be in the dark to such an extent. And if it pained him to be in the dark then how it must have been for his parents, worried sick about their kid, unable to be with him at such a desperate time.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by a beeping sound accompanying a vibrating in his pocket. He opened up his phone to find a photo message had been received, from Trixie of all people.

'_Trixie Tang? She thinks I'm a monster. Why on earth is she sending me messages for?'_

He opened the file to find a picture of some kind of figure covered in what appeared to be a swarm of locusts or some other powerful insects. On closer inspection he noticed the figure flailing around under the swarm, from what he could see of her face through the bugs, looked an awful lot like Mindy. As he continued to stare at the picture of the arrogant, shallow girl, he heard the telltale rhythmic tapping sound of footsteps on concrete coming up the path beside him.

"Is that Mindy?" Max asked as he peered into the phone's screen, leaning in next to Junior's head. He stared in mute surprise at the picture of the girl. Looking around to their right the two boys saw as said girl approached across the open green grass on her own, her usual socialite suck-ups having apparently abandoned her to mill around Trixie. In her hand she clutched a dog's lead, at the end of which was a cowering Chihuahua. Around the park eyes followed her, many of the school's inhabitant's milling around the area for shopping or sport, all having received Trixie's message.

Mindy's face was contorted in a look of ungodly rage as she dragged her dog along forcibly by the collar.

"Stop cowering you pathetic little piece of shit! Do as you're told! Do as I tell you damn it!" She hissed with a venom so toxic it made Junior's insides clench. The dog reacted as expected, burying its eyes under its paws in a sad attempt to hide from the increasingly brutal narcissist. For Mindy however this only served to push her ever further into her frenzied rage. "YOU LITTLE BITCH! HOW DARE YOU MAKE A FOOL OUT OF ME YOU STUPID FUCKING LITTLE FUCKING STUPID FUCKER…"

Screaming as many profanities as loudly as she could she choked the poor dog by its collar before lashing out with a savage kick to the ribs, sending it hurling several metres. Not ceasing her frenzied tirade she stormed over and began kicking and stomping on the dog, continuing to scream and shout and roar out all kinds of horrors even as the dog's whimpers gave way to silence and her shoe became covered in blood.

When at last she stopped Junior found himself heavily unnerved at the sight of the… _girl_ standing there. Her whole body racked and shook from head to toe, her face was puffy and red and her perfect hair dishevelled, and her clothes and face were spattered with blood. Bulging bloodshot eyes vomited out all manner of madness and malignant intent. She flicked her hysterical gaze this way and that around the park as everyone stared in silence, searching for anyone who would question her supremacy. What she didn't expect however was when they began to snigger and point at her.

"Hey princess loser!" Two patronising female voices called in unison.

She turned to glower murderously at whoever had dared insulted her, finding it had come from two of the girls hanging around Trixie nearby, a pair of twins who she had once counted as her earliest and most loyal followers. Across the park he just smiled at the arrogant girl's fury before her one time friends dealt the final blow, finishing what Mandy herself had started four years earlier.

"Bzzzz!"

Mindy shuddered under the memory of the sound. At that the whole park roared with laughter, all pointing their fingers and jeering at the permanently humiliated wretch, some making buzzing noises. She thrashed around in terror and covered her ears with her hands, tearing out her hair before running away, screaming insanely all the way. She continued to run away from the field, her overwhelming pride crushed, the remains of her popularity and status completely levelled.

Junior gave a small smile. "Well what do you know, these morons do have a sense of justice."

He looked up towards his friend standing beside him. Strangely Max didn't seem to show any particular interest in the scene, observing it all with a flat expressionless face of indifference. It struck him momentarily, seeing him become so completely unreadable, so distant. He soon forgot about it as Max gave a light-hearted smile and sat down in the opposite seat next to Junior.

"You know, Mindy's not going to take this lying down." He commented returning to the subject. "Eventually she's going to get rid of Trixie in some way. With all the money her family has there's nothing stopping her, it's only a matter of time." Max smiled back as he always did but didn't appear to be paying any particular attention.

"Have you heard anything about Billy and Mandy?" He asked hopefully getting straight down to business. Junior shook his head, undoing the red scarf around his neck.

"Sorry." He said, setting the strip down on his lap.

"What about Billy's mom and dad, have they said anything?" Again Junior shook his head.

"No. They don't know anything. Billy called them last night and told them they were going into hiding for a while, and that they would come back only when it was safe to do so." Max sighed.

"Do you know any place they might-"

"No Max, I'm sorry. No one knows anything at this stage." Max conceded and slouched back on the bench.

Without another word on the matter he folded his arms across his chest as the two watched the people passing by with apathy. Neither found themselves particularly concerned by the venomous glares onlookers gave Junior, including some aimed towards the abomination's friend.

"Any ideas on who might be doing this?"

Again Junior shook his head. "No. But don't you think the search was unusual? What could whoever it is be looking for? Do you think it could've just been someone looking for some cash or something?"

"Somehow I doubt it." Max replied, the two returning to the contemptuous glares of the rest of the population. Seemingly having tired of the conversation he stood and turned to leave down the street.

"Remember if you hear anything you tell me immediately."

Junior gave a nod as they parted ways in the morning crowd. Turning back to the park he sighed, now left with only the scorn and bigotry of two million people. This time he couldn't find peace in the blue sky and semi-fresh air, the brightness of the day soured by the constant burning reminder that everything had gone wrong in the world. He stood and went to leave just as a beer bottle hurled past where his head had been moments before.

* * *

Midday.

Today was little different to the previous. Mandy sat back bored out of her mind, Billy still gorging himself on junk food as Grim drove east. Today though there did appear to be something worth listening to on the radio, having tuned into an all channels government broadcast.

"_The Department of State has confirmed reports that the countries of New Zealand and Australia have refused to join the American Strategic Alliance. Australia has repeatedly and offensively rebuffed the United States and Canada demands to submit with New Zealand joining them in their defiance. Recently the two rogue nations stated they would not be joining the alliance at any stage or under any circumstances and refused to speak any further on the subject despite economic sanctions and threats of a naval blockade."_

Mandy listened in interest. Recently the nationalists had opted to create a formal hegemony over all non-European western nations. It was more of an extortion racket than anything. Canada had been the first to submit, but only after a mysterious bomb blast, courtesy of a stealth bomber, had wiped out their previous parliament. Australia and New Zealand, both of which were being torn apart socially, economically and politically by socialist and nationalist factions were to be next on the chopping block. Unfortunately with their economies having collapsed they were unable to meet demands, forcing them to defy their would-be masters. The gesture was not well received.

"_This is nothing less than an act of treason against America!"_ The voice on the radio switched to that of the president as he addressed the matter. _"For years we have acted as a loyal partner for the Australians and their New Zealand collaborators! We have defended them against their aggressors, we fought to protect them in all their wars, Gallipoli, Vietnam, Iraq, all of them! And this is how they repay our kindness, by allying with our enemies!"_

She groaned. How she hated hypocrites, and liars, as well as all the morons who swallowed their bullshit without a thought. No one seemed to care that before the hegemony was formed America had been a part of NATO, which they had subsequently abandoned, leaving the other member states to face Russia's aggression alone.

"_These un-American traitors will pay for their treachery! They will drown in their own-"_

Silencing the delusional man she slumped back in her seat in a particularly nasty mood. For the first time she wished she could be back in Endsville where she had plenty of bigots to take out her anger on.

She recalled that she had packed her mp3 player in her bug out bag just before she left. Swivelling around she reached over to the back where Billy was busy listening to his to retrieve it. Pulling the nylon bag to her lap she rummaged around through the boxes and wads of cash in a disorganised search. Finding nothing after several tries, and going through each pocket and compartment, she sat the bag down in the back again. _'Where'd I put it? I…'_

A thought occurred to her. Billy didn't have the chance to get his because they never stopped by his house. Turning back to Billy she saw that it was hers he was listening to.

He was distracted from the music to notice the rather flat, decidedly unhappy look on her face as she stared at him, mentally boring a hole into his face.

"What?" He asked pausing the device.

"Give me my mp3 player." Her voice was low, cold and threatening. Unfortunately Billy was one of the few people immune to her intimidation.

"Yeah yeah just a sec." He smiled as he played it again, switching through the long list of tracks while Mandy glared at him with an increasingly threatening aura, only barely keeping her anger in check from throttling him.

Switching through them all he found Mandy, unsurprisingly, tended to have a liking for hard rock and the like, and had every track ever made by the band Disturbed. As he continued to scan through the various pieces involving anger and pain, he stumbled across something far, _far_ more disturbing.

Mandy noticed Billy's eyes widen and a sudden gasp of surprise escaping his mouth, followed by barely suppressed laughter.

"What is it Billy?" Grim asked as he listened in on the conversation. Billy's grin grew immensely as tears of joy welled in his eyes.

"Mandy has Single Ladies on her mp3! AAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" He screamed and fell over onto the seat, kicking in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Mandy froze in horror, her face turning the colour of a tomato as Grim stared across at her wide eyed.

"SHE'S GOT SOS IN HERE TOO! HAHAHAHAAAA!"

Now Grim couldn't help but sputter and roar with laughter as Mandy mashed her palm into her forehead. He was too busy laughing to watch the road and ducked and swerved across its surface before spinning out across the desert sand. Mandy was simply too embarrassed to be angry, and spent the next hour and a half with her scarlet red face covered by her hand as they drove back onto the road and continued on their way east.

"What the… BARBIE GIRL? HAAAHAHAHAHA!"

Mandy blushed an even deeper red, ploughing her face into the dash as their car swerved violently across the road again.

* * *

The three refugees took shelter that night in another motel in a small town near the border to Utah. The only issue with taking the long way to Washington via the back roads was that it was just that, the long way. After driving across the desert highway for hours neither was in much of a mood for doing anything. But still they felt it best to take the long route, that way anyone who might be prowling the major highways for them along the way would figure they weren't coming, and would hopefully abandon the area to begin searching somewhere else. Their plan of always thinking one step ahead had kept them alive back at Mandy's house. Had they come unprepared they likely wouldn't have gotten the easy escape they had. Ahead of them lay more vast desserts, before they crossed over into Idaho from Utah.

They didn't bother unpacking before they left the car to go out to dinner. They hadn't eaten since breakfast, having not seen the need since they were only sitting in a car. But now that they were outside walking down the street they felt like passing out, little spots drifting in and out of their sight.

They stepped through the doorway of a little Chinese restaurant. They'd been surprised to find it considering both its location far from large population and the rampant anti-Asian prejudice. The outside showed the signs of the times however, cracked windows, remains of obscene graffiti that had been scrubbed away. On entering they met the two owners, a husband and wife in their fifties who looked to them with worry at first. After assuring them they weren't as bigoted and arrogant as the rest of the population they greeted them warmly and seated them personally.

As they cooked and served their meals they sat down to talk, the rest of the restaurant unsurprisingly empty. They learned that while most of the others in the town hated them, it was the gamblers returning from Las Vegas who had gambled all their remaining savings away who did all the damage. They came drunk and angry and looking for a fight, someone for them to blame for all their stupid mistakes and take out their anger on. Billy and Mandy shared a glance at this. They usually came at the end of every weekend, hence why the owners had been so tense when they'd arrived.

After telling them a select few details about their trip they thanked the couple and went to pay. Looking through his wallet Grim found he was a few dollars short. Leading the three out they made to return to the car for more.

A few hundred feet up the road however they paused at the sound of tyres screeching to a halt far behind them. Looking back they saw an old Camry skid to a halt out the front of the restaurant, four young, very drunk and very angry men hanging out the windows.

"FUCKING CHING CHONGS!" One of the punks screamed as they each levelled guns at the figures standing behind the glass.

Grim, Billy and Mandy gaped in shock as a cacophony of gunshots rang out and the men drove away in a hurry. All was silent in the aftermath. They tried to see the owners, listening for any sign they were alive, but nothing came.

"We won't be paying the rest of that bill." Grim spoke, the two kids not saying anything. They knew what he meant; they were dead. Wether human or undead he always knew.

Their spirits low he led them back as Mandy continued to gaze down upon the scene, all her hatred burning deep and powerful in her set stare as her fists clenched tightly in anger. She swore revenge against the world that let this happen and left to return to the motel.

* * *

Late that night.

Billy's house stood utterly silent and unmoving, the way it had been since Billy's parents left with the Nergals, bathed in the unfeeling blue glow of the streetlights. Not a sound emanated from within, except for when Saliva and Milkshakes would occasionally stroll back through after they had run off following the unpleasant events of yesterday. The eerie stillness was more or less foreign to this particular patch of land in Endsville, and if said house had a mind of its own it would have wondered wether or not it were going mad.

This silence was shattered in an instant by the sound of a bathroom window being broken in. From the empty window frame a small figure cloaked in its own shadow entered the deserted house, its black shoes making slow crunching noises under the broken glass as it stepped in, finding its way around easily despite the gloom.

It had to work quickly so as to not alert anyone to its presence. Without turning on the lights it began to scan the house objectively from top to bottom as it moved steadily from room to room, making its way through with an efficiency almost as if it already knew the layout of the house.

Its master and the people she was with had left, and she was now in hiding somewhere. It could not complete its ultimate mission with her out there somewhere unknown. It had to find her or else it could not hope to accomplish its primary objective.

Entering Billy's room it started searching methodically through every drawer, closet and shelf, taking but a minute to check every place a contact book could be hidden. Once satisfied that there wasn't one in there it moved back to his parent's room, searching it without care to the mess it made. It found one book in there. Taking the book in its hand it headed downstairs to the kitchen and living room to continue its search, where it found another contact book and several documents on various family matters.

Once it had found the files and documents it was after it returned to the bathroom, stepping out through the broken window and disappeared into the ghostly blue of the night, leaving the house silent and still once more.

* * *

**By the way I based the idea of Grim's man suit to be kinda like the character Marcus Wright in T4. I didn't want him to always be weedy and weak like he is in the show. Hope you liked it. Tell me if you think it needs anything, I could always improve.**


	14. Hiding

**Anywho nothing much to say. Short chapter, hope you enjoy.**

* * *

**Hiding.**

They arrived in Washington four days after they had left the pus filled, festering wound known as Endsville.

On Monday they crossed over from the deserts of Utah into Idaho. As they drove along the long road the three watched from behind the glass as the vast desert slowly gave way to wide prairies and fields of wheat. Hour by hour the scorching heat began to give way these farmlands eventually gave way themselves to snow capped mountains and high peaks, beyond which lay the much more lush surroundings of dense forests and streams, indication that they were nearing their destination. By the time they stopped for the night in a small town near the top of the state, the endless dry wasteland they had travelled through the past three days was long gone far behind them, replaced by greenery and cool air.

They checked into their last motel in the town of Darcy, nestled in next to the mountains. A local mall had provided them with a few new pairs of clothes, all pretty much identical to their originals, odd considering their practice of wearing more or less the same outfit every day. Mandy searched through an army surplus shop for something else that would be useful, settling on a pair of black combat boots with leather straps, to better adapt to their new woodland environment.

'_I've always wanted a pair of combat boots. I never thought I'd find such a good use for them.'_

That night they simply had take away for dinner, got back to the motel, and fell asleep. Billy couldn't help but feel a certain attachment to the simple room, which would serve them as a home for one night, and then they would leave in the morning, never to return again. He had random moments of philosophical thought regularly, but few led anywhere in particular.

That day life had continued as normal for the citizens of Endsville as well. The vast majority of the population had gone about their lives with the same single-minded selfishness and mindless stupidity as the loudspeakers and radios blurted out more idiotic promises of riches and glory in return for their support. They of course swallowed it all with zeal, despite the failing businesses and slow collapse of society around them, turning on anyone who didn't fit into their definition of normal in a savage frenzy. Junior continued to live his life, going to school during the day regardless of the growing daily taunts and venom his classmates spat at him, going about his work with the same cool and collected attitude of confidence as always. Never far from the young human-demon hybrid Max continued asking questions of him and anyone else, pressing for any slither of information, in addition to pursuing any avenue of research available. Harold and Gladys passed the time watching movies and playing truly awful board games down in their cavernous refuge with the Nergals.

Mindy was now the least popular person in school, and she cursed Mandy with every breath for what had befallen her. Though without a nearby and semi-logical outlet, her arrogant fury grew within. _'How dare they! How dare they do this to me! They betrayed me! Those pathetic little shits, I'm better than them, they should be begging at my feet for my forgiveness! They'll pay. They'll pay for disobeying me!'_

Otherwise everything was in relative order for both Endsville and the three escapees trying to evade their hunter, their lives going on more or less as normal.

Hmmm, normal…

The word 'normal' was used fairly loosely in Endsville.

The next morning the trio crossed the border into Washington. The tarmac was slick with water and sleet from the dew and the light drizzle that would cover the forests every so often. Grim drove carefully to avoid skidding on the windy wet road. Overhead the sky was overcast with a light cover of rich fertile cloud not quite thick enough in places to block out the blue of the sky above. The air was cool and very damp with a distinctly sweet aroma that neither of the kids were accustomed to having lived in the city for so long. It made them wind the windows down just to feel its refreshing kiss on their skin.

Grim, Billy and Mandy arrived at the town nearest to the cabin at around midday, Grim putting on his disguise as they entered. It was a tiny place, a local centre of business for the few people living there. They passed by numerous light trucks and four wheel drives carrying logs, fuel and other odds and ends as they drove towards the centre of town.

"Where'd you say this cabin was?"

"It's on the other side of town. Just follow this road through, then turn right onto a dirt road." Mandy directed him through the quiet little town, past shop fronts and a gas station, until they emerged from the other side of the small town. The remaining desert dust coating their car became mixed with the thin spray of vapour off the wheels, a slight drizzling shower joining in to form little beads of dirty tan droplets all over, gradually washing it away.

They drove another five minutes before they came to a deviation in the road, a small dirt path leading off into the forest.

"That's it. Turn in here." She said pointing towards the path.

Grim turned off the asphalt road onto the compacted dirt path before them. The trail wound its way up further and further away from the road, turning around a network of hills that had produced a shallow river in the valley a few hundred meters down on the right. They had driven for another ten minutes down the winding dirt road when before them it opened out into a large clearing, with the timber bungalow like cabin to their left, set into the surrounding trees.

Grim finally stopped the car and opened the doors to get out, their little trek from Nevada to here now over. Billy struggled out of the back seat, unable to steady himself with his broken right arm. He flopping down from his moving prison face down onto the dark earth beneath, getting up to do a number of very large stretches, sending welcome popping and cracking sounds throughout his body. With that he, Grim and Mandy gazed up at the large cabin before them, taking in the wooden front porch, the windows nestled in the walls, solar panels on the roof, a rainwater tank, and what looked like an upper level for bedrooms and the like. All up it was nothing short of perfect.

"Mandy, this place is awesome! I thought you said it was gonna be a little cabin, not a house!" Billy charged up to the front porch to take a look inside. He struggled to open the door only to find it was securely locked.

"Do you have the keys?" He asked impatiently. Mandy walked over to the right hand side of the house, making her way over behind the corrugated metal rainwater tank. Kneeling down she reached in towards a hidden area and retrieved a small metal box that looked like a very old lunchbox with a Thunderbirds lid. It was her fathers from when he was younger than her. Paying her more sentimental emotions no heed she flipped it open to reveal a key, taking it and dropping the box to the ground without care. She walked back to the front porch, pushed the key into the lock, and opened the door to the old holiday home.

They were greeted with darkness within, until Mandy flicked a switch, lighting up the house with fluorescent bulbs mounted into the ceiling. Inside was a kitchen on the left, a living room to the right with a widescreen plasma TV and a dark leather couch.

Billy continued to stare in wonder and amazement, letting his eyes dart across every surface. Grim followed him down the short hallway, also quietly impressed by the dwelling.

"So you're telling me that your mom and dad built all this by hand?" Billy asked. She just nodded. "And you never once came back?" She paused for a moment before she shook her head.

"We stayed one night when the thing was completed, before we got Grim. We never went back after that." Billy looked at her with one eye raised. "I don't like nature. Besides they were always too busy to take any time off." Her parents had always wanted to come back to this place, probably after Mandy was gone though. It didn't really matter now though she told herself.

Grim rounded into what looked like a study room, with a wooden desk and high backed office chair. There was a bookshelf lined with encyclopaedias, novels and anything else of interest. He let his human form vanish in a green aurora, leaving his regular dark robed, skeletal self as he surveyed the study. He sat down in the leather bound chair, sighing in the ease of luxury, letting it swing back to support his weight.

"I could get used to dis." Billy and Mandy looked at him deadpanned.

"Uh, don't go getting used to it ol' buddy ol' slave!" Billy spoke with a smirk as he grabbed Grim by his collar and dragged him chocking up the staircase, sniggering at the garbled curses Grim muttered in his occasional loathing for the two. Billy's anarchistic and slightly psychotic behaviour could, on occasion, take on such a passionately destructive and vindictive quality that if he could put an accurate word on it would be 'Mandyesque'.

'_It's strange. Ever since Billy began to show that he isn't a complete idiot, he's been starting to show certain traits which were uniquely Mandy's beforehand. I wonder what's going on inside dat head of his.'_

Upstairs there were bedrooms and a bathroom complete with spa. Mandy walked down to the end, to where the main bedroom was. There was a large king size bed, bookshelf, a walnut desk before the bed with a small TV to one side, an empty closet, and a view out to the side of the surrounding wilderness. Stepping over to the window se gazed out at the land. There was a faint fog that drifted amongst the trees, with snow capped mountains in the distance. It was a truly breathtaking view. Mandy couldn't help but stare in wonder, until she forcibly wrenched her gaze away. She didn't have room in her life for such luxuries as beauty and natural wonders. Billy and Grim just stared out the window in wonder to the woodland paradise beyond anyway.

"I see why your parents built dis place." Grim had to wonder just how they managed to build this place, and how they survived without going to it at least once a year.

Mandy turned to face them. "Alright this is my room." She didn't react to the glum faces of her companions. "You Billy can take the room opposite this one. Grim, the room after that, or the study." They walked back out to find Billy and Grim's rooms was about three quarters the size of the main bedroom, but still very luxurious, with the same stunning picturesque views of the surrounding landscape. Grim's room also faced the downward slope towards the front where the car was parked, to where the small river could just be seen in the distance.

"So, you still grumbling about not getting a good room?" They grinned and shook their heads.

"No." They answered in unison.

"Good."

* * *

They quickly began unpacking the mounds of food and supplies from the back of the car. They managed to fit all of it in the fridge, freezer and pantry with room to spare. They took their newly acquired clothes upstairs, and Mandy put her bag of cash and armaments up to the closet.

"Hey Grim, you still got that trunk full of guns with you?" Mandy asked. Grim nodded, reaching into his robe to pull out the little box of destruction.

"Right here mon." He answered

"Good. Put that in the living room, outside the kitchen." Grim took the box down the stairs, placing it on the ground before enlarging it to its full size. He unhooked the latch, leaving the lid down.

"I'll teach you a bit more about dem later. Right now I'm gonna go to that town and get more supplies. I'll see if dey have anything else useful down there." Grim walked outside down the porch to the car. Billy followed him.

"Hey Grim, I wanna go too. I need more clothes and junk food and lighter fluid. And we should get movies and games and-"

"Need I remind you dis isn't a vacation. There's something out dere that wants to kill us all!" Billy just smiled light heartedly.

"Yeah, but doesn't mean we can't have one while we're hiding like rats." He grinned as he hoped into the passenger seat with a wad of cash in his hands. Grim sighed as he got in the car.

"That better not be from Mandy's stash, or else you'll be my next job."

"Don't worry Grim. Heh heh, it's not Mandy's." Grim closed the door and started the car.

"Wait, den who's is it?" Billy sniggered suddenly.

"Yours."

He continued to grin as Grim drove off down the dirt road. Outside the car Mandy thought she heard him muttering something about little bastards on the way out.

Mandy watched them drive off from the porch. She strolled out to the clearing, listening to the sound of the cars engine fading away into the distance, to be replaced by the distant calls of birds, the masses of leaves swaying in the gentle wind, the sound of the running water down in the river. She looked up to see it was overcast, and the cool air made her wrap her hands around her elbows. She could smell the sweet aroma of the trees around her, the oils in the leaves, the pine trees, and the mist coalescing into one.

She turned her eyes downhill to the thin trees and scrub that blocked her view of the river. She strolled on down towards its banks, through around one hundred yards worth of forest. There was plenty of room to move as she emerged from the trees to the white pebbled banks of the stream. She watched the crystal clear water flowing over the curved rocks slowly weathering them away. Deeper water flowed calmly about ten metres out. She could see what appeared to be large, fat fish swimming slowly in the river. Her theory about the moving shapes was confirmed when one burst out of the water, pursued by some unknown predator, to plunge back in a moment later.

Though Mandy hand never really cared about nature, she couldn't help but feel a certain peace around this little river.

A sudden thought came to her. Turning back towards the cabin she double checked she was alone. Turning nervously back she took a step closer to the water's edge. Tentatively she slid her shoes and socks off, and slowly stepped out into the shallow banks of the river. The water was cool on her toes, and though she never went any deeper than her ankles, it made every nerve up her legs tingle with the sudden stimulation of the cold water running off the mountains. She closed her eyes, leaning back slightly onto her legs, revelling in the blissful relaxation of the moment. She stood that way, listening to the surrounding forest, feeling the cold air and water bring on a sense of elation to her nerves.

Minutes passed in a blur as she silently rejoiced in the paradise she had found, not moving from her spot until she heard the car returning in the distance. Turning on her heels she walked out of the cold water back to her shoes.

'_What was that I just felt? I've never felt… at peace like that before, like everything that's wrong with the world all went away.'_ Wiping the water off her feet she slipt her socks and shoes back on to see what the two had returned from their shopping trip. _'How long was I standing there?'_ She made her way back to the clearing where Grim and Billy were unloading more food, supplies and a few movies and games.

"Billy dat's the last time I _ever_ wait for you to make a decision!"

"But they were both cool movies, I couldn't choose!" Billy whined. Grim deadpanned.

"I waited for half an hour while you tried to decide, and then you decided that you didn't want either of them!"

"Yeah, but you were the one that swore so loud that everyone in the entire place heard it." Grim's face contorted in fury at the little brat before him.

"Grruh… Why you… You! YOU LITTLE BA-"

"Grim." He stoped his rant to face her. "How long were you two gone?"

"Two hours thanks to your little friend here." Grim grumbled in anger as Billy just giggled.

'_Two hours? I stood still for two hours, and I barely noticed it?'_

"I would've been able to make my decision quick if Grim wasn't too busy rushing me and shouting bad words." Grim groaned in despair and got the long life food out of the back as Billy carried in their new electronic toys.

Billy turned back to face Mandy. "We also gots a little video game console so we can pass the hours like seconds. We can waste our lives just like we did back home!" She looked to see the blue box of the console in the back seat.

"You know, later we might want to get some fishing rods because that river has loads of fish in it." Mandy hadn't gone fishing in a long time simply because there weren't any good places anymore; they'd all been depleted and polluted. Now that the opportunity had presented itself the idea of going fishing again appealed to her.

They went back inside to pack everything away. Mandy went upstairs intent on just lying on her big bed while more hours passed. She collapsed back onto its soft cool surface, and was soon somewhere between awake and asleep. _'Oh yeah, I could get used to this.'_

Billy was downstairs connecting the new game console while Grim simply sat down in the chair outside on the front porch. The day was going by smoothly, at least as smoothly as you could get with a hyperactive air head and a merciless terror.

* * *

Late that afternoon.

The orange afternoon sun shone down through an old window in an old decrepit house near the outskirts of Endsville, casting its bleak orange light onto the solitary raven cloaked figure sitting within. The light from outside illuminated a small book of contacts it had taken from Mandy's when it had killed her parents and tried and failed to kill her. It flicked through the pages one by one, taking not more than a few seconds to memorise the contents before turning to the next page. It had already read through the lists of major purchases in the past which sat in a pile on its right, and would keep them, the contact book, and all other documents it had recovered from its activities for future reference.

It finished the final page of Mandy's little contact book, closed the covers and put it and the other documents back in the bag. Grasping the bag by the handle it took it over to a cupboard, opening it to reveal a number of weapons, notably an M4 carbine, an ultra compact MP5K submachine gun, both of which had been stolen from an army base, and a Glock 17 taken from a police officer. It placed the weapons carefully in the bag, along with the numerous magazines, zipped it up and closed the closet.

Sparing a last glance out the old round window at the orange afternoon sun and sky it turned and carried the bag down the many flights of stairs to the bottom floor. There it opened the closet door under the staircase, depositing the bag there in the corner away from prying eyes. It then removed the tattered and burned cloak it had been wearing, covering the bag with it, before it turned and slowly walked off through the decaying corridors, its footsteps echoing endlessly throughout its hollow depths, towards the old wooden door. It would return for the bag soon, but the cloak was no longer of any use now that its operations within Endsville's limits were at an end.

'_They have been in hiding for four days now. I will need to start searching for them soon. The nearest contact is just outside Endsville so I will search there first.'_ Remembering the location for Billy's grandfather's house it exited the old decaying mansion, walking out into the cold afternoon sunlight. _'It is nearby enough to reach on foot, but after that every other contact is far away. After this I will need a vehicle to continue to search for the targets.'_

With that in mind it set out towards the road to the nearby address. It did not escape its attention that its targets were more than likely not there, but it had to cross the location off in order to begin the long methodical search that was to come. Soon it would be time to leave Endsville.

* * *

**Next chapter will focus a little more on the life of Junior and everyone else back in Endsville. We will see how Junior copes with his abuse at the hands of the people he wishes to gain the respect of and once fought to protect. We will see how Billy and Mandy are settling into their new home, all the while the madness and evil of the world slowly close in around them. ****In addition there's Max, the strange mysterious creature who's tailed the group for years. What will happen now that they are gone?**

**Stay tuned.**


	15. Settling In

**Hello readers. I want to thank everyone who has read this and has posted a review. It makes my day every time I receive a reply. Writing really doesn't come easily for me, this whole thing has been an enormous amount of work, and your feedback makes it all worthwile and more. So thank you all for your support.**

* * *

**Settling In.**

Next morning.

"Now put the magazine into de receiver until it locks into place." Grim instructed while Mandy complied, locking the full magazine into the open port at the bottom of the Kalashnikov.

"Now pull back and release de cocking lever and you're ready to fire." Mandy pulled back on the appendage on the side of the gun and let it go, letting it strip off the first round from the magazine.

* * *

That Thursday Grim had started training her again on the use of more powerful weapons than her already powerful handgun. Mandy, Billy and he had been awake for about an hour when he started teaching her on the venerable AK-47.

She had managed to drag herself out of bed at sunrise, and had stopped to stare out the window at it for just a moment. She didn't think twice of it as she turned away and walked to the bathroom to get fixed up for the day, then went downstairs for breakfast. She made herself a bacon and egg sandwich, devouring it as Billy came down to devour whatever his eyes laid upon in the fridge.

"Hey Mandy." Her gaze landed on him as he ate and drank down several raw eggs before sinking his teeth into a lettuce, ripping the leafy green orb to shreds in moments.

'_At least he only eats what's edible now.'_ Though he wasn't as disgusting as he once was, he could still act like a rabid animal when it came to food. She continued eating, calmly apathetic to the boy's ravenous eating habits. Grim showed roughly the same reaction as he came out to brew his coffee, that of no reaction at all.

"Hiya Grim. What're we gonna do today?" A few shredded bits of lettuce and egg white flew out of his mouth as he greeted the skeleton. He turned the kettle on and retrieved a jar of instant coffee and sugar.

"Hey you two. I figured I'd get down to teaching Mandy a bit more about how to fight with less supernatural weapons." He indicated towards the metal trunk full of metallic hell while shovelling two teaspoons of the brown granules into the bottom of a coffee mug. No doubt Grim had become accustomed to using a lot of caffeine to wake himself up, of which instant coffee lacked somewhat.

"And when are you gonna teach me huh?" The eager youth leaned from his place before the fridge towards his companion, who still towered over him.

"When you stop being so eager, it freaks me out." Billy groaned and sat down on the floor, continuing to munch on his half eaten lettuce. Grim poured the hot water into the mug as he added two teaspoons of sugar. He moved over to sit at the table as he drank down a third of it in one go.

"Is there anything else you can teach me, stuff like hand to hand fighting?"

"I don't really know any martial arts that you don't already know. I tink what you should be doing is a lot of exercise, running, push-ups, and generally make up for not doing any for de past twelve years of yer life. It would do you a world of good." He continued "It's a miracle you're able to block and dodge attacks with such skill without any physical training. You should by rights be dead. You too Billy."

She shrugged her shoulders. She and Billy had been pretty lucky thus far, as her idea of exercise was limited to fighting for survival one moment, then playing video games for hours on end the next. "Fine. Just teach me all you know about how to fight without the scythe." Grim nodded.

"Hey, when we aren't all serious and fighting for survival we should go fishing. I found some rods in the laundry." Mandy remembered how she wanted to go fishing down in that stream. Perhaps she would even dip her feet in again and feel that meditative-like trance once more.

"There'll be plenty of time for that later. Grim, you'll show me how to use more of those weapons. After that, we'll go fishing together." Billy smiled and nodded as she finished off her breakfast before heading upstairs to brush her teeth.

Billy finished up his lettuce leaf before he went to turn on the TV. By the time Mandy came down ready for her lesson Billy had began playing a futuristic racing game. She ignored the bright flash of a nuclear weapon on the screen as she marched out to Grim, who was waiting out front with a Kalashnikov and several magazines in hand.

* * *

"Now bring it up to your shoulder with your feet spread apart. Take aim through de notches at the back and the centre of the circle at the front." She raised the heavy battle rifle. It was solidly built, utilising the original milled receiver, making it heavy to carry and difficult for her small stature to wield. She knew she would have to find something better, but for this lesson it would do.

There was one good thing about it though. As she felt the cold wooden grip at the front and the pistol grip, she realized that even though she had held and fired many rifle like weapons using lasers, plasma, caustic gel, or a mixture of the three, this felt very different. Whereas all that had come before had been flashy and stylish in one way or another, boasting bright plastic or some sense of artistic soul, this was a hard and unforgiving piece of utilitarian machinery. It was a soldier's weapon in every sense of the word.

She levelled the powerful weapon at a tree in the distance, lining up the centre of the trunk with the sights.

"When ready." Grim said. She squeezed the chunky trigger, causing the rifle to let off a string of immensely loud and powerful blasts, knocking her off balance. She lowered the weapon as she inspected the distant target. Only one or two of the five shots appeared to have hit, the rest having gone way off when she lost control of it due to the painfully strong recoil. To say that this was more than a step up from her already powerful handgun would have been more than un understatement.

"Dis will be more difficult to control because of its power. You should limit your bursts to just two or three each time, oderwise you'll end up wasting your shots and getting pushed off balance, like just den."

Mandy nodded, bringing the weapon up to fire again, this time in a shorter three round burst. She managed to make every shot hit the tree and not get blown backwards as much. She kept the weapon aimed at the tree as bit by bit she emptied the magazine, soon followed by the second, and the third, until all six were used up, and many of the nearby trees were splintered. She rubbed her sore shoulder, the powerful rounds kicking back on her like battering rams. She knew she already had a bruise forming without even having to look.

"Okay. That's de basics of how you use a rifle. Most o de weapons in me stash are pretty much de same. There's more ammunition waiting if you want it for later, and other weapons that would likely suit your build better." She nodded as he took the rifle from her and turned to go walk back towards the cabin through the scrub. "I'll show you some other weapons."

Mandy followed Grim back inside to the case before them. He reached in and pulled out another weapon, a black M4 carbine with a single magazine in it. "Dis one is different because it's slightly less powerful, but is lighter, more accurate and easier to control. Also the selector switch goes from safe, to single, den auto, not like dis one." He placed the weapons back inside the metal case.

"If you want to practice with any of dese, just go right ahead. Just remember be careful, don't point it at anyone and… blah blah blah." Grim left her to join Billy in his game.

Mandy bent down to stare into the crate and the arsenal within. Her eyes came to rest on the tube body of a rocket launcher. Her curiosity perked by the powerful weapon she reached in and hefted it out onto her lap, taking great care not to touch the trigger. She studied the powerful armament carefully, noting the long tube body covered in a wooden heat shield with a flared exhaust, a wooden pistol grip and shoulder brace, reflex optical sight, and at the fore end the bulging conical rocket warhead capable of destroying almost anything in its path.

Lifting the heavy weapon up she carefully positioned it on her shoulder, balancing its weight as best she could.

A thought struck her. Lowering the weapon to her arms she climbed the stairs and stepped into the bathroom. Closing the door behind her she looked at herself in the mirror, positioning the RPG on her shoulder again. Looking at herself in the mirror she struck a pose, then shook her head in disbelief.

'_I can't believe this. It's all so surreal, like some kind of weird, violent dream. Did I eat something bad, or has the madness of the world finally overcome my reason?'_ Mandy continued to stare at the reflection of the menacing yet stupefied young girl before her, holding a weapon that would make tank crews cringe. It gave her a strange feeling of both strength and confidence, and timid apprehension, one she received every time she handled one of the new weapons she was being introduced to. In all it reminded her of just how extraordinary their circumstances were. She and Billy had been forced to mature far ahead of their time, herself in particular. Now she saw the full extent of just how far from normal their lives had become. One thing was clear to her though.

"I gotta lay off the steak sauce."

* * *

"Okay this is getting boring." Billy paused his game to put down his controller. "You can keep playing if you want Grim." The skeleton man just shrugged and put back his controller too. Billy went outside for awhile to go see what was around in this forest, Grim sitting back in the couch flicking through channels.

Billy made his way through the vast array of trees looking for something interesting. Passing one after another aimlessly he spied a small worm writhing about on the surface, trying to dig its way back under. Smiling he reached down, plucking the worm up in his fingers. He dangled it before his face, smirking as the mindless creature wriggled in his grasp.

"Hello there my little invertebrate friend." He spoke to the lowly creature while wiping some of the dirt off its surface. "As you may or may not know, probably not, you are a little earthworm, a creature who spends his lowly, brainless little existence eating garbage and poking holes in the world. You represent all the professional liars, back stabbers, sycophants and hypocrites of society. You leech off of other people's hard work just to promote your own lowly little life, and blame everyone else for your own mistakes. I bet you didn't even come to your kid's birthday party now did you?" He cooed as he stroked the puny creature with the tip of his finger.

"I know just whats ta do with you."

"…"

"OMNOMNOMNOM!""

In an instant the worm was crushed mercilessly into a thin mushy paste as he ground it up in his mouth. He smiled with satisfaction as he swallowed the remains of the creature, continuing on to find something else entertaining.

After searching for perhaps half an hour he spied something in the distance.

"No way…" Billy held his breath as he gaped in amazement and ran over to collect the little treasure he had found.

* * *

Not long after Mandy was carefully inspecting the damaged trees she had been practicing on earlier. The powerful rounds appeared to have shattered the bark, with some making large holes right through as they bent and deformed under the high speed impacts with the wood. She was distracted by Billy calling her name in the distance. She turned to face him as he came running towards her from out of the forest.

"Hey Mandy, guess what I found!" The girl looked down at something brown and furry clutched in his arms.

"Billy, is that… a Grizzly Bear cub?" She asked nervously, anxious over the potential answer. Billy nodded enthusiastically, all the wile a pit growing in her stomach as her fears were confirmed.

"Teh heh yeah! YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH!" he looked down at the little furry beast as it looked up at him with its brown eyes. "Aww, I wonder if momma bear is as cute as you."

Mandy had to guess not as an enormous brown figure rose up behind the boy. Billy noticed the look of alarm in Mandy's face.

"Hey Mandy, you look kinda pail. Can I get you a glass of water?"

The huge bear reached in and plucked its young from his arms, before planting its giant claws into the alarmed boy's nose.

"KYAAAAA!" Billy shrieked as the beast slammed him into the earth several times, creating a shallow crater with his image in the soil. It then swiftly kicked him into the trunk of a nearby tree with its powerful hind leg, earning a small cloud of shattered bark.

Billy groaned as the enraged bear stood over him. Mandy didn't move a muscle. _'Maybe it's like that thing in Jurassic Park. If I don't move, it won't notice me.'_

The bear raised its head from the battered boy to growl menacingly at Mandy, making her tense further as it snarled aggressively at her. _'I guess not.'_

Mustering all of her authoritarian power she slowly crept towards Billy as the bear stared at her growling. She slipped his plastered arm around her shoulder as the beast continued to glare menacingly. She was about to turn and leave when the little cub sprung off its mothers head to land on top of Mandy's hair. Her eyes widened in panic again, yet she kept her cool as she ever so gently picked up the bear cub with her left hand, placing it before the enraged beast.

Unfortunately the bear just made a bellowing roar at her, its fury not sated in the least. Taking heed of momma bear's warning Mandy turned and made like a tree, running back to the safety of the cabin as fast as her boots could carry her, dragging Billy along with her. With a frenzied bellow the bear lunged at them as they ran in terror, swiping its clawed paw at Mandy as she retreated back inside, locking the door behind them.

Outside the bear shrugged and lumbered away, her little cub balanced once more on her head.

The two kids leaned against the door, both wide eyed in shock, gasping and heaving for breath after their close brush with death, and not the everyday brush with death, aka Grim they were used to but rather the real thing.

"I see you met the neighbours." Grim called as he surveyed the battered and punctured form of Billy and the dishevelled, thoroughly freaked-out image of Mandy. "I'll get a first aid kid."

Mandy continued to gasp as she began to feel a growing deep ache in her back, followed by the sensation of something warm sliding down her skin. She twisted her head around to see what was causing the pain, finding several shallow cuts from the bear's claws around her mid back.

"Oww..." She turned to her battered and beaten friend, who seemed to be giggling light heartedly over the incident.

Either that or he was in shock.

Or both.

She gave him a glare of untold fury, holding a shaking fist to his battered face. "Billy, you better be grateful I didn't give you up to momma bear. Next time I'm gonna join in." Billy just smiled back.

"Yeah, thanks for not letting her skin me alive. I kinda needs my skin to hold my squishy bits in."

* * *

Half an hour later and Mandy was again outside poking around down near the river, a neat set of bandages wrapped around her back under her new dress. Billy had again gone off somewhere in the distance, promising not to go near any bears.

"Why am I not shocked by this anymore?" Mandy asked herself, referring to the bear attack and Billy's enduring random acts of stupidity and madness.

"Hey Mandy check this out!" Mandy turned around to see Billy with an angry looking Bald Eagle chick in his arms.

"Oh yeah."

* * *

That night.

At about the same time as the three were sitting down to dinner, another man, Harold's father, a burly man in his late fifties with large muscles, was slouching down into his old couch to watch the football. He lived in a house on the very outer limit of Endsville, and currently had a can of beer in one hand, and a thin slice of nearly cold pizza in the other, silently watching the boxy old television. He watched one of the players get tackled by a group of three opponents, the image slightly interrupted by the faint static which seemed to flash across the screen every now and then.

He took a bite of his pizza as he contemplated the static which had been interfering with his viewing as of late. Before now the old television received perfect transmissions on all channels, but lately, just a few hours ago in fact, the thing had begun to play up for no apparent reason. Still it wasn't that bad.

He was completely unaware that at that moment, while his eyes remained fixed on the game before him, another pair of deep black eyes remained fixed on him. Those eyes had been watching from a distance since arriving at his address a few hours ago, concealed from everything except the most determined and observant seeker.

The figure had been watching and waiting for the ones it was seeking to show up here. But five days since they had left however and they had still to show themselves. If they had ever intended to come here they would have done so by now.

Earlier it had also detected the occasional distant energy flux coming from someplace far away. Though faint as it was, it could sense it matched that of the Grim Reapers scythe. Though they were all too faint and distant to track them by, their distance did serve to provide irrefutable evidence that they were elsewhere.

'_The targets are not here. I must move on to other possible locations.'_ Once more it was faced with the problem of distance. _'All the other contacts are too far away to be reached on foot. I need to find a suitable vehicle before I can leave to search for them.'_

Without a sound the figure turned and left into the deep darkness of the night. Billy's grandfather never knew a thing, except that at some point by the end of the game the static had stopped.

* * *

Next morning.

Endsville police headquarters were all but empty. Last night an ugly late night brawl of drunken youths outside a nightclub had spiralled out of control into a huge riot focussed at the city's various minority groups. Most of the police force had been called out to deal with it, their main aim being to insure none of their assets were touched. Little was done to combat the violence; many joined in with the frenzied attackers. They were still on alert throughout the city, patrolling the streets in greater numbers and with greater dedication than usual.

This left one plump blonde officer with glasses and a nametag that read 'Dougie' to make his way through the largely empty halls unimpeded. He made his way down into the morgue, sealing himself inside the stainless steel room. Stepping over to the right wall he pulled out one of the steel cabinets, withdrawing the body of a middle aged man covered in a white sheet, undisturbed since he'd been bought in from the crime scene. Stepping around him he withdrew the body of the man's deceased wife beside him, both in perfect condition.

"Hello there sweetheart." He licked his lips in anticipation. Pulling back the sheet he exposed her bare unnaturally pail breasts, a small bruise spot marking the mysterious wound that had killed her. Unconcerned by any sense of decency or even the fact the woman was dead and her skin was cold, he bought his hands down onto her and began to grope her.

"Yeah you like that don't you whore? Oh you sexy little bitch." Leaning in with a seedy leering smirk he opened his mouth to extend his tongue out towards her face.

A bright flash of green disrupted his sickening activities. Abandoning the woman he whirled around to see a green portal opening up on the opposite side of the room, out of which stepped a tall dark green demon wearing a red and black suit, a dozen or so other little demons wielding knives and machetes scurrying out to secure the room. The tall demon stood with his arms crossed, looking at him with a glower of deep anger.

"How dare you touch her." Nergal Senior spoke in a low dark tone. "Get away from her you filthy pervert!" The officer however appeared unfazed, taking on an arrogant stance as he gazed at him with contempt and disdain.

"I know you. You're the father of that little circus mutant Nergal Junior. I guess being vermin runs strong in your family." Nergal scowled as the Nerglings turned to glare angrily at him. "Who the hell do you think you are breaking in here and telling me what to do? You hideous creatures need to learn your place, with your guts spread out across a laboratory table."

"Do not presume that I will tolerate your arrogance or your hypocrisy. My beloved son in his incredible mercy has chosen to forgive you for the inexcusable acts of cruelty you and others like you have done to him. On my son's wishes I will warn you now; I am not as merciful! Now we have come to retrieve the bodies of two of our friends who were murdered a few days ago. Clearly their bodies are not being treated with respect here so we will be-"

"You will go to hell freak! You and your fucking abomination of a son can go and burn in hell where you belong! I'll make sure your whore of a wife gets a good raping before we kill her too! You freaks will all bleed for being so different to me! We'll make you watch when we cut up your bastard child like-"

At this point the perverted sadist cut away, his previously cruel and arrogant eyes filling with terror as Nergal let out a deep demonic growl. His eyes glowed bright and his shark-like teeth grew larger and more serrated as a dangerous field began to form around him, his face contorting in an ungodly rage.

"**HOW DARE YOU THREATEN MY FAMILY! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR SINS HUMAN SCUM!"**

From out of his back a myriad of powerful serrated coils arose, standing up and at the ready around him, all aimed for the terrified cop now stumbling and tripping over backwards. One tentacle shot forward and wrapped around his throat, lifting him up against the stainless wall. The man shook and shuddered in his grip paralysed by panic as the other coils closed in to tear him apart, closing his eyes so as to not see his fate.

"**Wake up, time to die!"**

"Let him go dad."

All at once Nergal's murderous visage gave way at the sound of the voice from behind him. He placed the officer back down as his coils retracted back inside him. Cracking one eye open the corrupt cop looked to see who his saviour had been. From behind the tall demon a smaller figure stepped out, his son Nergal Junior. His eyes widened in a ghastly shock as the boy looked down upon him with mercy.

"You…" He hissed dripping with poison. Junior however took it all in his stride.

"Are you sure you want to spare this man after what he's done? I know you heard what he said."

"Yes, I heard every word. But this man is a human being, a living person capable of doing both good and evil. All people, you and I included, are capable of making mistakes. And like us he deserves a change to see the error of his ways and change for the better. If he can choose to be bigoted and selfish, then he can choose to be reasonable if we just give him a chance." Junior spoke clearly and concisely as he stepped in front of his father facing the man. "Besides that by giving this man a chance to change we show that we aren't the monsters they say we are."

He knelt down before the bloated cop. "I just saved your life, and it wasn't the first time. Remember that the next time you're about to call me a freak."

In response to his mercy he spat in his face. "FUCK YOU FREAK!"

With one eye closed Junior just managed to hold onto his composure as he wiped the offending saliva off onto his sleeve, his fists clenched at his side, the hurt and rising anger he felt at the betrayal clear in his hard stare.

"Why?"

"Cause you're a freak! A horrible disgusting mutant freak! And that's all you'll ever be, a freak! You're so different to me! It's wrong! You're an abomination! How dare you be different! Demon freaks like you deserve to suffer and die cause you're different!" He ranted and raved, pouring fourth a stream of bile and mad bigotry. Junior gazed down at him wide eyed with shock as he stood up facing the deranged man.

"Because I'm not like you? That's it? You're telling me that is why you've all made my life a hellish pain-filled misery, just because I'm not like you!" He spoke in a hushed voice barely able to repress the sheer overwhelming outrage he felt. Junior had always been able to hold back any anger or pain the abuse he received, but not anymore. Now the cool, composed disposition he had used to cope was breaking down. Dougie however just gave an arrogant smirk.

"Freak."

"Who are you to decide what's normal? What gives you the right to decide who deserves to exist or-"

"Freak."

"What makes you think you're so superior to-"

"Freak!"

"SHUT UP!"

At last he snapped. His eyes and face burning with rage he shot his own coils out of his back, clamping down around his wrists and ankles and hauling him upright much the same as his father had. Again the officer's features filled with fear as the previously pacifistic boy burned into him with all his anger. He raised a finger towards his face.

"If you call me a freak one more time, _I will kill you."_

Letting him go Junior turned away, stepping back towards the portal behind where his father stood. The cop, sensing the opportunity, turned his compassion against him once again. Nergal Senior and the Nerglings all gasped as he pulled out his service pistol and took aim at his back, Junior casting his gaze towards him just in time to see him grinning like a madman.

"DIE FREAK! HAHAHA-Gah!"

Extending his arm out he batted the gun out of his grasp, breaking several bones in the process. Clutching his wounded hand the cop gazed up at him fearfully again. Junior glared hatefully at the vile man now trying to back his way up against the wall in a pathetic attempt to escape.

"I warned you." Extending his arm out again he closed the distance between his hand and the man's throat, but then hesitated. Looking up at the vengeful demon he saw the murderous intent that had been there moments before flicker and fade out, leaving in its place an image not of anger, but of hurt, deep and terrible. Against any kind of conscience he broke out in a wide grin and cackled with laughter.

Lowering his face in defeat Junior grasped his face in his palm and slammed his skull against the back wall, breaking his glasses and knocking him unconscious. Seeing his solemn state his father went to his side and put a reassuring hand on his son's shoulder, all the while Junior's eyes blurred with tears.

"Why?" That was all he could say. "Why? He's a human being isn't he? I did everything right. I showed him, I _proved_ to him that I wasn't a monster, and still… _Why are they doing this?"_ His voice began to waver momentarily before he managed to bring himself back under some kind of control, facing the world again, wiping the tears from his eyes as he returned to the matter they had come for, Nergal sensing his wishes to continue onwards as well.

"Come on, the other Nerglings will be ready with the pyre any moment now."

Nodding in agreement the two turned their gaze to Mandy's parents where they lay on the trays. Junior stepped over to gaze down on her mother mournfully, never taking his eyes from her pale face as he pulled the sheet up over her naked body, protecting her decency once more. His father watched him go about his business of honouring the woman with pride as the Nerglings came and gently hoisted the two bodies from their tables, carrying then carefully back towards the waiting portal.

The two demons watched them disappear back into the cavern in grim silence.

"Do you think Mandy will approve of this?" Junior asked.

"I believe she will. She is a strong and reasonable young woman, wise beyond her age. I'm sure she will trust you with the proper care of her parents, especially considering the alternative they were faced with here." Nergal answered him, his son giving a nod. "And even if we didn't know for sure, it is still the right thing to do, wouldn't you agree?"

"I guess. Yes." The elder demon smiled, but then faltered.

"Junior, you must always do what is right and just, even if that means facing facts that you would rather not have to think about." He spoke to the boy. Junior's gaze shifted to and fro in contemplation, the connection with his own life and decisions becoming clear to him as his father stepped through and disappeared into the portal. He frowned.

'_I know, but… no. There has to be some chance they can still change. There has to be.'_ Filing it away for later the followed them through the event horizon, the swirling green disk vanishing immediately after him, leaving Dougie still slumped unconscious and bleeding against the wall between two empty steel beds.

* * *

Later that morning.

Grim, Billy and Mandy were seated around the dining table, a hot pizza before them, having an important discussion concerning the reason why they were there.

"Why are we being chased? What's the motive behind all this?" Mandy asked the two as she bit down on a slice of the thin pastry.

Grim stopped to think for a moment, recalling their past exploits before the peace. "Well we have upset a lot of people over de years."

"Yeah." Billy added. "Remember the Mexicans are still pissed about how you messed up Dio… Deoseous… Muertos… Dia… … … Day of the Dead. They coulda hired some hit man or something."

"A supernatural hit man with demonic powers?" Mandy looked across to him sceptically.

"Well it's not really that crazy if you think about it. I mean, if you had powers like that, wouldn't you use it for business?" Billy replied.

Mandy thought for a moment. She had to admit that he knew how to think logically, even if he chose not to most of the time. "But what about Irwin, why would that thing kill him too?"

"Perhaps that was some oder guy. Maybe de two are totally unrelated."

"Yeah right, but okay, suppose this guy is some stupid hit man, who's stupid enough to come after us, and Irwin's death was just a coincidence," Billy posed, "what are we supposed to do to stop him, or her… or it?"

"Well if the guy's working for money, then maybe if we can find where the contract on us came from, then we could forcibly get it removed. That and make an example of anyone else who might get any ideas." Mandy clenched her hand into a fist as she contemplated on enforcing her control.

"If so, den how do we track dem down without giving ourselves away?" Grim leaned his head on his hand as they thought.

"The only way I see is going to each of our enemies one by one until, hopefully, we can find whoever paid the assassin." Mandy crossed her arms, scowling as another realization came to her. "But if they know that we're not sure it's them, then they can just plead ignorance, then call the killer on us once we're gone. We'll be setting ourselves up to fall. On top of that we don't even know if it is a contract killer or not."

They continued to eat, silently contemplating what their next move was to be. Although this place was far from Endsville, and no one else knew about it, whoever is after them was out there somewhere. Eventually, at some point it would logically have to stumble upon their little hideout. Luckily for them though that was likely years away, thus giving them plenty of time to figure out a solution, so long as they didn't leave the safety of their hideout.

Billy finished off the last slice. "But what if it's not some assassin guy doing it for the money? What if it's something else?"

"Well, I guess we could look at Irwin and dose other people killed in Townsville. Perhaps we could establish some connection the police didn't get, den we may get some indication of what de killer's after. We can then use dat to figure out who it is."

Mandy nodded. "That's going to take awhile though. Oh well, we're already gonna be stuck here awhile so I guess we have all the time in the world to figure it out." She looked across to Grim. "Alright, you will work on figuring out any connection between the deaths." She directed, sounding every bit as commanding and authoritative as ever. Billy smirked momentarily at the show.

"What are we gonna do?" Billy asked.

"We're going to, or rather I'm going to be doing anything I can to get stronger. You, for now at least until that cast comes off, will just have to sit around all day, playing video games, watching movies-"

"YEEEAAAAHHHH WOOOOO!" He jumped up on the table, flinging his hands around at his free vacation.

Mandy thought quietly as Grim took the empty pizza box away. _'I suppose this will do perfectly as some final time with Billy before I leave him.'_ She got up from her chair at the table to head for the front door.

"I'm going for a run for awhile. Be back later." She closed the door behind her, taking off into the woods at a fast jog.

Billy watched her leave from the window as she disappeared into the distance. "Hope she doesn't run into momma bear or momma eagle…"

His face deadpanned in depression. "… Or momma wolf, coyote or wolverine." He turned back to the TV, turning on the game console with a light-hearted expression. "Why's being stupid so much fun?"

He loaded a crime game, one where he could more or less go on a blind rampage of destruction throughout a grimy polluted city, destroying as much of the corrupt lowlifes that inhabited the game's world as he wished. As the game started he quickly acquired himself a number of powerful weapons, before beginning with the execution of the numerous corrupt police who patrolled the streets.

No one was there to see the sneer beginning to form on his features as he mercilessly machine gunned some lying corporate sycophants. Though Billy loved to be stupid for the sheer fun of it, because of how his brain had come online over the past few years he had largely outgrown his stupidity, leaving a hollow that needed to be filled. There was however something else he enjoyed more than random stupidity, something Mandy had unwittingly instilled into him with her little monologue that day long ago.

He let out a low snigger as he destroyed a police cruiser with an RPG, killing the two corrupt pompous pricks riding inside, a dark grin forming on his features.

"Heh heh heh heh..." No one else was there to notice the ominous waves of vengeful malice and rising malevolence the youth exuded as he continued in his brutal slaughter.

"Anarchy…"

* * *

Grim sat down in the high backed leather seat in his study. He paused, thinking on what he needed to do. He had to start research on the victims of the similar murders, but to do that he would need to summon all available information on them and their families from the underworld. _'If I do this, I could give away our location. But if I do it all in one go de signal would only be out there for a moment, minimizing the risk. Either way I still have to do it.'_

He raised his scythe into midair, glowing green as he charged it up.

"The files and documents on those recently murdered are to be deposited here now." He spoke clearly into the bubble of power. He fired the charge in an arc into the air, causing a ring of green energy to form above the level of his head facing the ground. As soon as the vortex was formed a pile of books, files, scrolls and more than a few USB sticks and CDs fell out, covering the desk and piling onto the floor.

Grim sighed as the portal closed. "Looks like dis will take a while." He knelt down next to the pile on the floor and picked up one of the small flash drives, examining it under his gaze. "We need a computer."

* * *

Mandy ran through the wilderness, the cool morning air brushing over her skin making her feel alive and strong as she sailed through the forest. A fine mist hung over the valley they sat in, veiling the orange morning sun in a haze. The suns rays shone through the cover of the trees, lighting up the forest with thousands of shafts of orange light. Mandy continued to run, taking in the scenic surroundings with an eye of restrained wonder, until her fatigue grew too greater.

She stopped, putting her hands on her knees. She gasped for air violently, rubbing the sore cramp in her side which had stopped her in her tracks, the cool air now causing her heaving lungs to blister and ache. Dismayed she shook her head; she'd only been running continuously for five minutes, and she hadn't even broken out in a sweat.

Steeling herself she rose upright again, stretching the painfully cramped muscles in her side and relaxed, letting her heart rate settle down again. _'Jeez… I should've done more exercise… I didn't know… I was this out of shape… This is hard._' She turned her gaze down towards where she figured the river was, her resolution strengthening as she summoned her near endless will. _'No matter, this won't stop me. I'll head down towards the river and follow that up and down, that way I can follow it back so I don't get lost.'_

Mandy turned and started jogging down the shallow hill, slightly slower as she worked the cramp out of her side. She got to thinking back to the subject of Billy again. _'At some point towards the end of all this, I'll tell him that we're coming to an end, that I won't be seeing him after this. It'll give him some time to get over it so we can enjoy our last few days together.'_

She kept running down towards the sound of running water, but stopped for a moment as a sudden feeling came to her. _'But I don't want to leave him.'_

A tightness formed within her, a strong feeling of aversion, like anxiety about something that was going to happen, and once done could never be undone. Mandy clenched her fist, an infuriating sense of frustration and dismay overcoming her. She hammered her hand into the trunk of a nearby tree.

"DAMN IT!"

Mandy breathed hard as she battled with herself for control between her steel logic and resolve, and her insane, pathetic, weak desire to just be close to Billy, her friend, her best friend.

'_What's wrong with me? Why can't I do this!'_ She leaned against the tree, supporting herself on her fist as she scowled at herself. Bringing herself under control again she continued towards the river. When she reached its banks, she slowed to a halt. Then instead of turning left to head further away, she turned right to head back to the cabin, walking this time. Her little run was over. She didn't feel much like running anymore.

* * *

Midday.

"Oh how I loathe this place." Junior groaned under his breath as he strode over to a vacant spot, seating himself before one of the few remaining computers in the school's library.

Endsville Primary had always been a seedy place rife with twisted souls. He knew it just as much as Mandy and Max, especially considering he had become the number one target for all the people's intolerance and insane hatred for anything different. It had been steadily deteriorating for years now, ever since he had first begun attending, the students bringing in all the vile traits they had been taught by their equally arrogant, selfish parents. It was due to the school's poor reputation that he had chosen long ago to forego the uniform for something he felt reflected his own dignity and self control in the face of the blind hatred and bigotry he received.

What had surprised him though was how the people coming here had reacted to Mandy being removed from the environment. In the week her, Billy and Grim had been gone, he had been alarmed at how the decay into madness had very suddenly accelerated. Mandy, Max and he had been the only sane people capable of keeping some kind of order over the twisted people who came here, and though in the end they knew they could never hope to stem the tide of small-minded insanity, they had done much to slow the decay. Now though with Mandy, the central pillar of resistance gone, the people's remaining decency was rapidly slipping away.

Now the school grounds were host to constant savage brawls, with many of his peers, some younger than him delving head first into illicit drugs in plain sight. The teachers still came in and taught their lessons, although in most cases lessons as they were supposed to be had ceased to exist. Some simply showed up to work drunk, and stayed that way throughout the day, while several others were zealous and bigoted party followers who used the lessons to instil their students with their own fantasies of superiority. Unfortunately his teacher was one of these zealots. He constantly preached that he would be rich if it weren't for him and other traitors. Now he, along with anyone else interested in actually learning anything had all begun to pool in the poor excuse for a library, seeing as the classes had become simply too dangerous for most respectable human beings.

The library in which he currently resided was equipped with roughly two dozen computers, only two of which worked with any reliability. The shelves were mostly empty now, as much as half of all their books having been burnt or purged for one reason or another.

From another table across the room Piff looked over and cocked his head in acknowledgement, a gesture he returned as he got to work leaving the other boy reading an encyclopaedia. As he opened the relevant document he spied another familiar face taking a seat at the computer to his right.

"Hi Junior." The boy sitting down next to him spoke in a bleak tone, a geeky youth his age with curly brown hair and glasses, an ex-member of the defunct Secret Snake Club formerly known as Wiggly. "How's that report coming along?"

"To be honest I really don't think it matters anymore. The teacher thinks I'm a monster and a freak. Do you really think any of them would be willing to grade me fairly when they can't even look me in the eye without sneering in disgust?" His voice lost the aloof contempt as a deep anger rose in his mind again.

"Who are you doing?" He asked as he opened his own assignment.

"Franklin D. Roosevelt. He handled World War Two, bought America out of the Depression, and united the entire country behind the will to do something good. What about you?" Looking across to the other boy's screen he read a few lines and quickly received a rude shock. His eyes and mouth widened as his friend's face lowered in shame.

"Robert Johnson! He's your hero? Why the hell are you doing that sadist?"

"Because I want to stay alive a little longer." He answered in dejection, his shoulders slumped. It was now that Junior began to really notice something was very wrong. He had never seen the other relatively sane boy so troubled, so shaken before.

"Jerome's dead." He answered at last to Junior's alarm. "They got him during the riots last night, along with his entire family. They're all dead."

Junior stared at him aghast, horrified by the turn of events. He had known Jerome as an acquaintance, as he'd been one of the few people who would associate with him. Now he was dead, murdered by his own neighbours. This act marked the point where their own city, their own home, was no longer safe for them to live.

"You have to get out of here while you still can." Junior spoke. His friend though just gave a sad laugh.

"I'm Jewish! My whole family's Jewish! We're not allowed to sell our houses or buy property. We can't even leave the city limits without permission." He smiled like that of a terminally ill man accepting his fate.

"The only way we'll be leaving this city is when they come to take us away to the death camps. It may be in a few weeks, it may be next year, but they will come for us eventually. I'm already dead. There's no hope for guys like me, we have no way of defending ourselves. But there's still hope for you! You're a demon, you can still escape! You can fight back!" But Junior just sighed in defeat.

"I can't. I can't fight back. Don't ask me why, I just can't."

"They're all going to turn against you someday. They'll come after you. They'll try to kill you just like they'll kill me."

"I know, but I still can't. Until that day comes I'll stay here, the same as you." Sombrely the two returned their eyes to their computers.

"I guess it doesn't matter anyway. The whole world's going to hell in a hand basket faster than a U-Boat hit by depth charges." At this Junior smiled, long having come to recognise his friend's unusual way of describing simple concepts via his own interests.

Settling down to work the two concentrated on their research, typing out their current paragraph at a leisurely pace, aware that in the end it really didn't make any difference. As they continued to work Junior picked up on the easily recognisable sound of Max's leather shoes striding steadily across the old carpet stepping up behind them.

"Hello Max." Junior spoke as he approached. He waited for the polite response from his ever kind friend. None ever came.

Looking around up to his dark clad friend he paused. He noticed he seemed to look straight through him. His face was devoid of the open warmth he usually presented him with. Paying Junior no apparent attention Max made his way to stand behind the station Junior's acquaintance currently sat.

"I need this computer."

The brown haired boy frowned, turning around in his seat to face the youth standing above him. "What?" He asked incredulously.

"I need this computer." Max stated again in a flat tone, never taking his dark eyes off him.

"Yeah, well so do I." He answered, turning back to his screen to continue working, ignoring the normally polite boy's rudeness. "I'll be done in a little while anyway so you can ha-ugk-"

Max cut him off by casually reaching forward with his left arm to take hold of the back of his shirt collar. In one swift movement he pulled the boy out of his seat by the back of his shirt, flinging him carelessly off to the floor behind him, stepping in to take his seat a moment later without a word. Both looked on in surprise as Max immediately closed down his work and opened the internet, looking to the screen with his usual easy going expression, a small smile on his lips as if he hadn't done anything at all.

"Hey! You can't-"

He was again cut off by Max as he batted him away with his left hand, typing commands into a search engine. He fell back, holding his hand to the side of his aching face as he and Junior both regarded him with shock. Grimacing he stood up, glaring at him as he rubbed the sore side of his face.

"That's it. The hell with this place, I'm outta here." He muttered, turning to his co-workers as they looked on. "Alright everyone, I'm going to the public library downtown. It's only half an hours walk from here. If anyone else wants to do some real work they're welcome to come with me. Bye Junior."

Moments after he had turned and left the decaying old building, half of the inhabitants working on books and at their tables one by one rose from their seats, some taking books with them as they filed out after him. It seems they had realised the futility of continuing to hold on to the decaying school, and had left in search of a place they could find peace.

Observing all that had transpired from his chair off to the side Piff kept his eyes and face buried in his encyclopaedia, though he never took his attention off the two sitting at the computers.

Junior turned back to face Max as he began to search through the internet, scanning over various news sites and articles. He continued to gaze at the screen with a small light-hearted smile on his lips as Junior looked at him questioningly.

"You know, it's really not polite to grab someone by the shirt and throw them out of their seat." He spoke to him cautiously. "Nor is it polite to hit someone in the face when you forcefully commandeer their computer."

"Yes I know." He replied. "But like I said I needed this computer."

"You shouldn't have done that Max. It would have been alright if it was some lowlife playing games, but he didn't deserve that." Junior responded, slightly troubled by the sudden show of force.

"It doesn't matter." Max said in his usual carefree manner, smiling light-heartedly as he continued to search through the results on the computer. Junior continued to guardedly scrutinise him, before he put the issue aside.

Moving on he looked across to his monitor, interested in what it was he was looking at. On the screen there was displayed a list of sites that had come up from the search parameters he had put in. Looking to the top of the screen the saw the words 'billy mandy grim reaper killed murdered hiding' entered into the dialogue box. Most of the results were from news websites about the murder seven days ago today. Junior watched as Max went through one sight, reading through every detail of the article on them, before moving on to the next, methodically searching each site one by one for information.

"Have you heard anything about Billy and Mandy yet?" He asked with a hopeful edge. Junior shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't heard anything new from anyone. I don't know any more than I did when we spoke to the police."

"What about Billy's parents? Have they said anything since they started staying with you?"

"No Max. You ask this every day and I keep telling you they don't know anything either." Junior answered him, weary from his constant pressing for information. "I'm sorry, but I'm as much in the dark as you are. If I hear anything at all, then I _promise_ you I will contact you immediately. But until then you're just going to have to put up with not knowing any more than the basic facts."

Max lowered his head slightly, before he nodded and returned to his search. "Okay." He remained silent after that, not speaking to Junior or taking his attention off the screen for any reason.

Junior looked across at him again with renewed interest, seeing how he poured such focus into his methodical search. That combined with how he pressured him and everyone else he could find for information puzzled him.

"One thing I don't understand, why are you working so hard to find information on them?" He asked perplexed, studying his reaction to the question. He waited for a second as the other boy's face wen't blank.

"Concern." He stated, continuing on with his research. "I'm concerned about them."

Junior smiled. "You don't have to worry about them Max. They can take care of themselves just fine. Trust me." Max gave a smile and nodded in response.

"I'm sure they can."

Junior returned his eyes to his screen, leaving Max to do his own work. His own thoughts however weren't quite on the subject at hand though. One thing he had noticed when he had asked why he was pushing for information was that Max had paused for a few moments before answering. That on its own didn't mean anything in particular, and could just as easily be disregarded as irrelevant.

But there was a reason he had payed attention to his reaction. Junior had noticed over the past few days following the murder of Mandy's parents and her going into exile, that his old friend appeared to have been particularly affected, more so than anyone else had. He had begun to notice as the days went by that Max was beginning to act… _funny._

He hadn't remembered seeing their previously easy going friend become so fixated on one subject, meanwhile abandoning all else. It had been days since he had seen him open a textbook or do work actually related to school, all he did now was funnel all his time and effort into trying to find out as much about the state of their friends as he could. While he acknowledged his loyalty and dedication to his friends' well being, he didn't quite understand what was driving his fixation on them.

Furthermore he had begun to notice him becoming more and more withdrawn from everybody else, including towards him, becoming more like he had been the week before. Gradually at first he had began talking to him less and less about issues not relating to Billy and Mandy. Now he had ceased to talk about anything else unless someone specifically asked him a question.

Finally, and perhaps most unsettling about his strange behaviour was his increasing disregard for others. What he had seen minutes ago where he had brutally pulled a boy out of his seat, and struck him in the face for protesting, was unheard of for the normally kind, considerate, friendly boy. And it could be seen elsewhere as well. Just yesterday he had seen him approach Sperg and, if his hearing served him correct, demand some kind of payment then and there, confirming his suspicion that he'd been extorting money from the thug and had been doing so for some time. At first he had refused, saying that it wasn't pay day. Junior had been shocked to see Max mercilessly clamp his hand around the bully's throat, slamming him against the lockers, saying he needed the money now. Immediately Sperg had surrendered a small stack of notes, after which Max had ordered him to bring in another two hundred dollars tomorrow on threat of death, and promptly left for home.

What he had seen and felt earlier, how his abnormally cold, unfeeling gaze that seemed to go right through him, now pressed itself upon him once more.

Junior heaved a sigh, running his fingers through his black hair sombrely. As of now he felt as if his whole world was very slowly falling apart at the seams. Most of his friends had either been killed off or driven into exile, the city and society he lived in was slowly decaying into hell, a murderer was on the loose out there somewhere, and the last real friend he did have was changing into something he didn't recognise, or want.

'_Please be safe guys.'_ He thought of his two closest companions in hiding far away. _'The world just gets worse and worse without you three, especially you Mandy. I don't know what I'll do without you two.'_

Despondently Junior slowly continued to read through the website on the American leader, typing in what he found one key at a time, ignoring the increasingly inhospitable feel that pervaded Max as he continued searching through one article after another.

The whole world had gone wrong.

* * *

**Trivia. The corrupt cop Dougie was actually lifted straight from Terminator 2. He was one of the workers in the mental hospital that would abuse Sarah. Too bad he didn't get what was coming in either, not enough at least.**

**Many of the issues happening in this chapter, Junior's indecision, Max's strangely isolated behaviour, and the killer about to begin its search will all come to a head. But until then I have much work to do.**

**Next chapter... Departure.**


	16. Departure

**As promised.**

**This is my favourite chapter of the entire fic. It explores the growing relationship between Billy and Mandy, as well as the mysterious other side of everyone's favourite force of madness and pandemonium that we've only seen flashes of before. In addion there's Junior and his losing battle to endure the abuse and hatred levelled at him by the people around him. His struggle will come to an end here. Even Piff has his own part to play in this although at this stage only the first small inklings will be visible. And finally there's Max. Everything that has been happening, slowly becoming distant and cold towards his own friends, has all been leading up to this.**

**There's a pretty obvious Terminator 2 reference in this. The fic's full of them. Just thought I'd point that out.**

**Finally this is going to be the last chapter where we see Endsville until much later in the story so say goodbye to Max, Junior, Piff and everyone else. When they return everything will be revealed.**

* * *

**Departure.**

Early afternoon.

Grim drove the old coupe out onto the sparsely populated road into town, Mandy sitting opposite him with Billy in the back, his cast sitting across his lap. Together the three had agreed on purchasing a laptop computer for use while they were searching for an answer to the question of who their enemy was. Their young red headed friend had been more interested with being able to use the internet and playing games on it than any practical purpose. Despite Grim's pleas for him to stay behind at the cabin, remembering the fuss and indecision he created over a pair of movies, Billy had steadfastly insisted he come with them. Thus now his chiselled human features displayed a dour grimace, all but agonizing over having to lead him through an electronics store.

"Relax Grim. I'll keep him under control." Mandy said from the passenger seat, knowing full well why her guardian wasn't in the brightest of spirits.

"Good, thank you Mandy."

"No problem. After all, you're clearly too incompetent to be able to do so yourself." All at once Grim's dour expression became slightly more despondent.

"Yes, I know. How good of you to remind me."

"But of course Grim, that's my job. I am your owner after all."

"Keh heh heh!" Billy sniggered in amusement as Grim grizzled under Mandy's caustic wit. Of all the funny, disgusting and violent forms of comedy in the world, of all the marvellous and infinitely powerful forces in the universe, none was more awe inspiring than the petit pink dictator hopeful sitting in the front passenger seat with her hand sitting up against her chin, and her onyx eyes gazing out the side window. Nothing could quite compare to the sense of sheer satisfaction he felt whenever Mandy would use her harsh and merciless sense of humour, whenever she used that indomitable fiery spirit of hers to sit someone in their rightful place. There was always something in him that smiled whenever she enforced her strong, domineering will on some poor sap, even more so when that poor sap was some deranged pompous fool like Mindy. He smiled as he sat back in his seat.

'_God I love her.'_

In that instant his smile fled him replaced by an expression of absolute shock. "What!"

"Excuse me?" Mandy asked from the front seat, turning to face the wide eyed boy sitting behind her. He flicked his attention to her, realising he had verbalised his shock.

"N-Nothing, never mind." He responded quickly. Mandy gave him a questioning look, not buying it for a moment, before she dropped the subject, turning back to the road ahead. Billy turned away from her, positioning himself so he faced the window beside him. He leaned his head on his cast as he gazed out to the forest beside the road, obscuring his incredibly shaken state from the eyes of the two in the front.

'_God I love her? Where the hell did that come from!'_ He all but screamed to himself. _'I don't love her, not like a man loves his girlfriend or wife or anything like that, we're just friends. We've been best friends since we were like three, and we've never been anything more than that. Sure we've had a few more sleepovers than most friends our age would, and we're almost always together in some way, but that doesn't mean I have feelings for her. No I don't. None at all. We're just friends, nothing more…'_

'…'

'_... Right?'_

"Ugh!" He grunted in frustration, shaking his head at the insanity of his notions. _'What the hell, this is so stupid! Why am I thinking this? I don't usually think stuff like this. It must have been something that bear did to me awhile back. Yes, it must have rattled my little brain around in my skull too much. That's what's causing it; I must still be in shock. It'll wear off in a little while. By tomorrow I'll be just fine, no problem.'_

"Hey Billy." He looked up from the window at Grim's call. "You alright back there?"

"I'm fine, why?"

"You just seem kind of hung up on something, that's all. Are you sure you don't feel anything unusual?" Grim noticed through the rear vision mirror that the youth seemed to trail off for a few moments, his gaze lowering off to the side again.

"No Grim." He responded as Grim looked ahead to the road, leaning his head back on his cast to look out the window, once again plunged deep into thought. "Everything's normal."

He meant exactly what he had said. Against what he had assumed, that his delusional thoughts were somehow based on being savaged by various animals, what he had felt when that strange thought occurred to him was hardly out of the ordinary. He had felt like that about Mandy for years, every time she enforced her steel will, and every time she demonstrated her marvellous wit and intellect. It was these factors about her, the factors that more or less composed her, which had bought his own strength of mind and will to rise. Against what he had reasoned, that he wasn't thinking straight, he had felt the very same feelings about her for a long time.

'_Why did I think that though? It can't be true can it? But if I didn't mean it, then why do I still feel the same way as I did when I thought it?'_

Sighing he reached forward to the centre console. Opening up the compartment he felt around inside, locating his, formerly Mandy's MP3 player. Plugging it into his ears he immediately got started, selecting Days of Revenge by Ramallah to take his mind off the troubling notion he had bought upon himself. He found it mildly interesting that many of Mandy's favourite tracks were also on his list of favourites, this particularly powerful one first and foremost.

From her seat in front Mandy glanced back to where she could faintly hear the lyrics of her favourite song being played slightly too loud, Billy letting the heated sounds free his mind from the uncomfortable thoughts he had begun entertaining.

* * *

Twenty minutes later.

The three parked just outside the small town's limited electronics store. Stepping out they were surprised to notice the weathered steel bars and heavy padlocks adorning the outside windows and doors. Such a sight would have been the norm in Endsville, but not here. It appeared out of place.

Disregarding this they made their way in through the front door.

Neither of them noticed as a dilapidated grey van crawled into view behind them. Its driver, a young man in a singlet with a shaven head and a bottle of whisky in one hand, stared across at the three intently. Sitting beside and behind him the man's cohorts all looked out the front window at them. The driver gave a dangerous grin and turned to the other gang members piled into the back.

"Well lookie here, we have us a couple'a newcomers. What say we go introduce ourselves?"

A cruel snigger resonated through the gang in anticipation. With that in mind they drove on past, parking in a nearby side street to wait.

* * *

Not long after they emerged from the shop, Billy carrying a box with their new pride and joy under his undamaged left arm as they stepped out onto the footpath. Mandy looked out across the main street.

"Maybe we should take a look around while we're here." Mandy suggested having not left the hideout since they'd arrived. They turned down towards the centre of town and set out across the relatively empty streets. What soon began to press on them was just how quiet and still the heart of town was. Though the odd car or truck would lumber on through no one appeared to be out and about doing business or running errands. It was a Friday afternoon during business hours, and yet it appeared as if the entire village was in some sort of lockdown. The further they went, passing more and more shops and businesses, they noticed most of them fitted out with yet more steel bars crossing over the windows and doors.

It was at this point Billy came to be aware of a small gathering of rather rough, dangerous looking men walking just a few metres behind them. He tightened his grip on the box as he kept pace with his friends as they continued walking through the unusually empty streets.

"It appears to be locked, and well locked at that." Mandy remarked.

Grim surveyed the ominously thick steel bars with a morbid sense of curiosity. The three noticed the paint seemed to have been badly chipped away on many, others having been bent and kinked in places, with one or two windows here and there sporting a network of cracks. Many of the walls, doors and windows sported graffiti tags, most of which were swastikas.

'_This is refreshingly ominous.'_ Mandy thought. Billy surveyed what he saw warily, as troubled by the necessity of such measures as the others.

"What are the bars for?"

"That would be us."

The trio whipped around to face the gang of thugs as three of the seven strong group of bruisers circled around to stand on the other side of the footpath. Before they even realised their aggressors meant ill will for them they had already blocked them off from both sides. Surrounded they stared at the street thugs as they sneered back menacingly. Something gave them the ominous feeling that these guys weren't just the average muggers and punks out for a cheep thrill. Most of them wore some combination of singlets, black jackets, camouflage pants and shaved heads or long straggly hair. Their teeth were yellowed and they reeked of spirits and some kind of smoke, maybe cigarettes, maybe drugs. They each held tattoos of swastikas or various white supremacist slogans. The group exuded a seedy, vile feeling of malice and sadism through their snide, nasty sneers.

"Alright spit it out. What do you want?" Mandy snarled taking charge, or at least trying to take charge of the situation.

"Holy shit man, this bitch's dangerous! We'd better get outta here! BAHAHAHA!" The leader doubled over as he burst out laughing. Mandy seethed at the man's insults. No one was allowed to disrespect her, especially not some low life gutter filth like this one.

He leaned in, grabbing her by the cheeks with his grimy right hand. "Don't you find me threatening at all sweetheart?" He withdrew a pocket knife, flashing the carbon steel blade before her eyes. Whereas before she was angry and defiant, now though she was beginning to think this wasn't so good, her eyes widening in alarm at the sight of the dirty blade.

Grim clamped his hand down on the psychopath's wrist, making him let go of Mandy as he looked across and sneered.

"Lemme explain something to you. See this?" He pulled out a strip of red cloth from his pocket and held it up in his fist for them to see. Printed on it was a red, white and black star spangled banner, a hideously mutated copy of what had once been a shining message of hope and freedom. The uniformed thugs they had passed in Las Vegas had worn the exact same armband.

"We're the local SA. That means we got a license to do whatever the hell we want! We own you, and we always get what we want!"

"Then what do you want?" He asked in reply. He just sniggered as he turned to look over the younger two.

"So these your kids? Cute kids. You must really love them. I wonder what it'd be like if some guys like us were to kill them in front of you. Maybe we should find out." Around them the group sneered, withdrawing knives and cracking their knuckles ready to inflict some hurt on their young victims and their apparent father. "Leave the bitch." He ordered the group, licking his lips in anticipation. "She's mine to screw!"

"Hey Bob, can we have her after you?" One of the sleazy creatures facing Billy spoke.

"But of course my friend, we can all get some. She can be our new sex slave. Doesn't that sound just wonderful honey?" He leered to the girl's face.

Mandy felt her insides tighten in a god forsaken cocktail of fear and revulsion. Though previously she had faced down all manner of demons with her own two fists, the knowledge of the absolute horrors and violations these so-called human beings planned to bestow upon her being created such a deep pit of dread she found it hard to move or draw breath. She and Billy backed up against Grim in fear of the despicable people, finding enough control and strength of will to ready themselves to fight them off. Grim looked down towards Mandy, and she met his gaze with her own. She was obviously far more afraid now that she faced being defiled by these inhuman psychopaths, yet she steeled herself, refusing to be weak and defenceless. They felt Billy backing up behind them as he was faced by four murderous thugs, each wielding a knife, one holding a metal baseball bat.

Their intentions now clear to him he began working furiously on a plan of action. Using the scythes would risk give away their positions so that was out of the question. Around behind the thugs bearing down on them he could see the car sitting across the street in the parking lot, but the skinheads had already blocked them off, and even if they made a run for it they wouldn't be able to get in and drive away before they caught up. He then looked at how each of the four facing him stood with their legs close together, completely unprepared to defend. Combining that with the smell of excess alcohol and the baseball bat in one thug's hand he began figuring out a plan to take them all down as quickly as possible.

Mandy turned her gaze from Grim back to the three they faced. "No scythes right?"

Grim nodded. "Right."

The group of thugs closed in, ready to begin their ravenous assault, licking their lips in anticipation. Grim and Mandy raised their hands ready to stop and deflect blows, as Billy prepared to shield himself with the box. They each found themselves wishing they'd bought some of their new weapons with them. Mandy's 1911 would come in handy right now.

She sighed, readying herself. "Fine."

The lead thug before them swung at Grim, who dodged the blow to the head and followed up with a powerful fist to the man's face, knocking him over in shock.

Two slashed at Billy, leaving cuts across the box as he bought it up to block the slashes. Implementing his plan he dropped to the ground and charged forward, knocking into the legs of the four drunks before him. As planned they stumbled and crashed to the ground, earning a few precious seconds for him to implement the rest of his plan. Seizing the baseball bat from one gang member he swung it with all his strength down on their heads before they could even fight back One by one he rendered the psychopaths unconscious, the last being the one whom he'd taken the bat from. As he charged him with a knife he side stepped him and gave him a bludgeoning to the mouth, sending blood and broken teeth across the footpath. Years of having to fight monsters and demons had taught him a thing or two about how to quickly and easily defeat someone who wanted to kill him. He implemented what he had learned perfectly, earning several broken noses, broken jaws and fractured skulls. '_Four down.'_

Mandy barely deflected a punch to the face from the one to the right of the leader, before she has to side step a stab to the stomach from the one on his left. She began to retreat back as the two thugs rained blows as she struggled to bat them away with all her strength. But they were strong, far stronger than she, so even with all her skill and experience and reflexes it was difficult.

She found her rearward retreat blocked by one of the now unconscious bodies Billy had knocked down. She tripped and fell backwards over him as her enemies closed in.

Grim was hit by a kick to the leg from his opponent on the ground, causing him to falter for a moment. This gave his enemy enough time to get back up to his feet, taking a swing at Grim with his knife. The blade barely cut against the shirt, drawing a thin line of blood across the chest of the reapers human form. Grim held a hand to his chest in shock at the slight hit, while using his right hand to block the punk's arm, stopping a slash to his throat.

Seizing his arm around the wrist he pulled him in, planting a left handed punch into his diaphragm. The thug collapsed on the ground, gasping for air as Grim reached down to seize him by his straggly black hair. He lifted his head up off the ground, slamming it down again a moment later, knocking him unconscious, and turned to find another target. For all their hideous cruelty and unspeakable desires, the gang of rapists were poor fighters, both on their own and as part of a disorganised group.

By this stage Billy had abandoned the collapsed thugs to the rear, and had turned towards the two who were attacking Mandy, seizing a knife left beside one of them. They were closing in on the toppled girl as she struggled to get to her feet in time. She managed to clamber over the bleeding man who had tripped her, and now had her feet and hands firmly planted beneath her on the ground. She tried to push herself up to her feet, only for the foot of one of them to slam into her shoulder, knocking her over before she could rise again.

The two moved around the unconscious bruiser at their feet, ready to brutalize the girl before them. The one on the left reached in to take hold of her, until he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder.

"AARGH! WHAT?" Clutching his hand to the wound he turned to see Billy with his arm outstretched, having charged around and driven the blade into him, the baseball bat still clutched in his other hand. While they were distracted with the boy Mandy herself reached for one of the abandoned blades, closing her hand around the black plastic grip.

"YOU LITTLE FU-AAAAHHH!" He screamed out as Mandy slammed the blade deep into the side of his knee. He dropped to the ground, clutching his wounded and bleeding joint with the blade still imbedded. His ugly friend watched him fall, leaving himself unguarded as Grim chopped both sides of his face with his hands, stunning him momentarily. He followed up with a heavy upwards punch, breaking the thug's nose. He fell over backwards, groaning as blood flowed freely from his nose and mouth.

The three glared down at the remaining thug hatefully. It was the leader, the same one who had ordered the others to leave Mandy so he could be the first to rape her. Mandy felt the fury taking hold inside her at what he had intended to do to her. She took the opportunity to kick him as hard as she could in his face, breaking his nose further beyond complete repair, knocking him unconscious in the process.

"Why'd you knock him out? Don't you think it would've been better to let him feel it for a bit longer?" Billy muttered, before he disdainfully regarded the sick-minded brute before them.

Mandy turned to him. "That's what I was trying to do."

Billy picked up the slashed up box as they made their way back to the car, dropping the bat as they crossed the road. He paused for a moment in mid step. Lost in his own thoughts he distinctly remembered what that one man had said about Mandy before they attacked.

"_Leave the bitch. She's mine to screw!"_

Immediately his features darkened into a glower. He turned to look back to the passed out murderers lying on the footpath. His partners looked to him in concern as a deep and unstable angre welled up throughout him at what they had planned to do to his best friend, along with countless others.

"Grim, scythe. Give it to me." He ordered sticking out his hand.

"Billy, you know we can't-" Grim was cut off.

"Do it. I'm not gonna use any of its powers. I know what I'm doing." He continued to glower hatefully at the inhuman monster and his friends. "I'm going to make sure they never do what they were gonna do to Mandy again."

Looking across to Mandy uncertainly he relented, summoning and transferring his scythe to the youths hands, taking the laptop from him. He grasped it sternly before striding over to where they lay unconscious. Staring down on the wilted form of the rapist he bought his foot in, levering his slumped body over to lie face down, where he could get a good shot of his target; the spinal cord.

Rearing back he raised the scythe above his head, the blade pointing upwards as he prepared to strike with the blunt backing. Tensing all his muscles he swung the scythe down with all his strength on the middle of the man's back.

A chilling crack rang out from within the rapist's body. Immediately the lower half of the man began to spasm and twitch from the severed nerves as the blow broke his back, severing his spinal cord. He would never walk again, nor would he ever rape or brutalize another again. Mandy and Grim watched in a strange sense of fascination as Billy turned his gaze on the others of the group, considering paralysing them as well to be on the safe side. They had never seen the usually joyous and carefree boy act so brutally and mercilessly, striking down with a dark vengeance upon the most foul and corrupt members of humanity without so much as a shred of pity or remorse.

"_Crack!"_ Mandy and Grim watched on coldly as Billy bought the scythe down on the lower neck of another, rendering him a quadriplegic, before he moved on to another. _"Crack!"_

"Billy, forget about them and let's go. They're not important. There's no harm done to either of us, and they're not worth the effort either way." Grim called out as the boy raised the scythe to strike down on the back of a fourth, staring down upon each of them

"I know that Grim. But didn't you hear what they said they were going to do to Mandy?" He spoke in a low, soft tone as he looked upon the unconscious thugs with nothing but sheer, undisguised, absolute hate. "They were going to rape her. They were going to kill you and I, and then they were each going to take turns, one after another, to violate her, not to mention they probably killed and raped a heap of other people before us. And you are telling me to just forget about them? That after all the horrible things they've done and were gonna do that they're not important? Is that what you are telling me Grim?"

Billy looked across to their guardian as he stood beside Mandy. He lowered his eyes slightly in thought as the boy's anger sank in. He shook his head. "No. Do what you want with them."

With that said Billy turned all his vengeful fury back to the remaining four. His two companions both watched on quietly as one by one Billy broke their spines, snarling down upon them with loathing. Mandy found herself somewhat uneasy at the sight, her stomach twisting slightly at each crack that rang out. Though as harsh, cold hearted and unforgiving as she was, she had never seen something like this up close and personal, nor had she ever expected to see it being wrought by Billy of all people.

As she reflected on what they had said to her before they had attacked, she found the anger she felt for the corrupt returning. Focussing as she had done countless times before she built it up, feeding it and fanning it ever hotter, letting its ferocity flow down through her body to empower her. As Billy bought down the scythe on the spine of the last would-be rapist, she silently revelled in the satisfaction of the merciless revenge that had been dealt upon the twisted creatures.

Regarding his victims with a grimace he left them lying paralysed in the street as he turned and paced back across to where Grim and Mandy stood by the car watching. Once again they were reminded that after so long neither of them really knew all of him, his normally blissfully optimistic outlook completely out of sight behind the merciless executioner scowl. Could this have been a glimpse of something else within him that had gone unnoticed?

"Why didn't you kill them?" Mandy asked. "If you had hit them on the head it would have killed them regardless of wether or not you used its power or not."

"What do you think I was trying to avoid?" He replied using her own words. "If I killed them, then how would they be able to wake up in hospital, and realise that they're never gonna walk again. Can you imagine their screams when they realise they are forever cursed to live a broken, miserable existence, confined to a bed looking at a ceiling for the rest of their lives, all cause they liked to prey on innocent people?" Towards the end Mandy had noticed a faint curling upwards of his lips, a small smirk taking hold for what he had accomplished. "I think that's a bit more fitting than a simple, quick, painless death, don't you think?"

She found herself interested in the faint show of something, but before she could look into it more it was gone. Billy straightened himself out to return to his usual mood as he was before the attack, reaching out to give the scythe back to Grim. He took back his weapon, ordering it to return to its storage realm as the three settled back down, Billy taking the laptop under his left arm again as they returned to the car.

"I'm hungry. I don't suppose anyone wants fish?" Billy stated off handed. Only he, Mandy reflected, could do something so vastly outside his normal ways, such as ruthlessly exacting sadistic revenge on seven vile bigoted rapists and then still have an appetite.

* * *

Mid afternoon.

"Grim."

"Yes Mandy?" He responded as he set up the computer in the study, Mandy standing in the doorway.

"I need to know about the power that thing used when it tried to kill us. I need to know what it can do, and its limitations. Do you know anything about it?"

Billy walked in and listened, a fish sandwich held in one hand.

"Yeah I know enough about it. De energy itself is nothing particularly special, its de same general power as used by our scythes. And those abilities it used weren't really dat out of the ordinary. Plasma bolts and energy shields, dey're a normal ability for someone with such power. There were a few tings however that were special about dis case. What it did with its hands, to be able to focus the energy to cause internal damage, dat requires very precise control, something most demons don't possess unless they have something to channel it with, like a scythe. With that level of control it can also perform other abilities like creating portals through space to transport itself or objects it needs, and healing any injuries it receives. Both of these use a lot of energy though so it wouldn't be able to use dem often."

"So we're not exactly dealing with any ordinary demon guy here are we?" Billy added.

"How very astute. Perhaps you may have noticed that when we were twice unable to defeat it and only got away by the skin of our teeth. Anyway, de ting about demonic energy is unless it's contained within a specially constructed object or weapon, it is very difficult to control. It takes a very strong, focussed mind to be able to use it without losing control over it. If dat happens it will usually destroy you. And even if you manage to hold together under the pressure, the energy is so unstable that it corrupts de mind and body of anyone who uses it, hence why demons appear to be monstrous and ugly."

"Okay, so in order to control it you need to be mentally strong, and if you can't control it then it will control you?" Mandy asked.

"Bingo. De mind controls the energy and de body, and de energy and body influence de mind. If the mind is weak then the power corrupts it. If the energy corrupts de mind it corrupts the body, which den accelerates the corruption of the mind, and releases more power. Dat's why a reaper must use a scythe rather den hosting all dat power inside itself. If all the power in Mandy's scythe were to transfer into her body, den she would more or less implode on herself in a matter of minutes from the strain. Whatever attacked us must have worn the cloak because de power has corrupted it beyond being able to pass for human."

"Uh, actually…" Mandy began. "I don't think it's like that. When we were driving away from my place and it was chasing us, I saw its hood fly back. I didn't see any definite features, but I'm pretty sure it was human."

"Really?" Grim asked, receiving a nod in response from both. "Hmm… Dis is interesting. If something or someone could hold that much power and remain uncorrupted by it, den that has to mean de guy who attacked us must have absolutely perfect control. Normally any person, given that amount of power would instantly become corrupted by it to some extent, regardless of how strong willed they are. But if what you said was true and it's actually human, or at least looks human, den perhaps if someone could be cold and detached enough den they could control it without being affected. Dat would explain why it felt so cold being around it." A chill went up their spines at the memory of their first encounter in the parking lot, the hairs on the kids' arms standing on end.

"So what does this mean? How are we supposed to destroy it?" Billy spoke. Grim shook his head.

"I don't know. We just have to get started on dat research so we can find out who or what it is and what it wants. Den we may be able to find some weakness to exploit. Until then…" He ushered the two to leave him in peace with the computer, "… we each have work to do, some more den oders."

* * *

Late afternoon.

Junior was finished. Just finished.

Today had been without doubt the worst day of his life. The incident with the cop, going to that horrible school to learn one of his acquaintances had been killed just because he was black, along with the realisation that it was only a matter of time before it was his turn, and finally seeing one of his last remaining friends becoming so distant that he was now failing to recognise him. The hellish day had driven him right to the edge. It had held all his hopes and dreams and beliefs up to the light and exposed them for all their gaping holes, revealing them to be nothing more than childish whimsies, and now as the day drew to a close he was left exhausted, broken mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Endsville's degraded school had finished up classes for the Friday, leaving its inhabitants to find some other way to waste their time. Max, Junior and Piff were idly strolling down one of the streets near the centre of town. The hot afternoon sun cast the sky in an orange glow, and with school having ended for the week they had opted to go to the ice cream shop to escape. It was near where Mandy had first met Max years ago, and all the kids had grown up with it. It was their retreat from all the lousy parts of life like dodgy schools, drunken teachers, low self-esteem, broken promises, shattered egos, and the recent death of various friends. Thus they walked along the grimy rained out streets, stepping past puddles of water on the footpath and on the road to their left.

"So no one's heard anything? Anything!" Max had kept insisting on any information on his friends, all to no avail. In less than an hour now it would be exactly seven days since Billy and Mandy had first been attacked as of this very afternoon, and still, after doing absolutely everything he could to find out any scrap of information, he had still come up with absolutley nothing on where they might be. Now he made one last push for any information at all, a pleading note in his words despite his perpetually controlled state.

"For the last time no!" Piff answered with a growing hostile edge, tired of his constant pressing. "No one knows anything. Not the corrupt cops, not us, no one. So stop pestering us with your stupid questions!"

Junior turned to look at the goth surprised. "Relax Piff. What's with you?"

At this he seemed to freeze up momentarily, before he returned to his normal state. "Nothing. Forget it." Junior raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but by this stage he was simply too drained to think any more on it. He let the subject go as he turned to his other increasingly desperate friend.

"I'm sorry Max. I don't think you're going to be able to find out anything more. The police have long since abandoned the case, and the media's forgotten all about it. And I doubt Billy will be making any calls to his parents for fear of giving themselves away. I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to let this one go."

Max listened to him, but didn't respond. The three were interrupted at this point when out of the alley behind one block of apartments a gang of schoolyard brutes stepped out to confront them. Leading the pack of half a dozen was Sperg, grinning maliciously. As he saw who it was they had just confronted however his smirk fled him replaced by alarm, Max regarding him over with a cool even gaze. The rest of the gang noticed as Sperg backed off almost immediately, and not quite knowing why they followed his example. Neither Sperg nor Max said anything as they gazed at each other with fear and stern detachment respectively.

"I ordered you to bring two hundred dollars today. Do you have the money?"

The others in both groups rounded on the two in shock, no one having ever been able to make demands to the brutish thug before. For Junior though having seen the exchange yesterday it only served to fully confirm his long running suspicions of extortion. To the other's amazement Sperg held his hands up in surrender, reaching around to his back pocket to retrieve a few notes.

"Okay, okay! Here it is." He said handing Max the money without protest.

"Wait, you're taking money from Sperg?" Piff asked in disbelief as Max put the money in his pocket.

"Yes. I've been ordering him to pay me every week in return for not disciplining him. Yesterday I made another demand for two hundred dollars to pay for expenses that will be coming shortly." He told them casually, despite Sperg repeatedly gesturing for him to stop talking, cutting his hand frantically across his neck.

"No! You said you'd never tell anyone about that!"

"Don't worry Sperg, it doesn't matter anymore. You don't have to continue paying me every week. I no longer have any use for you." He told him with his ever defining friendly smile.

Sperg looked at him questioningly, not quite realising that he had just been set free, before he motioned for the gang to continue on past them going the other way. For Junior though what he'd seen just made him feel ever more as if yet more change was happening just under the surface, too fast and too obscure for him to adapt to. The act of benevolence, his kind smile, and the fact that he'd been extorting off him in the first place, it just came in too fast for him to make any sense of. For Max to just let go of a source of income he'd held in secret for the last four years with no apparent motive other than 'he no longer had any use for him' was a move he couldn't for the life of him comprehend. Once again he felt as if the last person he could understand and respect, his last real close friend, was changing into something he couldn't recognise.

"I don't want to be impolite, but why are you so hung up on those three anyway?" Piff asked. Max turned to him.

"What do you mean?"

"Well ever since they disappeared you've been acting strange, and you're getting stranger every day. All you ever do now is look for information on them. It's like nothing else matters to you anymore. Why are you so hung up on them?"

They both watched on as Max became still, his features going completely blank, devoid of any emotion whatsoever.

Something occurred to Junior at this point, something he hadn't realised in the four years since he'd become friends with the dark haired boy. He didn't know Max.

There had always been funny things he had come to notice about him over the years, long before anything happened with Billy, Mandy or Irwin. While he was definitely a good friend, in fact he was the best friend a person could have, occasionally there were moments when he really couldn't help but feel out of the loop, when he had absolutely no indication of what was going on inside his head. While Max was as great a friend as Billy and Mandy, he and Max had fought back to back many times through situations where survival seemed all but impossible just as he had with Billy and Mandy, but whereas he could understand what they were thinking and feeling without them saying anything, he could never quite see into him.

Now he saw the full extent of the matter. After being good friends with Max for four years, he still knew nothing more about him than he did the day he first met him. As far as he knew he had no thoughts, no ideals, no passions, a past that was as vague as a ghost, and as for his future… he couldn't begin to guess. While Billy and Mandy felt like friends, with their own particular habits and peculiarities, Max was nothing more than a polite voice and a friendly smile.

"Why am I hung up? Why aren't you? They're your friends too right?" He replied to them seemingly breaking from his blank state. "I care about them. They're important to me, and I have to do whatever I can to get to them before anything bad happens to them." The two stared back at him, seeing him return just as quickly as he'd left.

Junior resigned himself as he spoke up. "Well that's very good of you, to care so much for your-"

He was cut off by the sound of a demonic, bloodthirsty, hateful roar coming up behind them.

They each turned to see a dark blue low slung car accelerating up the street towards them. The car roared past, blasting through a deep puddle of water on the side of the road next to them, splashing them with the white spray. Max took cover behind Piff right before the water hit them, sparing him from the soaking. Junior and Piff recoiled at the assault, outrage visible in their watery faces.

The car rumbled off into the distance, a cackling laughter being heard over the rumble of the small block engine. The driver stuck her hand out the window, giving them the finger as the sadistic red head drove away.

"Idiot! God damn it!" Junior cursed as he shook the dirty water out of his black hair, losing control of his currently fragile temper.

"SCREW YOU!' Piff bellowed at the distant muscle car. They heard the woman behind the wheel screech with maniacal laughter again at their humiliation as she pulled right into the next street and disappeared behind the towering apartment buildings.

While everyone else was busy shaking out the water and cursing the driver of the car, one of them simply watched on with an empty gaze as the car drove off into the distance, his features stilled in a distant, stoic mask, observing and calculating in complete silence.

"Forget about her. I'm sick of this. Let's just get to this place and get out of here." Junior suggested tiresomely to which Piff nodded, walking off towards the nearby parlour, Max tailing just behind them.

Together the group continued on down the street, past the puddles as they began to dry out. As they walked onwards they came upon the small intersection where the car had veered off to the right. While the other two made their way on ahead walking across the road, Max turned his gaze to the street where the car had disappeared down. He began to hang further and further back to the rear as the two continued ahead oblivious as he scanned the road beside him. He could sense the car was still nearby. A number of auto service businesses were run in the area. Ahead of him the group made their way off the road back onto the footpath, continuing on past the intersection with Max coming up behind them, stepping up onto the footpath a few moments later.

He stopped. Looking down to his right he continued to scan the road where the car had disappeared, thinking in silence. Turning back to where Junior and Piff walked on ahead he gazed at their backs as they continued on, still oblivious to the fact he wasn't with them anymore, silently contemplating. It would be some time before they realised something had happened. The gears in his head continued to turn as he weighed up the pros and cons of what he was about to do. He turned to the right, towards where the car had gone, and turned ahead, to where his friends were now moving farther and farther out, right and ahead. He stared at Junior's retreating back with cold detachment, remembering what they had all gone through together in the four years he had been in Endsville with complete indifference.

It was time to leave.

Without the two far ahead knowing anything his feet moved underneath him as he calmly turned to the right and walked away.

* * *

Vicky, like most people, liked and disliked many things. The fact she was a sociopath didn't change that. And like most people a few stood out as particular favourites. For Vicky there were two things in her life that she loved more than anything.

The first thing Vicky loved was terrorising people. There was nothing she liked more than the way a person would cower before her, not even money. People would respect her like a goddess, a draconian, vengeful goddess who would never tolerate any disobedience or failure to fear her will, and that was how she expected it.

Before when she was sixteen she took up a babysitting job, so as to make the children cower. But that was now too easy for her. She had gotten used to seeing them cringe, even as her abuse got worse and became more physical, and had since learnt how to be even more terrifying and brutal, so now everyone around her regardless of age feared the evil twenty year old.

Her mind kept playing back the way she drenched those three stooges back there, and a cruel smirk came to her face. Right now though she had other matters to attend to. The second thing she loved above all else, she mused, was closely linked to the first, as she pulled into the tuning shop she had come out here for.

* * *

They walked for another five minutes to reach the little shop.

Pushing through the front glass doors Junior stepped into the parlour, Piff following just behind. As soon as he came face to face with the other patrons he froze.

Every one of the dozen or so people sitting at their seats or standing behind the counter gave him a stomach twisting glower of undisguised, absolute disgust. He almost staggered under the assault. In all his years of abuse and intolerance at the hands of the people around him, never before had he seen such bitter and overwhelming hatred in the eyes of the very people he had struggled to protect and gain the respect of. Seeing just how much they hated him regardless of all he had gone through for them, it became clear that this hellish day was not yet over, that the worst was yet to come.

The owner of the shop, an enormous fat man in a white apron with greasy black hair, turned to face him from behind the counter. "What the hell are you doing here creature?" He hissed.

"Hey look, we're not here to cause trouble." Piff stepped up calling for peace. "We just came for some-" The chef seized a large kitchen knife and pointed it at him furiously.

"SHUT UP TRAITOR, OR I'LL PUT THIS FUCKING KNIFE RIGHT THROUGH YOUR FUCKING EYE!" Piff backed away under his rage. Lowering his face Junior spoke to him where he stood with his back turned facing the angry crowd.

"Go home."

Taking but a moment to regard the other boy standing alone now against the hostile crowd Piff turned away and left silently. Stilling his nerves against the fear and hurt that stabbed at his heart he summoned all his strength, rearing his shoulders back as he looked up to face the large man in defiance.

"I don't know why you hate me. I don't know how you justify what you've put me through. I've saved the lives of all of you more times than I can remember. I've showed you time and time again that I'm not the horrible savage monster responsible for all your troubles. I fought tooth and nail and stared death in the face to protect you! And even after everything you've done to me, even when I could barely pull myself out of bed to face the day because of your abuse, I have always forgiven you and given you another chance. So why do you treat me like this?"

"How dare you talk back freak! You're a demon! An abomination! A disgusting horrible mutant creature that doesn't deserve to live! You're a poison! A poison on my world!"

"I know, but why? You keep doing and saying all these horrific things to me but please just tell me why?"

"SHUT UP DEMON! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU! YOU MADE THE FOREIGNERS COME HERE! YOU MADE US HAVE NO MONEY! YOU MADE ME GET SICK! YOU MADE ME LOOSE MY WALLET! YOU MADE ME GAMBLE AND DRINK AND SMOKE! YOU MADE ME SHORT CHANGE MY CUSTOMERS! YOU MADE MY ICE CREAM GO OFF! YOU MADE ME GET IN DEPT AND YOU MADE ME CHEAT ON MY WIFE AND BEAT MY KIDS AND KILL MY DOG AND-FREEEAAAAK! YOU'RE DIFFERENT! FREAK! FREAK! DIFFERENT! FREAK! FREAK! FREEEEEEAAAAK! DIFFERENT DIFFENT! DIFFENT! FEEEEEEEK! DIFFFFEEEENT! FEEEEEEEEK! DIFFFEEEENT! DIFFFEEEEEEEENT!"

Junior stood gaping in utter horror. The fat man's bloated body bulged and racked and heaved. His face was a deep red and puffed out with several veins straining under the pressure, while his cheeks bellowed in and out with violent breaths through his nose. His eyes were swollen and unnaturally bloodshot. He had burst several blood vessels in them. His entire bulging figure shuddered and shook violently from his fingers up in a haze of frenzied intolerance and narcissistic ire. What's more Junior had been shocked by the nature of the things he had said, the sheer insanity and lack of any sort of reason or even the most basic logic. He lacked the words to describe his horror. How did he justify what he'd said? Towards the end his blind arrogant frenzy had become so extreme he had begun to loose the ability to speak.

Desperate and pleading for calm now as the owner and the other patrons stepped up their venomous glares he held his hands up in a last hopeless bid for just a few seconds peace. "Please… Can we just sit down for a minute, and talk about this like normal, rational human beings?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAHHH! AAAAHHH! AAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

That was the only response he received. The owner threw his hands up in the air like a crazed rabid ape and screamed… and screamed… and screamed… and screamed.

Without ceasing in his now blind raving frenzy he began thrashing about in a fit, smashing through the glass cover of the ice cream counter, thrashing about to find something, anything to destroy. Looking at him as he turned his bright red face this way and that searching for something else to attack, it became apparent that this screaming madman wasn't just trying to destroy the aforementioned demon, he was trying to destroy and maim and kill anything or anyone that wasn't himself. The corruption of this man's mind was now complete. He now saw everyone that wasn't himself as vermin, an unholy taint in comparison to his own divine perfection, and was overcome by the need to kill and rape and slaughter everyone his eyes came upon.

And then came the final straw. Looking away from the screaming man possessed by his own arrogance and selfishness he gazed despairingly across the rest of the parlour and saw the other people looking back and forth between the maniac and himself.

They were nodding in agreement.

Now he understood. Now he knew why they hated him, and cursed him, attacked him, threw garbage at him, and lay blame to every conceivable absurdity upon him. For so long he had asked himself time and time again how _human beings_ could harbour such murderous hate in their bellies despite every act of kindness and mercy and forgiveness he had bestowed upon them, but no longer.

Now he saw the truth; _they weren't human beings._

His face a grim stone mask he watched on. The berserk… thing behind the counter grabbed its knife and stabbed they young 'woman' standing behind the counter in the throat. Slashing her arteries open he dove forward and sank his teeth into her exposed flesh, drinking and sapping at the enormous amount of blood and chunks of meat that exited her neck. The other patrons regarded him with only minor interest as he began to gnaw and tear off a piece, turning back to look at him accusingly, the creature grunting and snorting as he chewed on a flap of skin he'd pulled off.

He backed away, exiting the shop even as the snorting and snarling owner finally saw his own reflection in the glass, and screaming once more promptly stabbed himself to death. Ignoring the crowd's screams of accusation he turned and walked away.

After putting a few feet between himself and the mob in the store behind him he stopped, casting his face down in defeat. It was over. Every hope he'd ever dared to hold of being accepted, of living in peace with the people around him, was gone. He would now be condemned to live in the underworld, no longer able to walk the surface for fear of the monsters that inhabited it.

He breathed a deep sigh and closed his eyes. "Come on Max, let's go home."

No one answered.

He opened his eyes as it dawned on him that he could no longer sense his companion behind him. Turning around he looked back the other way down the footpath, finding nothing. Frowning he looked around and about searching his surroundings, but as much as he looked, no one else was there. He was completely and utterly alone.

"Max?"

He would never see him again.

* * *

Evening.

Mandy carried the fishing rod down to the river where Billy had already started. She got down there to find him with a tackle box and a tray full of water. He was barefoot, standing up to his ankles in the water, calmly revelling in the sensation of it against his worn out feet.

"Hey Mandy, you have to try this, its great." He called out to her. She was slightly taken aback that Billy had found the tranquil feeling she had secretly come to find very relaxing. She slipped off her shoes and socks and walked out into the cold shallow water to toss her line in.

Again the feeling took hold of her. She felt time slipping from her consciousness as her nerves tingled up to her waist, erasing everything that troubled her. She felt so at ease that she didn't notice the slight tugging on her line.

The two spent the end of their remaining afternoon fishing in their little stream, their bare feet immersed in the cool water. From where she stood she glanced periodically across to her friend. Mandy had to admit that lately Billy had grown up remarkably well. He had become far more mature than she had ever known him to be previously. Though he was still an idiot at times, the little Grizzly Bear episode foremost in her mind, she had to admit he could just as easily become calm and self controlled, even under dire circumstances. And then there was the matter of his unusually dark turn of behaviour recently where he had struck down her would be rapists with merciless cruelty, taking revenge and stopping them from ever doing evil again in one fell swoop. She looked across to him, standing there calmly, a serene smile on his face, waiting for their next meal to bite. Though a strange patchwork of contradictions and riddles he may be, he was definitely a good one.

She couldn't deny it; he had grown up admirably, enough for her to find a great respect for her long time friend and partner. Through a semi-conscious act she shuffled over to stand just a little closer to him.

"Mandy look you've got one!" She came back to reality as she noticed the pressure on the rod as the tugs became more determined. She pulled it upwards to anchor in the hook and began reeling it in. She had to wrestle for control of the rod as the powerful fish fought all the way in as it thrashed around beneath the waves. Slowly though it tired, allowing her to pull it in towards the bank, where the fish was forced to the surface by the land rising up underneath. Mandy reeled the large fish in all the way as it thrashed around in the shallow water at her feet, unable to escape. Billy secured it with a rag as it continued to thrash around.

"Hah hah ha! Now that's a fish! Look at it!" The silver body was at least two feet long, and continued to thrash about until Billy knocked it over the head with a rock, stunning it into silence.

"Looks like we're having fish tonight." Mandy commented on her catch as she and Billy both knelt down beside each other to pick it up.

As they reached to take the fish their hands touched, a tiny, soft little event which made them both grind to a halt and their hearts skip a beat. Billy slowly turned to Mandy in surprise as she looked to him with the same gaze, both wide eyed, and realised just how close together they were. A nervous anticipation sprang up in each, their anxiety heightened when neither seemed to want to pull away. Billy's heart began to race. He struggled not to let his accelerated breathing become apparent, while Mandy became aware of a strange warmth that had suddenly overtaken her face and body. No one dared say a word. Both knew fully well whatever it was they were currently feeling, the confusing rush of warmth and flustered panic, that they were treading on forbidden ground. The two became overwhelmed by a primal fear and the sudden need to clamp their mouths shut tight and give nothing away, not even a flicker of the eyes. Both knew with complete understanding that they couldn't allow the other to know how they each felt at that moment, that for some reason they liked being so close.

Moving as slowly and tentatively as possible Billy backed his hands away from hers just a little, as if repositioning them, his face kept absolutely still and unmoving. Mandy likewise pulled away gradually, each doing their best to pretend nothing had just happened, despite the fact that Billy was still holding his breath, and Mandy's face was still flushed a warm red. Billy took the fish and soon had it loaded into the tray back on dry land.

Mandy was stunned by what had just transpired. _'What was that? Am I blushing? Why am I blushing!'_

She tried to put the troubling whirl of feelings aside, each wanting to escape the tension that had arisen between them. Looking up they saw the pink evening sky overhead, with the sun setting in the distance beyond the trees sending rays of light in through the branches as the temperature began to drop. "We should go back now." She spoke up.

Billy nodded, slipping on their socks and shoes again and carrying their fish back up to the cabin for Grim to cook. When he presented Mandy's catch he was pleasantly surprised and soon got to work on it. Outside the cabin Mandy stood in the clearing near the front porch, turning to look out towards the distant sunset. She then turned towards the band of heavy clouds to the south. It was now exactly one week after her life had been turned upside down. She knew that somewhere beyond those tree tops and orange clouds was Endsville, where their friends were worried about them.

And somewhere in amongst the decaying city another was preparing to hunt them.

* * *

After the sun had set on the Friday afternoon the three had settled in for a relaxed night. After dinner they had sat down to watch Bullit, one of Billy and her's favourite car chase movies. Mandy found it almost embarrassing how the powerful old vehicles would lull and slide their way around the city streets like busses and boats. After that ended around eleven Billy and Grim went to get ready for bed, leaving Mandy out on her own.

Sitting back on the couch she flicked from one channel to another, the house quiet and dark with the late night bar the flicker of the television and the soft voices of the actors. She was troubled, too troubled to sleep. Currently she felt two things, concern and frustration, concern over what she had experienced, and more importantly what she had _felt_ in the little incident earlier that evening, and frustration that she hadn't been able to get rid of it. Gritting her teeth together she scowled at herself. It should never have happened in the first place.

Clutching the remote she turned off the television and threw herself irritably back in her seat, crossing her arms in front of her. She had to deal with this tension somehow. An idea came to her; some last minute practice on her new weapon would do nicely before she retired for the night.

Retrieving her pistol and two spare magazines she headed out the door into the clearing. Her eyes searched in the darkness for a vacant area, settling on an empty space between the trees at the side of the clearing.

She raised the cold steel weapon, ready for the powerful recoil, but stopped upon noticing something odd about her surroundings. It was so bright, the light from the moon and the stars was lighting up the darkness far greater than it ever had back in Endsville. She could even make out the colour of the trees. Why? She turned her head skywards to investigate.

The pistol landed on the ground with a dull clatter as she stared gaping in awe at something she had never seen before.

'_My god, I never knew there were so many stars!'_ Mandy gaped upwards at the night sky which, instead of being black with points of white, was white with small areas of black. Her mouth hung open as she stared at the endless myriad of stars, galaxies and nebulae that crossed the night sky.

Mandy had never really taken any great interest in beauty, having always viewed the idea of gawking at something pretty and shiny to be degrading and something she didn't have space for in her life. But what she was seeing now she simply could not describe. She couldn't help but gaze in wonder at the myriad of stars, the far distant clusters, the great band of the galaxy, and the nearest neighbouring planets, all forming a fantastic collage of light and colour. The full moon shone high in orbit, the suns rays illuminating its entire surface, making it shine a brilliant white, outlining each of the great land forms that scarred its surface from eons of titanic impacts.

As she stared in silent wonder upon the brilliant night sky, from his bedroom window Billy looked out into the clearing below, his eyes locked on the solitary figure. She had never shown such wonder and awe before in her life, so far as he knew at least, always having shown either cold apathy or deep vengeful anger towards anything that was worth her attention. As she stood out there now Billy found himself completely unconcerned with the splendour of the sky, focussed solely on the stunningly beautiful sight of her face as she gazed upwards under the cold moonlight, completely unaware of his gaze.

Resting his head on the window he watched in silence, the concept he had thought of earlier in the car coming back to him.

'_She's so beautiful. Everything about her is so beautiful. I wish I could go down there with her now and be close to her again.'_ He didn't question why he thought and felt the way he did now. He understood it perfectly. Nothing else could explain the inexplicable feeling of wanting to wrap his arms around her and hold her in his warm embrace, and to feel her melt into his arms. He was in love with her.

'_But she would never want me in return.'_ And this eclipsed the warmth he had felt earlier with a cold sadness from deep inside. He would have to keep how he felt for her locked away. _'She must never know.' _Resigning himself he lay his head down against his arm, watching her solemnly from behind the glass window as she stood below gazing in awe up at the night sky.

They both stayed up for a long time that night.

* * *

Vicky drove out of the garage in her now even more powerful car, leaving several quietly terrified mechanics behind her.

The second thing Vicky loved was her Camaro. Her dark blue nineteen-eighty seven Chevrolet Camaro had been bought about a year ago by the young, sadistic twenty year old woman, as per the promise she'd be able to afford it as soon as the foreigners and sub-humans were all disposed of. She had soon modified it to suit her menacing evil image, with stronger lowered sports suspension, powerful breaks, great bands of black rubber surrounding alloy wheels, and a deep and sinister-sounding high performance duel exhaust. To top it all off though was the centrepiece of the entire car, the powerful three hundred and fifty cubic inch fuel injected small block Chevy V8.

Vicky loved her demonic car for how the deep warbling exhaust note struck fear into every living creature, and announced her arrival in a wave of terror and dread. The dark red muscle car let everyone within a hundred metre radius know who was driving it, and demanded that they bow down to her or back away. That is why she loved her car, second only to the ideals of terror and merciless brutality it represented.

She had bought it here that afternoon to have the timing of the camshafts and ignition tuned, and it had pushed the power up to four hundred and ten kilowatts, five hundred and fifty horse power. She smiled lovingly at the loveless machine of terror and destruction as it rumbled its way along the deserted streets.

She pulled up at a red light, the engine burbling deeply, the exhausts drawing mist in the cold night, the sleek blue wraith of a car burbling softly like a sleeping demon under the blue glow of the moonlight through the starless night sky. It would take her about two hours to drive the distance back to Dimsdale, and she wouldn't have it any other way than in her beloved car. She relaxed, resting her arm on the open window frame. All was well in the world.

From out of the corner of her eye she noticed something moving amidst the glow of the street lights. She turned to her left to see what had caught her. In the distance she made out the veiled figure of a sleek boy about twelve years old, walking slowly, calmly towards her through the gloom. His gait held a certain smooth precision that combined with the rhythmic, resonating tap of his black shoes on the concrete, she found almost hypnotic. She vaguely recognised him from earlier, the dark blue clad youth in that group she'd splashed who had taken cover moments before.

She watched as the boy slowly came up across the other side of the road to stand right next to her door, regarding her with a polite smile.

"What's your problem twerp?" She barked at the pathetic little figure before her, only to find he wasn't affected by her menacing personality. She felt it slightly strange that whereas her bark could intimidate people twice as big and strong as her that this insignificant little kid could be completely unconcerned with it.

"Nothing." He replied softly. He averted his eyes down towards her car, silently scanning every inch of its sleek dark blue flanks with his intense gaze. She began to loosen her piercing glare at him when she noticed it too didn't seem to bother him in the slightest, as if it just didn't matter to him. Slowly his eyes roved across the vehicle, taking in the wide rear tyres and the low slung lines, before he returned his eyes to hers, staring at her with a polite face. Yet despite his kind smile there was something about him that was beginning to play on Vicky, in the very back of her mind.

'_Who is this guy?'_

Normally she would have been outraged that he had dared to remain unaffected, but right now she felt something different. There was something about him that was beginning to unnerve her. She could feel her menacing aura being stripped away by his soft smile and… something else, something behind his kind face that she could not see. There was some faint, inexplicable little thing somewhere inside him that she could not help but become dimly aware of. Vicky had never felt something like this before. Though she had felt fear and terror many times in her life, she had never felt such a subtle sense of… _foreboding._ She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as he continued to smile benevolently towards her.

"Say…"

She noticed something about this boy, although maybe she hadn't noticed anything at all. She knew something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Perhaps it was the way the bitterly cold moonlight cast down on his face, leaving parts of him in shadow beneath the eerie blue glow in the starless night sky. But deep down she knew that wasn't it. There was something seriously wrong about the way he looked at her. Although his kind face showed that he was a gentle, caring person, there was something deeply foreboding and ominous about the way he was looking into her eyes.

Something in his eyes.

Something…

'_Cold.'_

"That's a nice car."


	17. A New Lead

**Like another Adam Sandler movie it's yet another filler. Not my best work I know but oh well. :P**

* * *

**A New Lead.**

The day after getting the laptop the three began to settle down into a routine. After breakfast Mandy would take off on a run down by the river bank, armed with her 1911 in case she ran into Billy's bears on her run, or any of his many other acquaintances. After that Grim would teach her more about how to shoot, using up around a hundred rounds every lesson. She had become quite skilled with her pistol and the small M4 carbine she had chosen. Neither of them quite fit her small frame, after all she was still twelve, yet she managed well enough. After moving from more powerful weapons to this light, accurate high powered rifle, training with the two almost exclusively, she had come to grow accustomed to it, although this came at the expense of everything else in the weapons locker.

After midday Grim would go back to his study, continuing the investigation into the victims, trying to find any connection. His primary objective was finding a reason, which in turn would lead them to whoever would want them dead. He would stay at it until the end of the day.

Mandy had started exercising a lot more, mostly running through the forest, doing push ups, stretches and punches until she wore out. With little for Billy to do until his cast came off he spent most of his time play his video games and watching movies, often sleeping in until the sound of gunshots woke him. Occasionally while out in the clearing Mandy would catch a glimpse of him watching her train in a daze-like state, but refused to acknowledge it. After that she'd join him on the couch in playing whatever game he happened to be playing at the time.

They stayed there until around five when they went down to their little river to catch dinner. They would always stand in the shallow water, relishing in the feeling of the wonderfully cool water flowing through the gaps in their toes, while they cast their lines out into the slowly moving crystal clear water further out. The fish they caught usually served them for their evening meal, although sometimes they would go out to dinner in the nearby town, which had come back to life remarkably once the gang of thugs had been gotten rid of. Oddly enough with so much free time to do pretty much whatever they wanted, they still held their routine from day to day, though always at their own pace. Both greatly enjoyed being able to sleep in until whatever time they wished to rise at, often somewhere between eight and twelve. The days were leisurely and relaxing, and the nights were spent together with a bowl of popcorn and a movie.

As they settled down into their new life in hiding the days began to blur into one another. It wasn't long before they began to lose track of the date. They had to start counting backwards how many days they had been there back to the Friday, the last day of their previous lives, just to figure out what day it was.

Very slowly the days turned into weeks. Gradually their life back in Endsville began to seem like a distant memory. Billy had never been away from his family for so long, and they would occasionally drift in and out through the back of his mind. He wondered how they were going living underground for so long, along with the challenges living with the Nergals bought, like trying to stay alive. Mandy on the other hand had essentially cut all ties with her old life. She hardly ever thought of Endsville anymore, and had also largely stopped focusing on the future as she used to. Whereas in her old life she was always looking towards the future, or rather her future, now she was focused solely on the moment. She thought about what she was going to do in an hour's time, or that afternoon, never any further than the current day. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism, or perhaps just her way of relaxing, either way she didn't particularly think much about it.

As their life in Endsville grew further and further distant with time, the days they spent in their woodland sanctuary grew. At some point the three of them came to grow accustomed to their new reality, and before they even realised it their new life in hiding had became as normal to them as anything previous.

* * *

It was Friday, exactly four weeks since they had left Endsville, and a month since Billy's injury. At the hospital they had been told that it would take a month for his broken arm to heal, and that arm had been sitting immobile in its hardened protective case for roughly one month. And now at the local town clinic Billy was about to faint as the doctor bought the small spinning disk-like instrument down onto the cast, carefully cutting away at it.

'_Oh crap! The guys chopping at me with a buzz saw! He's gonna get me! MURDER!'_

Human Grim and Mandy thought they'd have to hold him still so the doctor could cut away at the cast without cutting into Billy. Interestingly enough though they found that the sheer terror had apparently rendered him unable to so much as blink let alone struggle, making the job a whole lot easier.

The doctor finished off the final cut on the cast, revealing a long ravine cut through the plaster, stopping at Billy's skin without drawing a single drop of blood.

"There we are, no problem." The balding Asiatic man in white looked at his patient's face, which he noticed was as white as his clothes. "Hey, are you alright?"

"He's fine. Just get that thing off of him so he can use his arm again." Mandy spoke in her usual calm yet commanding tone.

The doctor dug his fingers around the inside edges of the cut and began to pull the cast apart. The gap quickly widened as the fibres bent and gave way, allowing the cylindrical cast to gradually widen, until Billy finally slipped his arm out of its shell for the first time in a month.

Billy held his arm up, looking at his long dormant limb. He noticed the colour of his skin, a strange olive brown previously unknown to the light skinned boy. The cast had prevented the dead skin cells from breaking away, thus creating a thick, dense layer of dead skin to build up along the majority of his right arm.

The effects of him seeing it were instantaneous and highly entertaining.

"AAAAAAAAHHH! I'M A ZOMBIE! I EAT FLEEEESSSHH!" He screamed and flailed his arm around as he bounced around the room in a partially self-motivated panic. The doctor looked back and forth from the boy's strange behaviour, to the strange lack of behaviour from his companions, sitting there staring at him, indifferent to the chaos around them.

"We're used to it." The dark and foreboding girl answered. He tried not to think about just how they had gotten used to it as they thanked him and made their way out to the reception, Mandy dragging Billy by the collar.

Grim payed the woman behind the counter in cash as Billy hoped into the back seat, far more sedate now having gotten bored of the panic.

"It's only dead skin cells Billy. Scratch them off and your arm will be as good as it always was." She pushed her seat back into position, hopping in as Grim returned. He started the car, driving off back towards their remote hideout while Billy began to furiously scratch away at his arm. The more he scratched, the more it began to itch as the feeling came back into it.

* * *

Twenty minutes later the skeletal Grim opened the door of their little coupe, causing an avalanche of creamy white dust to spill over from the interior onto the ground outside their cabin.

Grim shuddered in revulsion as he stepped out of the car, brushing away the thick layer of dead skin cells, letting Billy hop out after him.

Mandy calmly stepped out of the car, closing the door behind her. She sneezed, causing an enormous cloud of flakes to come off, floating to the ground around her. She walked back towards the front door to the cabin, seemingly apathetic towards the flaky cloud except for a few calm words.

"Well that was disgusting.. horrific… appalling…" She held her aristocratic manner, brushing the rest of the dead skin off before she unlocked the door, opening up their home once more.

"Billy, you are going to spend so much time vacuuming that ting out! You're not going to leave it until dere isn't a single flake of yerself left in it!" Grim seethed at the little fool as he sniggered and walked inside, far too entertained by Grim's disgust to be hampered with trivial nuisances.

"But Grim, don't you remember the terms of our bet? If you win you get Mr Snuggles and me, if we win we get you. So don't be all whiny just cause you lost, and remember where you stand."

"Memembeh meh meh meeh!" Grim mocked. His nerve fled him though when Billy reached up and grabbed him by his collar and yanked him violently down to eye level so he could drill into him with a crazed grin.

"Or maybe you've forgotten. Maybe you need some psycho crazy guy like me to jog your memory. How about being used as target practise for the next couple hours? Maybe then we'll see who's job it is to clean out the car! You like the sound'a that?"

"N-No!"

"So you're gonna stop being a whiney bitch and do what your told?"

"Yes sir!" Grim stammered frightfully under the ferocious gaze of the boy restraining him.

Mandy stared with wide eyes as Billy's unstable predatory grin reverted back to the happy-go-lucky smile she usually saw, though the tingling feeling in her arms still persisted even after it was gone. _'Whoa… What was that? That was… That was… Whoa.'_

"Okay." Letting go he allowed Grim to return to his full height, still shocked by what he'd just seen. He and Mandy were almost shocked again when Billy's face lost its light hearted smirk to be replaced by a serious look they rarely saw on him, seeing as he flexed and tensed the arm he'd used to hold Grim, the same one that had been damaged and immobile for just over a month.

"Alright, my arm doesn't seem to have lost any strength while it was in that cast. You remember our deal, if I show you I'm responsible enough by the time the cast comes off you'll teach me how to shoot. I think I'm ready." He spoke without any of the random insanity which he usually incorporated into everyday speech, taking on a very strict disposition. He did not under any circumstances take the idea of shooting a deadly weapon lightly at all.

Grim looked thoughtful for a moment, looking across to Mandy, seeing her mirror his questioning glance.

"Billy has matured a lot lately." Mandy thought back to the times he had been level headed when he needed to be, like on the night they were attacked and he was injured. On the way to the hospital he had been more level headed than she was. "I'd trust him with a gun."

Grim nodded. "Alright den, follow me." He led Billy inside to the weapons locker. "Choose one you like." He stared down at the mass of god forsaken metal. He took note of the many different types of pistols ranging from relatively new to very old weapons from the First World War and earlier. One that caught his eye was a relatively small, all metal weapon which lacked any of the flashy styling of some of the others. It was obviously aged, showing various pitting and marks from use by its last late owner.

"What about this one?" He reached in and pulled out the thin, surprisingly heavy hand gun, careful of where he was pointing it.

"Hey, I haven't seen one'o dose since de Great Patriotic War." Grim commented fondly as he laid eyes on the ugly yet unique and iconic weapon. "Dats an old Tokarev TT-33. It was de side arm for the Red Army through World War Two. I found dis one in the hands of a dead officer in Stalingrad, nice guy actually, and it's been a favourite of mine ever since." He reached down to withdraw a few magazines while Billy studied the weapon with a nervous interest. He didn't know much about guns but he did notice the lack of any knobs or switches on the side. It was a relatively heavy weapon for its small overall volume, bearing the standard Soviet boiler tank engineering, earning it a sense of rugged simplicity. It looked similar to Mandy's weapon to which it was vaguely related, but he could tell it was a smaller overall frame designed by different people for a different cartridge.

Billy couldn't help but study it with fascination _'It looks like it's been through hell and back. I guess much worse, through Stalingrad.'_

Grim led him and Mandy out the front, down through the forest to an area where many of the trees had been blasted away by Mandy's training. He took the gun from Billy, holding it in his bony hand so both could see. "Dis one is different to others because it doesn't have a safety switch. Like Mandy's you have to cock de hammer before it'll fire." He indicated to the relatively smooth sides of the slide, and the rounded back with the small rough bulge sticking out.

"But if it doesn't have any of the safety thingies, then isn't that… well… unsafe?" Billy found the concept of walking around with a gun that could go off at any time and blow a piece out of his person to be less than comforting.

"Yeah, and isn't that illegal?" Mandy asked. Grim shrugged his shoulders.

"Since when has dat ever stopped you?" He gave the weapon back to Billy. He turned it over, examining it in his hand. The image of the young lieutenant waving it in the air, urging his comrades onwards toward the German position flashed through his mind. "You see dat dere hammer at the back? Dat has to be cocked back to fire de first round. You can keep it down with de first round chambered and it won't fire. Just pull it back with yer thumb and you're ready to go."

Billy gripped the handle, listening with a slightly nervous disposition somewhere between that of a soldier and a kid. Grim remembered how Mandy had gazed wide eyed in anticipation the same way he was now and smirked sightly. He found the grip to be slightly awkward with the big trigger and sharply angled handle, but he quickly settled into a position where he could grasp the weight comfortably. Grim handed him the first of the thin magazines.

"First slide de clip up into de receiver until it locks into place." Billy followed, making sure the cartridges were facing forwards before he slid the metal container up into the handle.

"Pull back on the top of de gun until it's all de way back, den release so it slides back into-" A loud 'click' rang out as Billy did so before he had finished explaining.

"I saw Mandy do it a few times, and I've seen it in movies and TV, so I'm not completely clueless."

"Yes, well if you've seen it in action movies, then you'd know that you hold a gun sideways in one hand when you shoot, and dat-"

"De bad guys always shoot like fools and never hit anyting." Billy said mimicking Grim's accent. "I know the difference between movies and real life. I have to hold it level with two hands. Otherwise I won't be able to control it." Both Grim and Mandy looked upon him as he kept the muzzle of the weapon aimed at the ground, grasping the slide to draw it back forcefully.

"Mandy was right. You really have grown up." Billy smiled softly under Grim's praise. It was a rare honour that he relished every time he was gifted with it.

"So now that it's loaded and the hammer's back do I just line up my target and shoot?" He released the slide from its rearward position, letting it snap forward sharply. The weapon was now chambered and ready to fire, and with no safety it felt live and dangerous. He grasped the receiver in both hands, positioning his right index finger on the trigger, continuing to point the loaded gun at the earth.

"Jus get a good grip on it, line up the target with de sights and pull de trigger." Grim and Mandy readied themselves for the imminent blast. Billy carefully raised his heavy combat pistol, levelling it at one of the broken up target trees. He positioned the middle of the shattered trunk right along the barrel, lining up the front and rear sights. He took up the trigger once more, readying his arms and shoulders for the shock of the recoil. His hands were sweating from anticipation, but he maintained his firm grip on the handle as he pulled the trigger of a gun for the first.

"_BANG!"_ The great sound of the gunshot reverberated throughout the forest as the bullet exploded out the barrel.

The weapon rammed forcefully back into his outstretched arms, its muzzle kicking upwards from the powerful high velocity cartridge. It only took a moment to steady the gun again. He gazed out over the sights to the cloud of debris blown off the tree. He had scored a hit directly in the middle of the trunk, blasting a hole in its cratered side. He smiled, having succeeded in something few others his age would have had the opportunity to do.

'_Wow, so this is what it's like to fire a gun?'_ Grim smiled down on the youth's success while Mandy nodded in her own quiet version of appraisal. Inside a small part of her wanted to shout with pride and tackle him in a bear hug, but for obvious reasons she kept it repressed. Displays of positive emotions weren't really her forte as a stoic creature of brooding and darkness. Still she did allow herself to feel a certain level of delight at his progress.

"Alright, let er rip." At Grim's command Billy again lined up the target, letting several more of the Tokarev rounds blast away, splintering the trees before him. The closely repeated blasts of gunfire sent all nearby birds to the air, and had all ground dwelling animals running for safety.

Billy ejected the spent magazine as Grim handed him another, which was soon replaced by another a minute later. After he had gone through all six of the eight round magazines he lowered the empty steel weapon.

"Excellent Billy! Just your first time and you're already showing good talent. Keep it up and we just may make it out of here alive." He forced a smile at this, looking across to Mandy who confirmed his morbid feeling with a simple shrug. They made their way back inside the house, Billy placing the TT back in the locker.

"Don't worry about de bullets. I have heaps of dem, and I'll reload the magazines for youse later. If you and Mandy want to practise with dem, or any of the ones in de locker, just go ahead. Just don't go and do anyting unfathomably stupid and you'll be just fine." He nodded as he closed the lid on the locker.

With a nod they went to turn on the video game console and sat down in the luxurious couch. They picked up the controllers as their game started, an old martial arts fighting game. They settled down into their comfortable seat to spend the rest of their time playing video games, just like they always did, right from the beginning. It was their way of simply finding peace together. Some of their best memories were of just sitting on a couch, playing video games and watching movies, a bowl of popcorn between them, together.

_Too bad it won't last.'_ Thought Mandy, a dark cloud now hanging over the moment.

* * *

Grim left the kids to sit down in his seat in the study, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the pot and set himself down to the task at hand. The slight sense of pride he had felt over Billy's progress fell away when he sat his eyes on the piles of documents and information he had summoned three weeks ago. There were currently two piles, one very small pile on the left of the desk beside the laptop, and one massive pile on the right with more piled out onto the floor. The ones on the left were the last few he had methodically gone through only twice, while the rest he had gone through three times or more.

Steeling himself he got to work. Opening the first of the old books he read through the documents again, remembering many of the sentences he saw word for word from the other two times. He continued writing down notes on everything he came across, recording every detail for analysis, no matter how insignificant they may be.

He stayed in the study, working with fervour as he scanned the pages again and again, making sure he didn't miss a single word. The day slowly slid by, with day turning to night as he continued working, his frustration growing and growing continuously as he gritted his teeth.

Billy and Mandy saw fit to leave him work in what limited peace he had left, heating up two pizzas for themselves, keeping a few slices aside for Grim. Finally he came to the last page of the last document. He read it, noted down whatever was in it, read it again, then read it again, before he finally closed it, throwing it on top of the pile on the right side of his desk. He turned his gaze down to the pages upon pages of notes he had taken in the last three weeks. He looked them over, turning the pages one after the other looking for anything that linked them, going back and forth, back and forth, finding…

"GAAAH!"

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He threw the tattered notebook against the wall, turning to the piles of waste documents. He ploughed through them with his hands, knocking the pages and books throughout the room.

"DAMN IT!"

Billy and Mandy peaked in from the open door, perplexed at the fuming reapers outburst.

"What's the matter?" Billy asked in a somewhat concerned tone, noting the mess around Grim who was standing stationary in the middle of the room. He had largely calmed down by this stage, his anger having given way to a lingering frustration. He just sighed, walking out from the decimated study to the dining room. He sat down at the plate with a few still warm slices on it.

"I just finished going through all dose files for what is officially de third time, but unofficially the hundredth. I've taken note of every aspect of deir beings and lives, but no matter how hard I look I can't find any connection whatsoever." He grumbled, throwing one leg over his knee as he dug into his dinner.

"You mean…" Mandy started as he ate some of the pizza they had saved for him.

"Yeah, we got nothing. We're back to square one, only now we've lost a month. There's nothing we could find out from dose previous victims that might lead us to de killer. Dere's no connection at all between either of em. If dere was den I would have found it by now. We don't even know if dis guy's a paid hitman or not."

The two youths sat down at the table, dejected at being once more completely in the dark. They sat around the table in silence.

"Listen, you two just head off to bed now. I'll clean up de mess in the study. And don't worry about anyting. We've got all de time in de world to figure this out." The two dull faced kids left the table to go upstairs for showers. "And tanks for de pizza!" He called as they scaled the stairs.

"Your welcome." Mandy answered. Normally she wouldn't have bothered with such niceties, but she was currently in a low mood, and knew Grim was in a similar position. She felt she would let him have this little honour just this once.

Grim sat at the table, while the sound of one shower followed by another came to his ears, ending in nothing as the kids turned in for the night. He sighed again, bored now that their only lead had come up short. In his boredom he thought back to before all this began, before their world fell apart.

'_How long has it been since I reaped someone? I've barely even used me scythe once since I got dose books, dat and when Billy…'_ He summoned his scythe to his hands once more. He marvelled at his beloved beauty's cold weight, the way the light reflected off the straight black shaft and the accursed steel blade.

He sat it down on the table in front of him, summoning the list of notable names and times to his hand. In a flash the double scroll of names to be reaped materialised in his grasp. He glanced tiredly across the old brown sheet of the scroll. There were half filled hour glasses present on the sheet for almost everyone of importance, their names listed on the left, and an hour glass symbol on the right. He trailed down the list, finding Billy and Mandy a few rungs down from the top separated by a few spaces. He was relieved somewhat to find that according to the scroll both had plenty of time left, though as the universe changed, so did peoples time. A healthy honour student could have enough time to see them through into their nineties. However, were that honour student to start drinking and taking drugs, then that may well drop to just a few years, down to just minutes if they chose to drink and drive.

Amongst the list of important names were those of great will, who had a greater chance of becoming a ghost if not reaped manually. Reaping needn't be done for everyone, just that slight fraction who refused to go to the underworld, and had the willpower to resist on their own. He was charged with manually reaping those tough souls, and only the strongest, such as his old foe Mrs Doolin, could resist even his scythe. Sadly he noticed a number of names were piling up, names of people who had died and not yet passed on. It would take days to track them all down and reap them, and it would only get worse the longer they were here.

As he scanned down the list his gaze caught on one.

"What the…"

One name stood out above all the rest. The reason why it stood out was because there was no name there at all. There was no title or symbol to indicate who it was, just an hourglass symbol beside a blank space on the left.

'_Dat's never happened before. What is dis?'_ Grim touched the scroll where the name was supposed to be, cancelling out several names below it as a table of data appeared in ink beneath the unknown space. Under normal circumstances the table would have displayed various facts about the person, their estimated time of death, and how they got to be on the list of notable names. This had a decided lack of information displayed on the strange person whose name escaped the list. The only piece of information listed on the scroll was how long ago it was added.

Grim leaned in, narrowing his eyes at the words written in black ink on the scroll. _'Twenty eight days ago.'_ It appeared as though this name had come to be on the list on the very day they were attacked.

'_It's him!'_ Grim collapsed back in his chair at the revelation. _'It must've been picked up when it attacked us. How long does dis ting have left?'_ He touched the small hourglass symbol to the left of where the strangers name should be. A small cloud of thick dark blue vapour poured forth from the scroll as the hourglass was summoned. Grim waved away the smoke, trying impatiently to see the hourglass veiled within. As his skeletal hand waved through it he felt it strike against the yet to be seen hourglass, brushing past it, then hitting upon something else unseen just to the right of it. He stopped, letting the thick cloud dissipate. As it faded away into the surrounding air he finally got a glimpse of what it was his hand had struck.

'_Oh dis just gets better and better.'_

On the scroll before him sat the hourglass he summoned, plus another one sitting just beside it. Grim stared at the two without uttering a word. The one on the right was filled with deep blue sand, similar to his deep red, and had plenty left to go. Dark sand was a symbol of power, darkness and evil, possessed only by someone gifted with demonic power within their beings. Last time he checked even Mandy, in all her menacing charm, had normal sand. The one on the left though was identical except the top was completely empty, with just a small amount of the deep blue powder in the bottom. It appeared to have stopped long ago, and had only been going for maybe a few years before that. The one on the right showed no sign of stopping anytime soon.

'_De blue sand seems to indicate dat it's from that guy, after all it did use dark powers on us, but why two hourglasses? I've never heard of this before. Maybe dis is linked to wherever the guy came from, or what in hell it actually is.'_

He got up, taking the scythe and returned to clean up the study. _'I should probably keep dis to a minimum, or it might lead dat thing straight to us. I've overused it already.'_ Again he opened the portal to the underworld in the ceiling, sucking all the books and equipment he had summoned long ago back to the spectral library it came from. Keeping the portal open he searched his head for what he needed.

"All de books on hourglasses, reaping, the sands of time, life, death, and anything related to them are to be deposited here now." He spoke clearly into the portal.

A slight pause followed, before several hundred books dumped out of the vortex, piling up on the floor like they did last time, before it closed again. Grim stared down at the massive pile of paper, cardboard and microchips, ten times bigger than the one he summoned nearly a month ago. It stood as high as his head.

'_Great. I guess I have more work to do.'_ He walked back out to the table, carefully picking up the scroll and the hourglasses, taking them and sitting them on the desk in his study. He stared down at the enormous mound before him, deciding how he was going to clean it up so he could begin. He reached down to pick up some of the books at his feet, but thought better of it.

"Meh, I'll start tomorrow." He closed the door on the extremely cluttered study to head upstairs for bed. He was going to be hard at work for the next few days and weeks. But then he would have to be, because what he had told the two kids entrusted to his care earlier wasn't completely true.

'_We've already used more dan a quarter of all the money we have in just a month. At the rate we're going we'll only have enough to last another for months out here at most, maybe five if we cut back. After dat we'll have to go some place far away and get a job doing something. I don't think we'd be cut out for a life on de run.'_ He thought doubtingly as he scaled the stairs. _'Dat thing is still out dere somewhere and it's looking for us. I doubt something that focussed will just give up. We still have to keep a low profile until we find out where dat ting's from and how to get rid of it.'_

* * *

The sky was clear and blue and the forest seemed to shine with colours, the green of the leaves, the earthy brown of the bark and the soil underfoot, and the golden and rainbow streaks of sunlight that pierced the canopy and kissed his face. The air was cool and seemed to get under his clothes, making him feel awake and alive, consciously aware of his own existence.

Billy recognised this from somewhere before, but that didn't seem to press upon his mind so much as why he was there, or rather the simple purpose in being here. He made his way through the forest down towards where the crystal river lay far ahead. He couldn't remember why, there was no why, he just followed the mental command without much thought, as he had done before at some point.

His bare feet crossed the fresh dirt with a purposeful stride as he passed by the trees down towards where he knew he was supposed to go. He searched ahead of him for something he knew was out there, but he didn't know what. All he knew was that he was going down to the river.

Pushing his way through an overhanging pine branch he came out into the white pebbled bank with the shining crystal clear water beyond. In that moment he froze in place.

Sitting on the bank facing the water was Mandy, her back turned to him, with her top and bra sitting in a small heap beside her. His heart stopped, his breath caught in his mouth as he beheld the sight before him. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and even without seeing her face she appeared completely relaxed. She seemed to exude a feeling of meditative peace and calm. He couldn't help but gaze up and down her bare back, trailing all the way from the nape of her neck down her gentle developing curves, taking in every inch of her flawless skin.

'_An angel. She's an angel, a goddess.'_ Almost against his will he found himself stepping tentatively toward her. The girl seemed to sense his presence, taking a shaky breath in and turning her face around to look back at him. Billy faltered in mid step again as she looked at him with a sultry gaze, her half-lidded eyes and calm face projecting a sensual bliss that leaked and flowed into him through the cracks in his skin.

He felt her eyes take over, his thoughts and senses becoming blurred by her calm alluring features and her bare back. An overwhelming desire to place his hands around the curves of her waist, to touch and feel her softness, to kiss her neck and taste her mouth cancelled all his prior objections. And yet even as his craving pulled him onwards, his feet taking him towards her, he could not help but curse the girl, because this was not the one he craved for night and day. She was an imposter, a fake sent to torture him unremittingly until his sanity broke under the strain.

The girl's breathing became shaky again as he stepped over to her and knelt down by her side. Her eyes though did not cease in their longing alluring gaze, even as he looked back to her only a nose apart with the same intoxicated stare. Billy knew he recognised this acutely from somewhere but the memory of where still remained just out of his reach, further tormenting him. Guided by his desire he slowly bought his face in closer to hers, lowering his eyes as she responded by bringing her open lips ever closer to his. Closer and closer they came, until he could almost feel the warmth of her breath, and closer still. Finally he made to close the last gap between them and kiss her, but when at last he did, he felt only air. She seemed to pass right through him, coming apart on contact almost like an illusion. And then he remembered where he had seen this before.

* * *

Billy opened his eyes and sat up in bed, his breathing laboured and fast. Darkness greeted his eyes. He looked to the bedside clock; it was three twenty-five in the morning.

Reaching over he turned on the bedside lamp and rubbed his forehead in his hand. The dream had come for a second time that night, and had occurred on and off for the past couple of nights, tormenting him relentlessly. He rubbed his forehead against the stress. The girl in his dreams was not Mandy, she was an imposter created by his own wayward mind sent to twist and bend his will. How he hated that angel, hated her for taunting him with what he longed for beyond all else.

Figuring he wasn't going to get anymore sleep after the second time he slid out of bed and went to take a shower. The hot water eased the stress out as it had done so every time before, allowing him to think with some clarity.

What could be worse than something that attacked his every weakness? Every time she looked longingly back to him his will to resist would melt and he would surrender to his desire for her. And then when she was as close as she would ever get she would evaporate right under his fingertips, and he would wake up alone. Every time he was met with the stabbing pain of disappointment and loneliness, every time he tried to feel the warmth of her lips, or the smoothness of her waist... or the softness of her breast. No matter how much he wished it to be real it was always inevitably proven to be a fantasy, because as hard as he tried to imagine he had no idea what it really felt like to do what he did in his dreams, some of which he was quite ashamed of afterwards.

'_What did I do to deserve this?'_ All of a sudden he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as a sharp anguish struck him, and a few hot stinging tears of despair managed to escape his eyes momentarily, followed by a feeling of shame. _'Am I becoming a pervert like Irwin? I shouldn't be thinking these things. She's my best friend damn it!'_

Billy turned off the water and got out, dried himself off and got dressed for the day. As he stepped out of the bathroom he looked across to the door to Mandy's bedroom still veiled in near total darkness. Guiltily he stepped over to face its surface, looking it over apologetically as if he were facing Mandy herself.

"I'm sorry." He said in a sombre tone, lowering his face to stare at the floor in front of her doorway. "All I ever wanted was to make you happy. If that means I have to endure living without being able to hold you, then I will, because I love you."

Turning from her door he walked away, full of despair for the love he felt that could never be realised and shame for the torrid dreams and desires he could not get to go away. Descending the stairs he made his way over to sit down in the couch. Turning the TV on he began flicking through the channels, searching for anything to distract him from his melancholy. He skipped past a news channel.

"_-icial reports put the death toll between ten and thirty thou-"_

He stopped. Turning back one channel he turned up the volume and watched in earnest. The images on the screen were shaky and blurry but they showed a small modern city in flames. Far down in the streets below could be seen hundreds of people fleeing from soldiers and armoured vehicles. Bombers streaked by overhead and a series of explosions laid waste to more of the city.

"_It is estimated that in excess of two hundred thousand troops may have already landed in and around the cities of Darwin and Cairns, in addition to numerous other sights across the north of the country."_

* * *

"Mandy. Wake up. Mandy."

She grimaced and opened her eyes as she felt a hand lightly shaking her shoulder and the light of her bedside lamp through her eyelids. Squinting up she saw Billy standing above where her head lay on her pillow. Even in her dazed state she could tell something was amiss by the troubled look in his face.

"Billy? It's four in the morning. Why did you wake me?"

"There's something on TV you might want to see." Something in his voice, some almost panicking edge told her he was serious.

Getting out of bed Mandy followed him out, not bothering to change out of her less than modest sleeping attire and went downstairs with him. Entering into the lounge room she saw he'd already woken Grim who was currently standing off to the side facing the screen with a still gaze. Sitting down with Billy she watched what was unfolding, and soon began to see why he had woken her up.

"_With much of the country's navy already sunk by enemy submarine and missile attacks, huge numbers of troops and equipment are now being pouring into occupied ports. Once again if you are joining us Australia is facing a full scale military invasion by the Indonesian Empire. So far the Indonesians have seized most of the coastline along the north and north east with the cities of Darwin and Cairns suffering heavy casualties from aerial bombing, and have already been taken by enemy forces."_

Mandy watched and listened to the calm female voice narrating the camera feeds of the carnage. Though the nation mentioned had suffered tremendously as a result of economic and social collapse, overall it was still a very close representation of lifestyle and culture in America. The two were near interchangeable save fore some minor differences. What would the reaction from the public be to an attack on a nation so similar to themselves?

'_Not good.'_

"_The attack began just hours ago when the Australian navy was attacked by Indonesian submarines and Australian air bases were attacked by air strikes. These attacks were followed by masses of airborne troops who took over large areas including Darwin and Cairns. We are receiving conflicting reports that state the Indonesian army may have already taken as far south as Townsville, and that Australian troops are engaging them. So far we have yet to receive any news on the front line or if fighting between the two armies has broken out. We've received word that the air force is busily engaging enemy fighters and bombers but so far we have no news as to how that's going either."_

"Australia's population is tiny, and their military's just a token force." Mandy spoke up. "Indonesia's built itself up into a war machine. Australia doesn't have anything like that, they buy everything from us. And they're outnumbered a hundred to one, and half their equipment needs repairs, and Indonesia has all the latest stuff from Russia and China. There's no way they can-"

"Wait, look." Billy said leaning forward as the pictures from the cities gave way to the news room.

"_We have word that the president is about to make an address regarding Indonesia's aggression. We cross now life to the White House and President Johnson."_ Abruptly the image changed again to the interior of the oval office, wherein a tall pasty skinned man dressed in a dark blue suit stood facing the camera. Though he was somewhat bulky in build, he seemed to carry himself with an air somewhere between that of a bad salesman and a warlord. This time he faced the camera with a hard edged grimace, and all three knew bad news was coming.

"_Greetings good, proud people of America. Today, we have seen first hand the price of disunity, and of tolerance towards the inferior foreign vermin. As we speak our allies the Australians are facing death, destruction and enslavement at the hands of the Muslim scum. In their arrogant stupidity they refused to submit to our greater will and take their place by our side in the American Strategic Alliance. They chose to defy us and stand alone without our mastery, and in doing so they insulted your pride as part of the most powerful nation on earth. They chose to stand divided against our enemies, defenceless and weak. The Indonesians are greedy opportunists; it was inevitable that they would attack. The Australians should have known the vile Indonesian Empire would prey on any sign of weakness. I pledge now that we will do everything within our means to assist our Australian allies, regardless of their foolish treachery. We will not stop until the Muslims are punished for their crimes against our friends the Australian people."_

"I don't get it." Billy spoke furrowing his brow. "Didn't they say the Australians were traitors before?"

"They did. But when did facts matter to these narcissists?" Mandy replied with an angry cynical edge as the bigot went on.

"_This unforgivable act proves the need for ever greater unity within the white American nation. We must form a united front against the degenerate scum that have infected our country, from both without and within, if we are to take back the power and riches that we rightfully deserve. Our enemies have proved their intentions, they have moved against us. We can no longer tolerate the despicable traitors and parasitic races that spread division among us and sap us of our economic strength, sap your hard earned wealth from within. We can no longer tolerate disunity amongst us. Our enemies have moved to destroy us, but they will not succeed."_

Neither of the three had ever heard the usually frenzied and manic man speak so sternly before, and it made them very nervous. Billy and Mandy shared a worried look and leaned forward together in anticipation. Something very bad was about to happen.

"_In a special emergency session Congress has unanimously accepted a number of radical and decisive amendments in response to this crisis. The United States Constitution is hereby temporarily suspended until such time as our enemies at home and abroad are no longer a threat, effective immediately. As such in order to crack down on those who seek to spread division and weakness among us, the right to free speech, and of the press, has also been suspended. The right to public protest is also suspended. The right to suffrage in elections is suspended. The right to a fair trial is suspended. The right to bear arms is suspended. From now on all legislation will be determined solely by the American Party for National Unity, with myself as its leader. All other political parties are hereby banned, and their members to be prosecuted. Any act of opposition against party doctrine in order to spread division amongst the white American population, wether spoken or otherwise, is to be classified as an act of treason, under penalty of death. In addition to these measures the process of redistribution is to commence immediately, beginning with the evacuation of abnormals in outlying areas followed by cities. Any racially abnormal person who refuses to be relocated will be shot. It is important to note that these amendments are only temporary, and will stay in place only until such time as the threat posed by the foreigners and racially impure elements around us has passed. These measures will ensure that the liberty and prosperity that has always signified the American way of life we deserve will continue through this crisis and for years to come. That is all, thank you."_

Grim, Billy and Mandy all stared gaping at the television, too shocked for words. The image returned to that of war torn Cairns as the presenter continued to recap the story thus far almost as if nothing major had just occurred. Neither of the three could believe what they had just heard. The address had taken up no more than three minutes at most to deliver, It had all come in so fast and with such blunt force that they had trouble taking it in.

"It's happened." Mandy said in a daze of shock. "It's really happened."

"How did they react so quickly?" Billy asked in disbelief. This bought Mandy back to reality as the point pressed upon her, and immediately she began to grow suspicious. "They said the invasion had only just begun a couple hours ago. How could they have gathered everyone together and put this through in such a short-"

"Wait. Stop there. Go back." Se ordered, suddenly acutely aware of something on the screen. Billy took the remote and paused the live images, cycling backwards a few seconds. "Stop."

Mandy scrutinised the still picture intently. On the screen was an image of a column of Indonesian tanks landing and advancing up through the ruined marina and shopping district, crushing cars and building fronts, their main guns blasting at anything large that got in the way while the troops and machine gunners mowed down any civilians left alive as they advanced. From the close-up it was possible to distinguish the individual details of each tank. Something stood out. Whereas Indonesia was known to have purchased huge numbers of Russian and Chinese tanks in addition to manufacturing their own, what they were seeing now was something of a vastly different origin. The tanks on the screen were black, low slung, slab-sided titans. To anyone else the tanks would have been just another fighting machine identical to all the other fighting machines of the world, but to the trained eye knowledgeable in military technology they were impossible to not recognise. Mandy studied them acutely, her eyes widening moment by moment as a realisation came to her. She sat back in the lounge stunned once again by the discovery she'd made.

"Those are American tanks. The new M1A3 Abrams." She announced quietly, Billy and Grim looking to her wide eyed. "They had this planned from the beginning. They did a backroom deal with Indonesia to supply them with equipment to help them invade Australia, that way they could use the attack as an excuse to seize power here. That's how they carried the Australian's defences so easily, and how they passed the amendments so quickly afterwards. They had it all planned out in advance."

Watching on in silence they played the report again as scenes of devastation and death rolled in one after another. With the tanks and troops rolling through the ruined city and their new leader's hard faced address the terrifying truth became clear now regardless of wether the two empires had made a deal or not. Their country was now a dictatorship.

* * *

**Yaaay I put Australia on the map again... if only cause we're doomed.**

**That's the strange thing about Aussies. We have an ego a hundred times that of our population. And we spread shit on our toast and call it Vegemite.**

**I hope I didn't offend anyone with the whole America becomes a dictatorship thing. ********On the whole I have nothing against America or Indonesia or Islam or any group of people.**

**The America depicted here is not a nation of citizens but of the mob, the lowest level of human society, people who think only in terms of themself and their own importance and people who reflect themselves. There is no nation on earth that is made up primarily of selfish morons and bigots, although several have come close. This is purely meant to satisfy the desire to expose these pieces of human garbage and turn all their hideous cruelty and bullshit back on themselves. I mean let's face it, most of us would have wanted to say "Fuck you very much" to those morons with the 'God Hates Fags' signs at some point.**

**Just wanted to point that out.**


	18. Dark Developments

**Originally this was gonna be called Violent and Destructive Fun and it was gonna be just another Adam Sandler-type filler, but for the past few months I've been brainstorming of some final changes and inclusions that I wanted to make to finish the story off just right. The whole dictatorship thing, including the scene here in the town, was never part of my original plan. In fact this story is about three times longer overall than it was originally gonna be. It's been a lot of work, let's see how we go...**

* * *

**Dark Developments.**

The oppressive feeling following the announcement of the emergency measures put in place by the depraved demagogues in power, taking their freedom away in order to protect their freedom on the promise of riches and supreme pride, had mercifully eased as the morning progressed, although a lingering tension still remained in the air. After having spent so long in their hiding place sheltered from the evils of the world it had come as a sobering reminder of just how bad the situation was getting outside, that the corrupt mob screaming for more and more blood and cash was growing stronger and more violent than ever. Billy and Mandy continued in their vague morning ritual as per usual, gradually coming to terms with the sudden enormous polar shift that had happened just outside in an attempt to get back to the easy carefree life they'd come to enjoy.

Billy stood idly against the door of the refrigerator. He held his new Tokarev in his hands, going over every little feature of the old weapon, the magazine lying on the bench nearby. The gun was really very ugly. The black plastic grips were of a bland design of horizontal slats extending down parallel to the angle of the receiver, with a star inside a circle engraved on both sides. It held a number of scratches and gouges over its surfaces and edges. And yet despite this he found it incredibly captivating, and in fact quite beautiful in its own unique fashion. The metal components though roughened in some places held a dull shine as if it had been polished quite thoroughly. Its last owner had loved his weapon, and it gave the object a feeling of intimacy, like a window into a forgotten world, a relic of a revolution lost. Inspecting the numbers and Cyrillic characters on the slide he found the year it was made.

'N_ineteen forty one. The year of the Nazi invasion.'_ He had known the weapon was unique the moment he laid eyes on it, but he hadn't known of the level of depth to its long existence. Just the source from which it came made it special.

Billy's grandfather had been part of the unions before he retired and the organisations subdued, and had also been interested in socialism and communism. One day he'd stumbled across one of his prized possessions, a highly polished steel lighter with a brilliant red star with a hammer and sickle inside it, with the letters CCCP emblazoned in bold yellow. He'd gone on to tell Mandy and he about the class struggle and the idea of a classless society where all property was owned by the state, which was supposed to be controlled by the dictatorship of the proletariat. Mandy and he had both become interested in the strange and completely foreign concepts he'd described, and had done some investigation into just how such a system would work. Eventually though they realised the truth; socialism, much like fascism, was based on blaming another group for everyone's problems, and promised endless wealth and luxury if its members would only sign away their freedom to be individuals to their so-called leaders.

Looking back now he felt slightly saddened at the realisation. But even if it was madness, it still seemed more respectable in some way than the delusional racial superiority sprouted at every moment by other demagogues. In the end he realised deep down on some level his grandfather had known it to. He resigned from the union not long after, and shortly thereafter he'd retired from work altogether, driven out by the men he'd once considered comrades. But Billy hadn't forgotten the magic of the revolution, the way it made his grandfather's eyes sparkle with enthusiasm when he spoke of it. The gun he held in his hand now was the only thing other than that lighter he'd ever felt that bought that magical feeling back into his veins. He smiled down at it as he held it in his hand; when this was all over he would give the gun to his grandfather the next time he saw him, so he could know that though the days of the revolution were dead and gone, it's ideals of equality and the camaraderie it inspired were still alive even after all that had happened in their world lately. The ability for some humans to remain human in the face of madness was in the few remaining cases remarkably resilient.

Mandy walked into the living room. He looked up to her as she ran her fingernails through her hair and gave a contented sigh; her skin and hair were fresh from the shower. To Billy she seemed to radiate a feeling of life and vitality. He also noticed with particular interest she was still wearing her pyjamas, the same black bike shorts and pink shirt with the open waist she'd worn earlier. His breath caught in his mouth momentarily as his eyes trailed down to the exposed expanse of perfect flawless skin, taking in every curve of her figure with growing nervous tension. He wanted to place his hands around her waist and-

'_Shut up! Stop thinking that! Stop!'_ Despite his mind screaming at him for control he could not tear his eyes off her.

At that moment Mandy looked across to him and froze. Billy's eyes darted up to hers as he realised he'd been caught, and a sudden panic arose in them both. Billy looked away while Mandy momentarily bought her arms across her figure to shelter herself, but they both stopped when they realised it would mean acknowledging that something awkward had happened between them in the first place. So they returned to face each other, acting as best they could like nothing had ever happened, trying desperately to ignore the excruciating awkwardness between them as well as the growing redness in their faces.

Playing it cool Mandy began rummaging through the weapons locker, looking for the boxes of cartridges Grim had gotten for her from the town they spent the night in after leaving Endsville. As she found the boxes and bought one out for inspection she found they were rapidly running out. They knew there was a weapons shop in the town where they could restock when they needed so there was no need to worry.

Then again, all the training they'd been doing cost money, and she knew that their stash of hundred dollar notes was now not quite as large as what it had been when they left. They knew it wouldn't run out anytime soon, but they knew that as night is inevitable, so was this. What were they to do then? But that didn't matter now. She retrieved several cartridges from the box in her hands and set to work reloading her few magazines with the new rounds while Billy grabbed one of his magazines and loaded his Tokarev with it.

"Do you want to get some practise with the pistols?' She asked as she pushed one round on top of the other into the first magazine "We could shoot birds for moving targets." He paused for a moment and shook his head.

"Nah, I was gonna get Grim to show me how to use one of those." He pointed to an old German MP-40 he'd set out on the bench nearby. "But I haven't seen him since I got up." Mandy stopped to think for a moment. "I don't suppose you seen him?" She shook her head.

"I haven't seen him since this morning." She put down the magazine and looked towards the closed door of the study. With Billy in tow they walked over to the closed door and knocked on it. After a moment Grim opened the door, revealing several towers of books stacked throughout the room. They looked around at the sight in surprise.

"Are you still looking through those books on the other victims? I thought you said you were finished with them." Mandy spoke while looking through the door to the dimly lit room, filled to the brim with all manner of clutter.

"No, I sent dem back. Just look at dis." He waved them into the study. He indicated towards the scroll with the two foul looking hourglasses as they stepped cautiously through the towers of books. "I found this in the list of important names just after you went to bed. It's from whoever was trying to kill us, but it doesn't have a name."

"Why are there two?" Billy asked.

"Good question, one I am currently trying to answer wit all dis." He indicated to the piles of books around the study. "I got these so I could figure out why, and if I can figure that out den maybe we can figure out someting about dis guy who's looking for us."

"So basically you're gonna be working away in here like you were before, never seeing sunlight for days on end." Grim deadpanned, nodding at Billy's insight.

"I'll still teach you two how to drive, but you'll be alone a lot more outside of that. I said it wasn't exactly a vacation, so I suggest you two keep training." They nodded, heading back out to the kitchen while Mandy slipped upstairs. Grim sat back down at the desk, continuing to scan through a thick book on reaping.

Billy started looking through the steel trunk and pulled out several magazines before Mandy came back down. He was slightly disappointed to note she'd changed into her day clothes but kept his mouth shut, bringing his gaze up to the bench top again. "Could you show me how to use this?"

Mandy glanced across as he took the submachine gun in his hands. She looked it over and nodded, grabbing her pistol and spare clips. "Alright. Let's go down to the river and you can shoot at the water my ever lovable moron." She spoke in a smug mocking tone, enough to make Billy smirk as he followed her towards the door. "Just… don't point it at me or anyone else, idiot." Billy's smile slipped slightly at this as she commented on her still relatively poor regard of him as she stepped out the front door, putting the issue aside.

He followed her out the door, into the forest, down towards the river. He contemplated on what she had said as they walked. _'After all this time, after all I've done for her and all we've been through together, she still thinks of me like I'm just an idiot? Why? I thought things would have gotten better between us by now. This doesn't feel right.'_ He had known Mandy since almost the beginning of their lives, and she had never regarded him with anything more than a grudging acknowledgement, followed inevitably by her usual cold scorn. He had occasionally thought about this from time to time, but had never really put any great importance on it, choosing instead to see her as his best friend, and respect her as the strong willed young woman she was, and the girl he had grown up beside and had a close bond with.

Still, that didn't mean the issue of her harsh and cold personality didn't come to the surface every once in awhile. _'I'm getting kinda tired of all this. When's she gonna stop and return my respect? That's not too much to ask for is it?'_

For now though he put the issue aside, following her out into the clearing to begin the lesson. Listening to her instructions he chambered the first round and, aiming from the hip with the stock folded up, he let loose a string of shots that ripped across the water's surface, the bullets sending fountains of spray into the air in their wake. He gazed down at the river with harsh eyes as the matter of her condescending opinion of him continued to burn away at him inside, Mandy surveying sternly as he fired another long burst into the water.

* * *

Two days later.

Neither Mandy nor Billy had ever thought they'd have to put their training to use so soon.

It appeared to Mandy that the enemy may have discovered her location amongst the trees and shrubs and had quickly advanced on her, though she couldn't know for sure. She couldn't see her predator, but she knew that somewhere out there her foe was picking its way through the foliage, careful to avoid being seen.

Billy was ready and raring to fight, having trained for two days on the old German submachine carbine. Still, he knew two days wasn't nearly enough to become as skilled with a weapon as his superior opponent was. Now he had to match his enemy with his brain, stealthily coming around on the left flank to mount an ambush from the side. Too bad he still knew he wasn't anywhere near as intelligent as his foe either.

He knew the general location of his enemy ahead of him, whilst Mandy was unfortunately at a disadvantage with regards to battlefield intelligence. She could do nothing more than keep a keen eye out for any sign of movement in amongst the scrub. She lay prone in amongst her position, hidden away amongst a miniature bunker of sorts made of bushes and trees atop a hill. From her position she could sweep over a good area of the battlefield, and take pot-shots of her target as soon as she made eye contact.

And therein lay the problem. Though she knew her enemy was out there somewhere, she had yet to get so much as a glimpse of movement not related to the wind. She tried to listen for any sound of movement, but the leaves rustling in the trees and the river nearby covered any hint of a twig breaking underfoot. So with no target to take aim at she could only assume that it was out there somewhere hunting her.

She continued to keep her eyes peeled, methodically scanning the area ahead, her dark eyes concealed by a pair of sleek black sunglasses. They were the very same pair she had stolen from Nigel Uno several years ago, taking them again upon finding him back at Billy's house. Harold had unwittingly dragged him back thinking he was Billy, and after a lengthy and pointless explanation she had simply booted Nigel out the door, taking his glasses as a souvenir.

Having left them at home, she picked these up from the shop.

Billy continued to crawl his way through the undergrowth, taking cover between each bush and tree trunk he could find as he closed in on the target's position. Peeking out from behind a tree, he managed to finally set his sights on the target, his eyes hidden behind gleaming reflective shades. He locked eyes on his enemy nestled in a patch of bushes and trees, searching for him. From his position a good fifty metres away he could make out the black carbine held at the ready, aiming out before the target's prone position, ready to strike him down as soon as sighted. Keeping low he crawled and inched his way along, continuing to make sure that he did nothing to give away his position. Should his foe turn to the right he would be seen. He found himself wishing he had picked up a pair of black shades like Mandy's as his reflected the light too much, threatening to give away his position.

As Billy began to close in on his enemy, Mandy continued to methodically scan the land before her. Try as she might to make herself invisible she was still wearing her pink dress top, making any attempt at camouflage nigh on impossible. Due to this she felt it would be bad to try to engage her target directly, due to the likelihood that she would be seen, and that it would all be over in a matter of seconds unless she took cover. But even this, guarding over a vast area of land as she was, she could still be found easily enough by anyone looking intently.

'_Come on, where are you?'_

And that was troubling her. If she was so easy to locate amidst her surroundings, why then had no one appeared yet, charging up from one patch of cover to another in an attempt to strike her down? It had been a good half hour since she took her position here, long enough to see at least some sign of enemy movement. Why then had her predator still not attacked? Could it be that she had simply eluded detection? Impossible, her enemy had to know she was here by now. But if her position had been given away, maybe the reason she was yet to see the enemy was not because the enemy was not there.

'_So he's already closing in. He must be sneaking up on me from somewhere, trying to ambush me.'_

With that revelation she sharpened her senses ever more, intent on locking onto her foe before he got within firing range. Having kept watch directly in front of her for long enough she decided to check for a possible flanking manoeuvre.

From his position Billy watched as the enemy stayed low, still on the lookout for him ready to attack at the first chance. Continuing on he crept ever closer, moving in and out of the cover of the scrub to avoid being seen by his ruthless adversary. Just ahead of him lay his greatest obstacle, a stretch of open ground. Ahead the trees parted for several metres, a clearing with which his enemy could spot him easily, and the only cover, a fallen log, was a good several feet away. With nothing to shield himself from the enemy's stern gaze he would be unable to take cover in time to avoid being hit.

Taking one last long gaze up at his foe he made sure that his enemy's cold gaze was directed away from him.

'_Well, now or never.'_

Taking a deep breath he rose to his feet, pushing himself across the ground of soil and leaf litter towards the nearby log.

Atop the hill Mandy finished gazing over her left flank, finding no evidence of anyone being down there. Shuffling around to her right she immediately froze, eyes widening as she stared down at her enemy now clearly in view. She saw him react to having been seen, freezing in his place, before dropping to his knees and taking aim at her.

Without hesitation she bought her weapon to bear, lining up her foe along the side of the barrel as he began to let off several shots, emitting a sharp snapping sound each time. Ignoring the attacks as they whizzed past her head and impacted against the trees around her she finished lining up the body of her aggressor. A moment later she pulled the trigger.

"_Tat!"_

"Dah!"

Billy recoiled as he felt the impact against his chest. Straightening up he raised his glasses, casting his gaze down to where he could see the green paint splattered over his shirt, long strands of the tacky gel splayed out across in a single colour starburst. Thirty metres away Mandy arose from her position, her paintball marker held lazily by her side as she gazed down upon her opponent.

"Ah shit! Half an hour I spent inching my way towards you and it's all over in one shot!" He grizzled and groaned in frustration, having thought that all his hard work and planning and risk management would have paid off with at least a glorious fire fight. "The hell with the rules!"

Disregarding the fact he'd already been hit he rose his blaster again and let fly half a dozen paintballs. Mandy however had expected this and quickly rolled to her right behind the base of a tree for cover. The light blue paintballs burst and deflected against it in a fairly random arc. Billy's aim it seemed still needed a lot of work. She moved back out from cover and fired several more shots. Billy grunted and staggered as they burst on his chest one after the other, all grouped in a circle and all hitting home.

"Owww! No fair!"

"Yeah, well what can I say?" Mandy replied indifferently, though she had to admit, his strategy was excellent. It was just like how he would sneak up and blast her at close range in the video games they played, even if he needed work in other areas. "Life's not fair, and neither is war."

"_Tat!"_

"Ahh!"

She bought her hand up to her bare left upper arm at the sharp pain, noticing a burst of black paint spread across her skin from an unexplained source. But then again, of the three people present in this neck of the woods, only one of them was likely to use the colour black, and she knew neither herself nor Billy had done it.

Turning around she faced Grim as he stood with a marker in his hand, a contented evil grin on his skull. Billy hurried on up to stand by her as she rubbed the sore spot on her arm, already sensing the bruising taking hold through her soft pail skin. She stared daggers at their friend-slave. Grim's good mood began to falter as the concept of Mandy's wrath hung over his head. She lowered her glasses so as to peek out over the black rims with her onyx eyes. With her face lowered her stare became infinitely more ominous and menacing, as if she had just invented a new kind of angry face.

"Bad. Idea. Grim." She spoke, calmly pronouncing each word, weaving her malice into each syllable.

Billy couldn't help but smirk at the depth of destructive will in Mandy's eyes. He loved how her entire being seemed to exude an all encompassing aura of malice and vengeance, enough to make all the arrogant, weak-minded idiots of the world cower in fear. It filled him with energy and aggression.

"Uhh… Mandy?" Grim stuttered as he began to back away from the merciless tyrant of a girl. "Come on child, it was only one little-"

"Hey Billy, you wanna mop the floor with Grim?"

"WAHAHAHAHAHA!" Billy shuddered with laughter as he raised his paint gun to take aim at the skeleton. Grim's eyes widened in fear before they were blasted in by bright blue paint, Billy charging onwards as Grim ran for the cover of anything he could find in his blinded state.

Mandy meanwhile watched on in silence. She had actually been very surprised to see such a powerful and violent reaction from the boy who had always been so cheery and light hearted. It reminded her of what he had done to the street gang that had attacked them.

'_What is all this? I could've sworn he wasn't like this before. Is there something more to him underneath… No, that's unlikely.'_ She shook her head as she went on down to catch up with Grim. Billy was a mad dog, nothing more. Hopefully he would leave some space left for her to paint.

"AAAAAHHH! HAVE MERCY BOY!" Grim shrieked as he was pelted mercilessly, crawling around blindly as Billy stood over him, continuing to blast him with paint pellets as he writhed. It seemed he was still yet to cease his incessant laughter, with his features still curved into a psychotic grin as he poured all of his delightfully fun wrath onto Grim.

"Heh heh heh, heh heh… Okay I'm bored." He lowered his not quite weapon as he began on his way back to the cabin, Mandy still rubbing her arm with Grim lay miserably in a heap of sticky blue paint. "Now then, I noticed there was a rocket launcher in that there metal case of yours. Seeing as both you guys have scythes and I don't I think it's fair that you teach me how to use it. Watcha think?"

"Uhhh…" Grim groaned as he tried to sit up, bringing his hands to his face to wipe away the paint. "The rocket launcher? But Billy, you-"

He immediately stopped when he wiped the paint out of his eye sockets, finding the muzzle of Billy's paintball gun levelled just millimetres in front of his face. Billy looked down to him with a sickly sweet grin.

"I just know you wasn't about to say no to me Grim. After all, we both know what would happen to you if you did."

"… Like I was saying I would be glad to show you how to-"

"Great! I'll see you in a few minutes." He called back happily as he went inside to change.

Grim struggled to his feat, wiping off some more of the thick blue paint as Mandy approached. The two watched the boy as he disappeared inside the house. Grim couldn't believe he had to do these things, having to train a slightly crazed youth in using an anti-tank weapon, giving him the capability to cause all manner of carnage, when it hadn't been too long ago when he couldn't count to four. He grizzled as Mandy looked on slightly impressed.

"Hmm, that was interesting."

"What was?"

"I didn't know Billy could be that…" She struggled to find words for the faint sense of admiration she felt for how he had terrorised him. "… vicious."

"Neither did I, until he threatened to fill my skull with paint."

* * *

Ten minutes later.

Billy followed Grim up the hill, the tube body of the old Russian rocket launcher balanced on his shoulder. Mandy bought up the rear, carrying three of the unguided rockets for use in the training exercise. From their places before and behind the boy respectively, Grim and Mandy could hear the occasional giggle of some kind of destructive delight at being able to cause some semi-controlled mayhem.

"Ugh." The skeleton grizzled. "Billy I swear if you do something stupid and blow up someone you shouldn't, I'll… Oh who am I kidding, I'll stand back and let it happen. Who cares?"

"Don't you mean some_thing_ he shouldn't?"

"I know what I mean."

"Heh heh. Don't worry guys, I can control myself just fine… when I want to." Billy spoke as they reached the top of the hill, the forest dissipating to leave an enormous clearing from which they could practise. All around them they could see just the vast extent of the forest, with the stream far below, and just a hint of the road and the town off in the distance. To one side of the clearing a formation of jagged white rocks rose several metres out of the ground, as if part of a cliff somewhere had broken off and somehow come to find itself here.

"Alright let's get dis underway." Grim said. Taking one of the rockets he slid it down into the forward part of the launch tube and cocking it, the bulbous conical tip protruding from the front. "Alright dis should be simple enough for a simpleton like you. Now just get a hold of those two grips."

Billy complied quietly, taking hold of the forward pistol grip with his left hand, careful not to touch the trigger. With his right hand holding the grip closer to his shoulder he took a rough aim at the rock formation through the sight. "Is this right?"

"Yes. Now when you fire dis ting dere's gonna be a blast coming out de back, so make sure no one's behind it when you fire it. Dere won't be a recoil because de blast going backwards will cancel out de force of the rocket going forwards. It'll still be plenty loud enough though." He instructed as he and Mandy backed away to the side. "Now all you have to do is line up what you wanna destoy in the sight and pull de trigger. Remember, you better pick dis up quick because we've only got the three rockets that are here n-"

"_BO-PSSSSHHHHHHH!"_

"…"

"_BOOOOOOMMMM!"_

In the distance the three watched as a plume of ash and dust billowed up from the impact sight on the blasted rock formation while pieces of debris rained down in the surrounding area. As the view cleared Billy lowered the smoking recoilless weapon to inspect the damage. From what they could see the blast had hit harder than the sledge hammer of the gods, blowing a large jagged crater in the rock, a network of deep cracks and fissures splitting the entire structure apart from within.

Grim turned back to face Billy, sporting a decidedly disapproving look.

"Are you ever going to let me finish explaining everything to you before you go ahead and do it?" He asked in a grizzled tone. Billy took on a thoughtful stance for a moment.

"Hmmm… Nope. Now hand me another rocket pleyuz."

"You know I think it's safe to say our little urban terrorist here has got it down just fine with dat one. Let's save de oder two and go back, before we do something dat gets us on de most wanted list."

"Heh heh heh, oh alright." He submitted to his elder for once, turning to follow the group as they made their way back down through the forest, Mandy holding the two remaining rockets under her shoulder. As they departed the clearing she paused to listen. When her two companions looked to her she motioned for silence, wherein they heard it too. Down in the road towards the town they heard the sound of engines. From their vantage point they could make out a convoy of green trucks making their way towards the town. She thought curiously of it, before continuing on down towards the cabin.

It didn't take long for the hyperactive youth to start toying with an idea for an afternoon pet project to keep himself entertained, milling over the idea as they made their way back. "Hey guys, do we have a few empty glass bottles, some fuel, a few rags, and some of that packing foam stuff?" He asked as they approached the house from behind.

Mandy looked around to scowl back at her friend, warning him to watch what he did around her. She couldn't help but notice the eerie gleam in his eyes as he envisioned all the 'fun' he would have with his little project. Dismissing the thoughts on his strange behaviour she continued on.

All three of them froze when they heard the sound of a large vehicle pulling up in the clearing below. Diving for cover behind a tree they dropped what they'd been carrying and watched tensely. An army Humvee had driven up into their clearing, and now stood parked beside their Prelude. Out of the great vehicle three soldiers departed and began to search their surroundings, while one went for the front door.

"Why are they here? Billy asked in a whisper. "Did they hear us?"

"I don't know." Mandy watched as one entered the cabin, followed by a second soldier. It felt almost defiling that they would intrude upon their hideaway, their only place away from the madness of the world. An alarming thought occurred to her. "The weapons. Did we close the trunk when we…"

"Yes, but even with everyting packed away it won't take long for em to discover it."

With that in mind they gazed down tensely from their vantage point. They could hear the two inside searching thoroughly and with surprising efficiency while the one out the front continued to dart his head left and right in search. Mandy thought it odd that they would show such dutiful focus when the army as it was now, its ranks filled with all manner of lowlife scum, had all but abandoned the concepts of duty and self-discipline entirely.

Their wondering was put to rest when out of the back of the Humvee stepped a sinister figure, a tall hard man with a wiry face and build, wearing a long black leather trenchcoat that hugged close to his thin frame and if anything accentuated his thin outline, underneath which lay a dark blue suit shirt, along with black boots and a blue and black officer's cap. He surveyed the area with a bitter haze like that of a man forced to work too long at a job he hated. The other two soldiers emerged from the house and stood facing him nervously, the third continuing to look left and right on high alert. Brutish and sadistic as they were they had good reason to be nervous of the pasty thin man with the hard eyes. The man was a member of State Security, the party's elite guard division, an umbrella organisation in charge of all matters of intelligence, dedicated to executing their ruler's more crucial orders and in seeking out and eliminating any individual who would oppose their rule, in addition to acting as the United States' new praetorian guard for President Johnson and his staff. Modelled as an almost direct copy of their German predecessors they were known and feared by both their enemies and their subordinates universally by the simple name of…

"The SS." Mandy spoke in a hushed shock. The sight of the man, seemingly cloaked in his own arrogance and madness and hatred made both Billy and Mandy's skin shiver and their hairs stand on end. Neither of them had ever seen a member of the exclusive cult in person before, and the mixture of both discipline and sheer blind insanity unsettled them both. The fact that the SS was in charge here meant that the troops following him belonged to the National Guard now under their control exclusively.

"What the hell are those psychopaths doing here?"

"Dey're not here for us." Grim answered her knowingly, keeping a calm eye on the group below. From their vantage point only twenty metres or so away they could hear their conversation.

"_There's no one here sir. The cabin's empty but the door was unlocked so they must still be around. Shall we continue to search the area for any abnormals?"_

"_No, that's not part of our assignment. We're just wasting time here, we don't even know if they're non-white or not."_

"_What are your orders sir?"_

"_Take us back to the convoy. If there are any abnormals out here they'll have to come out at some stage. They'll be caught in another sweep. We'll get the bulk of them today."_

The four men stepped back in their vehicle, started the engine and pulled around and away from the cabin. Grim, Billy and Mandy emerged cautiously from hiding to step out into the clearing, placing the rockets by the side of the car as they watched the great beast lumber on back down the dirt road. Each frowned as they thought back on what they'd just heard.

"They weren't looking for us, they were looking for minorities." Mandy spoke as they watched the Humvee disappear into the forest. Billy furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes as one particular note played over and over in his head.

"Hang on, what did they mean about getting the bulk of them today?"

It was then that Mandy recalled the president's address a few days ago. The corrupt white supremacist had informed them that not only were their civil rights now taken away, but had stated that the process of rounding up the minority groups was to begin, starting with the areas outside of the city. Areas like this. Her eyes widened with realisation. She looked across to Billy, seeing him now beginning to understand what was happening, before she cast her gaze out towards where she'd seen the convoy of trucks heading for the town.

"Oh no…"

* * *

Twenty minutes later.

Billy and Mandy gasped for breath as they sprinted the last few hundred metres towards the town, Grim keeping up with them as best he could. They kept to the cover of the woods just beside the road, knowing that if they took the car they'd be spotted and that they couldn't use their scythes to take them in or defend themselves if caught. Slowing to a crawl the trio paused as the entrance to the town came into view. The road was blocked by two trucks, armed troops swarming about on a lookout for anyone who would try and escape. Creeping around the outside of the town hidden in the trees they came upon a spot on a slight hill where they could look out over the centre street.

The town was surrounded and cut off from all sides. A force of perhaps one hundred or more troops of the National Guard swarmed about, complemented by several dozen Street Army units eager to join in the madness, with twenty or thirty trucks and a handful of Humvees scattered about, sealing the town off with its inhabitants unable to do anything but pray it would be over quickly. In the middle of it all was a long line of people, men, women, children and elderly, all clustered together fearfully while troops and uniformed thugs with rifles and truncheons stood guarding them menacingly. Several of the SA thugs also held ferocious barking Dobermans that strained against their chains in an effort to savage the terrified populace. Beyond them dozens of other soldiers brutally beat and berated many others, driving them from their homes and their businesses battered and bruised from their truncheons and rifle butts out towards the centre where the trucks were waiting, relishing in the opportunity to inflict pain on anyone they could get their hands on for whatever reason they were presented with.

At the front of the line a number of more senior guardsmen scrutinised each person they came across, checking their identification, studying their facial and bodily features for any indication they didn't fit their racial standards. One after another people were loaded onto the trucks, most of which were already full of people from other towns. Surveying over all this was the man in the black trenchcoat they'd encountered earlier, watching as several buildings and cars burned from their activities. Trundling through slowly around the outside of the group a single black M1A3 tank patrolled the streets, knocking down streetlights and crushing several shopfronts in a show of brute force.

"Holy…" Billy gaped in astonishment at the orderly nightmare. "Where are they taking them?"

"To the death camps they've been setting up. They had this planned out for months." Mandy answered.

From out of the town clinic two thugs pushed and dragged an angry old man in a white coat. They recognised him as the Asian doctor who had freed Billy from his cast. He fought his way free of their hands and stormed on ahead, demanding to speak to whoever was in charge.

"This is bad. This is really really bad." Mandy spoke rising in alarm, each knowing what was about to happen. Not wanting to waste any time she held out her hand to call Judgement. "I gotta stop this now!"

"Mandy no! You can't just wipe out an entire convoy or everyone will know we're here. Dose psychos will send every tank in de army after us!"

As much as she hated to admit it he was right. She lowered her hand and sighed, relaxing her muscles as she faced the scene below, accepting that her scythe was not going to be able to do anything here. But that didn't mean she was going to stand back and watch it happen. Closing her eyes she calmed herself. Reaching out with her own consciousness she visualised each individual she had seen below, feeling the gaping pit dug by the weight of the abominations they had committed. Gathering all their sins and feeding them one by one into her inner fire she built up her anger more and more, until her will to strike vengeance rose to life. Taking hold of that burning dark power she cast it out mentally into the universe, and opened her orange eyes.

"_What the hell do you people think you're doing here! What god gave you the right to beat us and burn our homes? How dare you attack us when we've done nothing to harm you!"_ The elderly physician roared in the face of the SS officer, who seemed to be more or less unaffected. Outside of their conversation the townspeople, the troops and thugs, as well as Billy and Grim noticed as high above their heads the sky began to turn dark with a mass of billowing heavy black clouds they could have sworn weren't there moments before. The air began to turn cold and a bitter wind picked up. The previously snapping dogs were now whimpering with their tails between their legs.

"_We're human beings just like you! We have rights! Can't you see that?"_

"_Let me check."_ Reaching one hand into his coat pocket he made to retrieve a clipboard, but instead pulled out a metal baton, which he flicked out and bought down swiftly on the side of the man's leg, causing him to cry out in pain and collapse to his knees. The clouds overhead churned and boiled harder and more violently and the wind became faster as the officer collapsed and replaced the baton inside his coat, where he then withdrew a black 1911 commander, letting the wounded man at his feet see it so he could know he was about to die. Staring down at him venomously he stepped around behind him, disengaged the safety and levelled it at the back of his head. Billy and Grim both stood watching frozen, the doctor shutting his eyes as he awaited the bullet that would blow his brains out of his skull.

_"BAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!"_

It took a few very tense seconds but eventually the doctor opened his eyes when he realised that even after the deafeningly loud blast he was in fact still very much alive. Curiosity getting the better of him he turned around and looked up to the officer with his gun still pointed at his head, Billy and Grim staring from their spot while the thugs looked on in silence. It occurred to the doctor and the others that something was seriously wrong with the man aside from his twisted state of mind, though they couldn't quite put their finger on what. Perhaps it was some combination of the severe burns on his face and exposed skin, the smouldering embers burning in his frazzled hair, or the fact his leather greatcoat and cap smoked and gave off a strong smell not unlike a barbeque. The doctor even noticed that the commander pointed at his head had apparently melted slightly. The grips were dripping through his fingers down onto the road surface.

Billy and Grim gaped in shock. The SS man had been struck by lightning! Keeling over he fell forward, the doctor jumping out of his way as he fell with a thud, followed by another two deafening blasts, upon which the officer was joined on the ground by the two thugs who'd dragged him out in the first place.

Thus all hell broke loose.

The hundred or so troops and thugs that had taken the town hostage now ran for their lives in a mindless panic as one after another bolts of lightning came tearing down out of the clouds, striking down one after another as they tried to find cover or escape. In the first few seconds a dozen men fell smoking in the streets. Several more taking cover under storefronts found themselves under attack still as the bolts blew right through their cover and struck them down. Two who ran inside one of the shops they'd attacked were horrified to see the lightning turn at right angles before it hit the ground and come straight in through the windows they'd smashed, catching them and sending them flying into the back wall.

Those who managed to jump in their trucks found that by some trick of fate the lightning and the ionised air had shorted out their vehicles electrical systems. Not one of the trucks or Humvees worked. Even the tank had ground to a halt. In the pandemonium none of the troops took notice of the people now pouring out of the backs of the trucks, or the mass of people they'd dragged out into the street now joining the escapees in running for their lives, back to their homes or simply out onto the woods in different directions. At around this stage several of the townsfolk who were themselves busy running for cover, including the elderly doctor, realised that so far the lightning had not struck one civilian. When the last minority had scampered off the trucks the lightning came down and blew them over onto their sides in flames, their drivers escaping only for many of them to be hit later. The tank caught fire from within, forcing the crew to bail out.

Dropping their guns, truncheons and dogs the soldiers and SA thugs abandoned the town, bypassing the wrecked trucks as they ran to escape down the path they'd come. Billy laughed and clapped his hands seeing the storm strike down another few even as they ran squealing like pigs. Back in the town most of the civilians had escaped to safety, leaving perhaps as much as fifty smoking bodies lying in the streets. Several of the people who'd escaped the trucks now returned and began picking up their weapons, calming and taking in their dogs as one by one they disappeared into the forest as the clouds above calmed into a moist grey slate.

Grim looked at Mandy sternly as she stood in front of them, Billy now turning around to face her again. She continued to stare out at the scene below, a heavy dark feeling hanging in the air around her.

"Fourth dimensional powers, I should have known." Grim spoke as Mandy turned around to face them side on. Billy almost gasped at what he saw. Her once onyx eyes had turned a bright orange-red and glowed softly with unnatural demonic power. The elderly reaper looked on unaffected. "You managed to safely absorb a tiny bit of your scythe's power into your own body, den learned to gain access to the fourth dimension and use it to influence and control the forces of de universe."

"Wait what are you saying?" Billy interrupted, unable to tear his eyes away From Mandy's frightening yet awe-inspiring visage.

"It means she can tap into de underworld through her mind. She can sense de spirits of oder people around her and determine if dey're how noble or corrupt they are, as well as influence their emotions to a limited extent, by inciting either fear or calm. It also allows her a limited sense of insight, to be able to know on a feeling when some danger is coming even if nothing's presented itself. And it allows her to control de elements water, earth, air and fire and lightning which are known as plasma, by using her will to direct them to do what she wants dem to do. She created the storm dat destroyed the army." The two watched as her eyes shimmered and returned to their usual deep black.

"But won't it give us away like you said?"

"No it won't." She responded. "I wasn't the one that destroyed that convoy, I just directed it. Because I didn't use my own scythe no one will be able to trace it back to us."

She stepped on past them and made to leave. Billy however looked down on the town and noticed something. The SS officer who'd been struck first was beginning to move and writhe about in pain. As he and Grim looked on they noticed that many, in fact all of them were beginning to recover. The strikes had badly wounded them and knocked them out but no one had in fact been killed.

"They're alive. They're all alive." Billy stated as some of them began to hobble away. "I don't get it. You're supposed to be lucky if you survive getting struck by lightning, so how could all of them survive. Mandy was controlling it so she would…" They all stopped at this, Billy and Grim turning to face Mandy again as she stood with her back to them, her shoulders now slumped slightly and the dark power that had pervaded her before gone.

"Why did you spare dem?" Mandy seemed to shrink slightly at this. She gave a small sigh, not bothering to hide her shame and defeat, her accursed underlying weakness.

"I've… never killed someone before."

It was to Billy a reminder of just how young and small she was, indeed both of them. It wasn't often that he saw Mandy's heart in play, but when he did he was reminded that despite all the darkness and anger and vengeance she buried herself in, she had a big heart. Mandy was a human being, a mere child. She was trying as hard as she could to sacrifice her own heart and soul to combat the evil she saw around her, but the pain it bought her was simply too much. How he wished he could make the pain go away, but she was simply too dedicated to her own ways that she would never let him help her.

Mandy resolved to crush her weakness and hardened her heart. Once more her eyes turned cold and stern like that of a dictator and stepped on to walk back to the cabin.

"Forget about that now. We have more training to do." She commanded her companion as he followed closely behind her, Grim watching them where he followed further back. He thought about Mandy's response all the way back, finding himself growing somewhat concerned by her continuous act of stamping out her humanity, knowing it couldn't possibly end well. When they got back Billy picked up the rockets and placed them and the tube inside the trunk, taking out the two weapons laid out atop the pile and closing the lid. It had only been by chance they'd put the pistols away in the first place. Billy smiled as he took hold of his Tokarev.

"You're performance was pathetic today, regardless of your little plan." Mandy spoke in a hard, uncaring tone as she loaded a magazine into her 1911. "Not a single shot hit me. Even when you tried again you couldn't make a single good shot. You'd be a burden to us if we ever had to face off against the real thing anytime soon. You have to work harder, now come on." She continued on out the door coldly. In truth she didn't particularly think he was doing all that badly; he was still new to this after all just as she'd been not long ago. But she did it so as to force him to improve as per her cold reasoning. Any pressure it placed upon him was unfortunate, but a necessary sacrifice. Besides, she would have to leave him eventually anyway.

Had she turned back she would have noticed the smile slide from her friends face, replaced by one of growing inconvenience.

Billy stilled his features and set his teeth in frustration as he watched her go, following after her as they made their way out to begin.

'_There's that feeling again.'_ He thought to himself as he took his place beside her, taking aim at a tree. _"It's like I'm worthless to her, like I'm just some useless minion of hers. A burden? I put myself in mortal danger to protect her and it's like she couldn't care less about me. She's the one who's been a burden.'_

He grimaced as he blew away pieces of bark with his weapon, remembering to keep his thoughts and feelings in check. Though he loved her for her strong mind and spirit, enjoying _almost_ every moment they spent together as friends, there was another side of her that he did not particularly like. Though she had at times commended him when he had done well, and had shown care and concern for him at times as well, such respect was shown only when it suited her. More often than not she would be harsh and callous towards him, regardless of how much he had done for her. In some ways it almost felt like a betrayal, that after he had dedicated so much of himself to being her friend for so many years, she would still treat him like he was just another pawn in her plan. And it went deeper.

More and more he was getting the feeling that she was trying to distance herself from him, as if he was no longer a profitable venture for her. Her merciless and dark ways were nothing new, she had been that way for as long as he had known her, and had long since come to accept that lingering grating feeling she often gave him. In his eyes his respect, admiration and… care for her far outweighed the niggling problems that arose through being friends with her.

Then again…

'_How long is she gonna keep doing this to me?'_

* * *

**The holiday's coming to an end.**

**I got the idea for Mandy's fourth dimensional powers from Donnie Darko. The director's cut is awesome. That scene with Donnie and Frank in the theatre is so dark and so beautiful.**

**Tune in next time. The underlying problems building with Billy and Mandy's friendship since the way they were in the series will come to a head.**


	19. Mommy

**Once again I find myself touched by the overwhelmingly possitive feedback I've received. Thank you to all my readers, you're reviews really mean a lot. As for the whole dark magic Mandy thing, as I explained channeling demonic energies causes changes in the body, and that's exactly what happened. Her eyes turned a demonic orange-red. It's not the first time, remember the meeting back at the Doolin house? She opened a portal using her hand and the same thing happened. But because she's using so little the effects are only limited. So there ya go.**

**So anyway the chapter. As I mentioned there are some underlying issues developing in the background which have been steadily building up over time. It's all about Mandy's underlying insecurity which forces her to avoid anything which could be connected to weakness or going soft. I won't say anymore at this point. See for yourself.**

* * *

**Mommy.**

Three weeks later.

Over time the days began to settle down again even more so than they had been before. Billy and Mandy gradually found themselves spending less and less time working as they had in days previous. Their training with various automatic and semi-automatic weapons was almost complete, and both had become fully proficient in their use, which meant they needn't pour so much time into practicing with them every day, spending no more than an hour every second day or so just to keep their skills sharp. They had also stopped shooting trees now because not only were they large targets that didn't move, but if they were shot too many times they collapsed, which they nearly found out the hard way when one nearly came down on top of them.

At one stage they had opted to try shooting at birds when they were in the air. They made much better targets since they were much smaller and moved quickly. Mandy was the first to try, but when it came time to pull the trigger she had opted to be merciful. Somehow the act of killing a bird, an unimportant animal if ever there was one, just didn't seem right for their setting, that it would be wrong to taint this perfect place with blood that had been shed unnecessarily. Neither of them ever fired a shot at a living creature in the time since.

Billy had originally begun training on the old MP-40, but had soon come to learn of just how poorly the magazines fed the rounds into the chamber, resulting in the gun stopping. He had given it up in favour of the far superior Carl Gustav M/45. He found it an all round good weapon, which would be useful for fighting off… whatever they had to fight off, due to its low power cartridge being easier to handle with his small frame. That said there was no guarantee that it would be available when it came time to fight, so he made sure he trained on others as well, that way he could pick up any weapon available and use it to fend off attack. Mandy on the other hand had continued to focus solely on her M4 carbine with the red dot sight for easy aiming. In her eyes it was light enough for her, and powerful enough to cause real damage, even if she sometimes found it a handful. It was the weapon she would fight with, and so the only weapon she trained with, other than her 1911 side arm. She would keep at least one of them close by whenever she could.

Billy and Mandy spent most of their days now quietly enjoying each other's company. They would run together, train together, drive together when Grim gave them lessons, they went shopping together, watched TV and movies and games together, in fact it was becoming increasingly difficult to find one without the other just a few feet away. The awkward moments between them that would pop up every now and again now seemed to have become a constant part of the background, though neither ever spoke of it. As a result whereas previously they would have kept at least a half metre or so apart, now it was not uncommon at all to see them sitting so close that they were almost touching each other. Though Billy would still act wild and chaotic, and Mandy was still stern and iron fisted, it was plain to see their relationship had changed in the time they had been here.

Grim's life was not quite as easy going. He still spent most of his time combing through the mounds upon mounds of data looking for an answer to the question of the twin hourglasses.

Literally there were mounds of books stacked on top of other mounds. There was that much there for him to sift through.

Unfortunately however as he combed through the last of the more obvious books, he had still failed to find anything on twin hourglasses. This had prompted a change in attitude. Instead of searching through books that he expected to contain information on the subject, he now had to resort to the extremely tedious task of going through each and every book one by one with a fine toothed comb, on the lookout for any answers that may just happen to pop out unexpectedly, an agonisingly slow way to go about it, but necessary.

He currently sat with his eyes glued to the book in front of him, his head propped up on his hand, the pot of coffee long having gone cold. Giving his tired eye sockets a rub he looked up to the clock. It was eleven forty at night. Closing the book having done enough for the night he leaned back in his chair and listened absently to the rain coming down outside. There in his tired state his mind began to wander back to the two kids he'd been left custody of.

Since he began work on the hourglasses Grim had also started teaching the kids how to drive the Prelude. It took some time to pick up seeing as it was a manual, but through trial and error the two had gotten used to using a clutch, and the expanse of dirt road leading out towards the town gave plenty of space for them to learn on. So far both Billy and Mandy had come along very well, and both had been proficient enough to drive to and from the town a few times, albeit late at night when there were few people on the road. He'd even gone so far as to teach them to drive fast in case they needed to make a getaway, and both had managed to accomplish it fairly well.

Grim smirked as he thought back. On one occasion they were driving back to the cabin, just doing the speed limit, when they passed a police cruiser. Mandy was driving at the time, and had to prop herself up as high as she could so as to give the impression she was of driving age. It worked and the police didn't notice, continuing to drive by. They had kept on a vigil when they drove ever since.

At night the kids would spend the time in front of the TV watching movies and playing games. Grim rarely joined them anymore due to his near constant work, leaving them alone together. Mandy silently loved the time spent with her friend, and Billy loved the time spent with her in their little retreat in paradise as much as she did. He had known for a while now that she had been pushing him away ever so slightly over the past few months, and it felt good to be able to spend time with her without having to worry about that. Only he thought such days would last forever, while Mandy still dreaded the inevitable day their time in hiding would end.

However Billy would still occasionally wonder why Mandy treated him with so little care or concern. He would wonder to himself when, if ever, she was going to simply treat him like a real human being just like her. What could justify the way she treated him with such callous disregard? But while the good times continued to roll he would always put the issue out of his mind, until it arose again. His close bond with the girl was worth overlooking such minor issues.

Grim couldn't help but feel a sense of pride over the two since they left Endsville. When he thought back to the first days, back when he first came into their service four years ago, he had to marvel at how far they had come along.

In the beginning Mandy was a heartless demon child who no one save for Billy could ever hope to get along with. She had changed slightly in the way she was slightly more restrained and controlled, something he attributed to their friend Max, though possibly just due to her experiences growing up. More than that though was her far greater maturity in response to the injustices happening around her. He also noticed that she was beginning to spend more and more time with Billy. Though they had always been friends, she had lately come under some kind of strain over the boy, and he had an idea as to why. He knew Mandy felt some kind of connection to Billy, and no doubt it was a strong connection, but he knew that as a wholly 'career' oriented person she would also be forcing herself to detach from him. Yet despite her cold nature, he knew she still cared about the boy, and would want to spend as much time with him as she could, which she had been doing for some time now.

Then there was Billy, who had come further than he had ever expected the previously brainless dolt to go. Before he would do and say the stupidest and most disgusting things, yet before they had even left Endsville he had matured a thousand fold. Though he still acted like he did originally, starting fires, slashing tyres and bouncing off the walls like an idiot, he could turn around in an instant and become so very responsible, and though he still liked slimy things to some extent there was little trace of the disgusting tendencies he used to have. And when he had to, or rather chose to leave Endsville to protect his friend, he started showing a strength and courage he had never seen before outside of Mandy, knowing that at any moment they could be found out yet keeping his cool nonetheless. Billy had come so very far from the idiot he once found himself enslaved to.

He frowned as he thought of Mandy though. While she had come along well, he was beginning to wonder where the path she had chosen was taking her. He knew that she could still be a very caustic person to anyone if you just so happened to anger her, even if by complete accident. What's more, though Mandy didn't seem to want to think about it, what was she going to do after this was over? He and Billy were the only ones she had left now, particularly Billy. What would she do if she were to lose him? But so far such issues hadn't proven a problem so he reasoned there was no use worrying over them.

He smiled and turned away from the desk. Despite the issues of her particular ideals they were getting along as only best friends can. It had been years since Mandy had raged against Billy like she used to, and the way he thought about it, despite all that had happened nearly two months ago, this was definitely a high point in their lives. A short period of peace and happiness for them all, after their world was rocked by the stranger all those weeks ago. Too bad short periods of piece are just that, short.

Grim finished up for the night, leaving the book as he went upstairs to go to bed. He looked across to Mandy's room at the far end, the rain scattered moonlight casting the door in its bitter white glow.

'_What are you gonna do next?_

He opened the door to his room, closing it behind him as the day ended.

Speaking of Mandy, lately her exercise had begun to pay off. All the running, stretching, punching and the like had built her figure up slightly. The areas where she had looked months ago with dissatisfaction, her previous lack of muscle density in her arms and legs, had all toned up perfectly, though outwardly little had changed. Over time she had begun to notice that she was beginning to tire out later and later. Already she could see that she could run twice the range she could when she started, and that everything was becoming easier for her.

One effect of all her training she didn't see was that she could now punch far harder than she originally could when she was young. One day she found out.

* * *

Next day.

It was still raining heavily. Mandy sat in her chair under the veranda and watched as the soft ground of the clearing turned to mud, Billy sitting to her left. It had been raining all night and all morning, and had continued until midday about now. Through the grey of the rain and the cloud they could make out the intermittent chains of electric blue flashes, half a dozen at a time, coming one after the other ahead of them near the town, followed by several claps of thunder.

"Do ya think the army will ever stop trying to get into the town?" Billy asked from his seat on the veranda. The flashes of lightning still happened occasionally, whenever a foolhardy SA gang or government troops of any sort tried to break through into the town.

"So far, uhhhh… No. But that lightning defence will stay in place until I call it off. They can attack as much as they want, it won't make a difference." The lightning ceased as whoever had come knocking withdrew with their tails between their legs, no doubt leaving several unconscious comrades behind. They looked up at the trees, more now slowly coming into vision.

"Looks like the rain's easing up." Billy spoke. "Wanna go for a run down by the river? It'll be nice after the rain." He looked across to Mandy who kept looking out as the rain stoped.

"Yeah, let's go." Stepping out and down off the porch they made their way out onto the soggy ground. They walked out towards the lower edge of the clearing down towards the river. The trees at the end of the clearing were bright and fresh from the heavy shower and almost seemed to glow despite the sky above still being a light grey. A strong earthy scent came out of the bark carried on the water vapour. The ground however was slick, and a number of puddles of thick, sticky mud had formed at the edge of the clearing. Several other areas held a dull sheen and were as slippery as ice.

Billy walked just behind Mandy as they made their way towards the tree line and the stream below, passing between two large puddles of mud. As they crossed the spot directly between the two Billy had the ill fortune to set his foot down on a patch of icy slick clay, causing his foot to slip out in front.

"Whoa-" He staggered forward, planting his foot down again. He over balanced, leaning backwards. Waving his arms around to compensate he moved back to balance himself again. His feet again met the slick ground, and this time both shot out behind him. Unable to balance himself again he fell forward. As he fell he quite accidentally collected Mandy on the way down who was only a foot in front of him. Mandy only had a moment to register her surprise as the weight on her back pushed her over, and they both fell to the wet ground below. While Billy managed to fall onto his hands and knees on the solid ground, Mandy unfortunately had the ill luck to fall to the left of him, and landed front first in the thick pool of mud.

Pushing herself up out of the sludge she gaped in shock. Her entire front was plastered with wet brown dir, with more curving up her sides and arms, splattering on her face, in her hair, on her legs, and boots. She was a complete mess. Her hands held up beside her she gaped as she looked over herself, before she registered what happened, and most importantly in her mind _how_ it happened. She seethed in outrage, clenching her hands into fists.

"Bastard. God damn it."

Billy struggled to his feet and turned to look across to his friend, immediately feeling at fault. He was too preoccupied with the mess he'd caused across her dress to notice as she tuned and glared at him with a rage she hadn't shown him for a very long time. Her fist clenched bone white as she rounded on him.

"Sorry. Are you alr-Gah!"

Billy fell back face first to the tacky ground, Mandy's fist occupying the space his head used to be. For a moment he couldn't believe what had just happened. He felt pain, enormous pain in his cheek. He could taste blood. Holding a hand to the side of his face where Mandy had…

"… _She hit me."_

Shocked at her attack he looked up at the enraged blonde, not bothering to hide the pain. Mandy looked down at him burning in anger, until she saw the hurt and betrayal in his injured face. A trail of blood was beginning to run down from the side of his mouth. She'd hit him so hard she'd cut her hand on his cheek. In a moment all the anger she felt for him vanished, and she was left facing her closest friend, who she had hurt.

Billy got to his feet again, holding his pained face. He wiped the blood from his lip, looking down at the crimson liquid smeared on his hand, followed by another drop that fell from his lip. _'She did this to me? What did I do to deserve this? After all I've done for her? Why? Damn her!'_

"What the hell was that!" He hissed, the blood still running from his perforated lip. Mandy looked at him at a loss. She hadn't meant to hit him that hard. Even as an eight year old tyrant she'd never hit him with such cruel intent.

'_But he did push me in the mud. He humiliated me. I mustn't allow any disrespect. And it won't!'_

She scowled at him again, speaking with venom. "You idiot! You did this! Look at me!" She glared at him, expecting him to cower in submission. Instead he stared at her with an even deeper rage building.

"I pushed you? I slipped and caught you on the way down, and you hit me like a freight train? What the hell is wrong with you! This is your self-righteous idea of justice? After everything I've been through for you _this_ is how you're gonna treat me!" He took a step up towards her. This time he wasn't going to lie down and be her door mat like he always was. Mandy remained silent, keeping up her enraged scowl, though inside she was beginning to falter. She had to admit he had gone through a lot for her since they were attacked at the mall. Was this any way to repay him for all his kindness and endless forgiveness over the years?

But Billy wasn't finished, taking another step towards her. "I risked my life to come out here with you to protect you. I got my arm broken and was almost killed, all for you, to protect you. And this…" He pointed towards the bleeding side of his mouth and the red mark on his face. "This is how you repay me?" His 'best friend forever' was now beginning to seem less of a friend than he had always thought of her as. Though he'd always managed to put aside everything she did that had ever caused him frustration or anger or pain, this had simply been too much to bear, and what's more it had opened all the old wounds he'd learned to live with. Now it was all coming to the fore, and Mandy would have to face up to it one way or another.

Mandy though just turned away, her contempt for him and his efforts and contributions glaring and impossible to ignore. "Whatever. I don't have time for idiots like you." She spoke as she walked calmly back to the cabin. Billy looked at her in shocked outrage as she completely dismissed him. He seethed with fury as she simply walked away. Billy looked at her in absolute outrage, aghast that she had so casually and completely dismissed him after he had come forth with everything she had done to him. After all the anguish she had caused him that she needed to answer for, it was like she had turned around and spat in his face out of nothing more than spite. He boiled with rage. Raising his finger he pointed at her in a dire warning.

"Don't you walk away from me you…"

As much as his anger raged and continued to build inside him, he simply couldn't bring himself to complete that sentence. No matter how angry he was at the wrongs the girl he cared about had done to him he just couldn't call her that. He watched her stalk back inside the cabin, leaving her shoes at the porch before she went inside.

Mandy stalked slowly up the stairs, retrieving a new set of clothes from her room and entered the bathroom, abandoning the muddy dress. She wet a towel and began to clean the mud off her hands, legs and face. While she did this she forced herself to continue in her anger.

'_He pushed me in the mud. I will never tolerate any form of disrespect. He used to accept it and move on. I must have gone soft on him lately, and now he's questioning my authority.'_

She looked up from the towel to look at her reflection in the mirror. Her hard, all enforcing scowl stared back at her. Her eyes displayed no kindness or compassion, no friendship, no love, and no care for anyone else. Only a dark, cold soul only concerned with her own power and enforcing her rule.

'_I must keep absolute control at all times. Billy doesn't matter. It was good to show him that I don't care. I'm finally beginning to break those bonds that've sapped my strength for so long. Soon I'll be free of that idiot and I will finally be able to proceed with my goal.'_

She put the new dress on over her shoulders, smoothing it out so she would look presentable when she went out to begin cutting the bonds that had tied her down for so long.

'_It's time. I'm going to go out and put an end to this friendship which has cost me so much, and has caused me so much trouble. He's already cost me too much in wasted time alone.'_

She looked at herself one last time before she moved to head out there. When she went to take the first step, the sight of Billy with blood running from the side of his mouth, and the hurt and betrayal in his eyes came back to her, and hit her in the chest like a hammer. She froze before she could even reach the door knob.

Her heart was beginning to ache at the thought of what she'd done. She had hurt her best friend, who had literally been to hell and back with her, and had been right beside her since they were old enough to walk, who had suffered to protect her, and who cared for her. She clenched her jaw, bringing her hands to her head as the conflict within her grew worse and worse. She had to break off with him for her own good, yet the guilt from hurting him, and the pain of losing him had grown too much for her. It infuriated her.

"Grrrrrrruuuhhhh!"

She groaned in frustration, closing her eyes as she struggled to keep control over herself, urging herself to take strength in darkness and solitude. But all her rage and darkness had faltered, leaving her exposed to her own inner demons and failings. She breathed deeply in and out, trying desperately to hold herself together. Turning away from the door she clasped the tabletop as she faced her reflection again in the mirror. The girl staring back was wide eyed and scared, not the stern tyrant that had occupied it moments before. Her hands began to quiver as she developed a nervous shake from the stress that was trying to tear her apart inside. That anxious, scared little fool in the pink dress could never hope to rule anything.

Still quivering slightly she made her way to the bath tub, where she sat herself down on the side. Her eyes were held wide open, her breathing ragged as she leaned forward, overwhelmed by the enormity of what she had put herself into. She clamped her hands around her head as she allowed herself to voice her dismay.

"I don't believe it. How? Why? Why can't I do this? What's happening to me!"

* * *

Three hours later

Emerging quietly from the bathroom Mandy descended down the stair case, intent on just speaking with Billy so maybe they could come to some kind of solution or agreement. Her anxiety over facing the result of her harsh rule over her long time friend still gnawed at her willpower, but she managed to return to some semblance of control after spending so much time on her own to collect herself. It had taken so much longer for her to steel herself than it ever had before, and still though she appeared calm on the outside, it was a mere façade to hide the fact that there were deep cracks running throughout her once indomitable resolve. Her steps were slow and heavy as she walked down each step, onto the floor and out to the front porch.

She looked across to see Billy sitting in the same chair he'd occupied before. She noticed the swollen bruise forming on the side of his face where she hit him, earning a painful stab of remorse inside. Another crack tore through her core. He looked up to meet her gaze with his, with blue eyes that were distinctly colder and harder than they had been before. _'Something's not right. Something's changed.'_

She was right. Billy had been sitting on the porch ever since Mandy had struck him, thinking back to how they used to be. He had been wondering if he had ever done anything to infuriate her into rightfully doing something like this. As usual he had started off with a relatively good view of her, seeing her as the strong and independent figure he had come to admire, and had figured she had hit him because he may have somehow deserved it or at least provoked her. He presumed that though he hadn't willingly assaulted her there must have been a definite reason based on logic, that what she did was a necessity.

He had come to realise something that had greatly disturbed him. Throughout the entire time he had known her he had done relatively little to harm her, and had always been there for her should she need him, like the faithful dog he was. Yet on the other hand Mandy had been the exact opposite. For as long as he could remember she treated him no better than a pawn, good for doing whatever she needed of him before she abandoned him. Though she had saved his life a number of times the reasons behind them were more often than not purely self motivated; wanting to keep her lab rat or due to some debt he owed her. Sometimes she just didn't bother to help him. She never cared how he felt, even after all he had done for her. And now, after he had risked his life for her, and suffered pain and injury for her, she was betraying him again. Looking back through their very long, close history together, he saw that right from the beginning he had been nothing more than an underling to her. Now he was beginning to view her in a way he had never seen her before, one that challenged everything he thought he knew about Mandy and he. The close bond they had shared in the past few weeks they'd been together here, and the romantic tension that had been developing in the background, could he have just imagined it? Was there ever anything really there in the first place?

Mandy fought for self control, telling herself to remain cold and detached as she took her seat just to his left beside the door. They remained silent and still, the grey skies casting the area in a vast cold shadow, both slowly returning to face the damp grey clearing ahead.

"Hey Billy." She spoke quietly.

"Hey Mandy." He responded just the same, with an unfeeling edge that hadn't been there before.

She looked across to him, seeing him continuing to stare coldly ahead. "How's the face?"

He slowly turned to face her, before he glanced down to the bruise on his cheek, slightly taken off guard by her seemingly caring words, even if they sounded like more of a side note than actual concern. "It still aches." He looked back to her. "But why do you care?" Mandy just shrugged, turning back to the grey world in front of them. He just continued to look at her, his flat gaze beginning to wear away at her calm facade.

"Look Billy…" She thought for a moment, searching desperately for the words that would get her off the hook without having to lower herself. "No hard feelings right?"

Billy looked at her thoughtfully, loosening the cold gaze for a moment. _'Is she sorry for what she did? Was I wrong about her?'_

He turned and gazed vacantly out towards the forest in thought. "Is that your way of saying sorry?" He glanced back to her in order to see her reaction. He hoped she was, that he was wrong in his judgement of her, and they could sort it out and go back to being slightly too close friends.

Mandy, her plan to squeeze out of trouble thwarted, could only give a half-hearted shrug. "No, not really."

Billy's eyes widened. He turned back to her, his shock clear in his face. Mandy turned to him, and watched as his features changed from shock to rage as his own anger rose in a flood from deep inside his being. "Well Mandy, yeah! I do have hard feelings!"

Mandy backed up from the affront, outraged at his outburst. "What the hell is your problem Billy!"

Billy answered in a voice so cold and so thick with anger and resentment it made her blood freeze. "You. You're my problem Mandy. You were always my problem, right from the day we first met. You take without giving. You control and oppress and abuse me and everyone else around you, and think it's so wrong when other people do the same thing. You're so high and mighty on your own deluded self-righteousness that you judge and punish people for shit that's not even their fault, like you just so perfect and pure."

Mandy was caught. What could she say to that? What could possibly excuse the arrogant hypocrisy he was accusing her of? It couldn't be true. After everything she'd bought herself up to believe there was no way she would throw it all away unless it was somehow justified. She couldn't accept that. Only a few moments in and she was already fighting a loosing battle.

He continued, referring back to the fight they had earlier. "Remember how I didn't finish that sentence before, when you were walking away?"

She looked at him, unable to move as she remembered earlier. _'Don't you walk away from me you…'_

"You are a bitch." He spoke in a flat, blunt manner.

She gaped at him, not believing the words that had just come out of his mouth. No one ever dared speak to her like that, especially not her closest companion. "What?"

"I SAID YOU'RE A BITCH!" Billy roared at her in rage, the anger of the years of betrayal pouring out.

"How dare you speak to me like you little-"

"_FUCK YOU!_ DON'T YOU _EVER_ TALK DOWN TO ME AGAIN!" He screamed in her face as he began to advance on her, causing her to start backing away. Mandy had never had to deal with this before. It seemed she couldn't control him anymore, and all her cruelty towards him was coming back on her.

"You treated me like crap ever since I first met you! I looked out for you! I served you like a dog! I gave you everything I had! And every time you took it and stabbed me in the back!"

Mandy was beginning to feel her anger fading away. She was losing the best, and in reality only friend she had left. Yet she remembered how despite how he had always loved being with her, maybe even felt some kind of love for her, she always spoke with such little care, and never really appreciated him for all he was. Now it was beginning to look too late to undo it.

"And every time you betrayed me I always forgave you, and continued to care for you and be by your side. And after ever time I forgave you, you inevitably betrayed me again." Billy's voice once again took on a cold, hateful tone for the person he once thought was a friend, only to realise that through everything he was never anything more than a worthless pawn to her. "And you know what? I always forgave you, _again!"_

Mandy grimaced and hardened her features. She was sick of being so weak. It was time to bring it all to an end.

"That's because you're an idiot. Though you've grown older and smarter, you're still as hopeless as ever without me. You will follow me blindly until the end because you wouldn't know what to do without me there to control you." She looked at him with her draconian stare. Billy didn't flinch, staring her down.

"No Mandy. I'm not an idiot like you can toy with and control anymore. So tell me, why should I continue to be with you after everything you've done to me?"

"Because I own you. You are my property. I am your master. I'm the central pillar that controls your entire life, you said so yourself, and you will serve my will until I have no more use for you. That's just the way it is." She answered him coldly, drawing on her days as a heartless overlord to stamp out his insurrection.

Billy took a step towards her in defiance. "No, you don't own me Mandy, and you're not my master, not anymore. I've grown beyond that fool who needed your help. So tell me now, why should I continue to be with you?" He stared into her with eyes as cold as hers.

Mandy couldn't keep it up anymore. She could feel herself breaking under the loss of her closest friend, the only person she had left in her life. She turned her shoulders, continuing to scowl at him even as she lowered her gaze from his face.

"I own you." She couldn't think of anything else. She turned away and made her way inside. Billy watched her climb the staircase from the door, still staring at her devoid of all the kindness he had once showed her. When Mandy finally reached the top she turned around, one final word to put it to an end.

"Billy, I don't need you anymore. You no longer have any use to me. You will continue to stay by me because you need me. You are weak Billy, weak and sentimental, and you would be lost without me." Billy just stared back as she left, shutting herself in her room.

He slowly climbed the stairs after her, stopping just outside her door at the end. He spoke quietly and bitterly. "I know you don't need me anymore. I always knew that. But the thing is, I'm no longer weak and defenceless. I don't need you or your control anymore either." With that he walked down the stairs, making his way outside, continuing on down the pathway on a long solitary walk towards the town. When he was gone and all was quiet in the house Grim poked himself out of his office.

'_What de hell was that?'_ Grim had heard every word from the study, and was nothing short of horrified. The two had gone through their share of feuds before; it was fairly regular before the years of peace, but nothing like this. He'd heard the way Billy spoke in a chilling tone, the hatred in his voice clearly evident. And Mandy had said things that would scar even the best relationship permanently. He had most probably just heard the end of 'Billy and Mandy'.

The way those words were said wasn't in anger, saying things they didn't mean, but they had meant everything they said to each other. The cold way they spoke didn't sound like verbalised rage and frustration and hurt, but of a built up deep anger and a burnt out lack of care for the other.

"Mandy, just how badly have you screwed dis up?"

* * *

'_What have I done?'_

Mandy was sitting on her bed, frozen in shock and horror at what had just happened. She had never planned for anything like that, for him to explode with so much unshed anger, and now she was shaken to the core by what she had just done. Her breaths came in ragged gasps as she tried to hang onto her self-control, her whole body shaking in shock. She tried to tell herself that she was doing the right thing, but the way Billy had spoken to her, the boy she had been so close to now screaming hatred in her face, made her entire being wrench with a hurt she had never thought possible.

'_Billy was a weakness. He had to go. Now that I don't have to worry about him holding me back I'm finally free to work towards my takeover. Alright. Okay. Now I gotta get organised, start making plans. Order, that's what it's about, order. Now that he's gone I can be strong again. I'm not weak anymore. Now nothing can stop me. I don't need him. I don't need him. I don't need him! Oh god what have I done!'_

She shut her eyes tight and gritted her teeth, clamping her hands around her head in anguish. She was torn, torn between herself and Billy, her own dreams of power, control and immortality, and the best friend she had just lost. It had been growing for months. Now every second that passed it grew worse and worse. She couldn't take it anymore.

"Rrrrrrrraaaaahhhhh!" She doubled over on herself, curling up into a ball as frustration and grief overcame her. She flopped down on the bed, curled up with her hands and knees clutched to her body.

'_I've lost him. I've lost Billy.'_ The pain in her heart was unbearable. Until now she had never realised just how great a part of her life Billy really was, and just how much she really did need him beside her. Only now did she realise just how much it hurt now that he had been forcibly torn out. And still it grew worse.

'_I've lost him!" _In her broken anguish she did something she had never done before. She reached out for someone who would comfort her. But who was going to be there for her now? Her closest person, Billy, her partner for her entire life thus far wanted nothing more to do with her. She had driven him away in her relentless drive for power and strength and order. With him gone she looked back to the two people who as a child should have been the guiding light of her life all along._ "I've lost…"_

As her will broke down from within, a sudden awful realisation befell her at that moment. Spurred by her stricken state her mind reverted back to another moment of absolute grief in her life, one she had tried her hardest to bury, ever since she came home to her house that night.

'_Oh god, mommy and daddy are dead!'_

Mandy gasped as all her pain and grief, long since crushed deep down, came to the surface. She had lost them forever, and she had never taken any value to them when they were there for her. Now, not only was she never going to see her parents again, but she had just lost the most important person in her life.

'_I'm an orphan. I'm alone.' _Now no one was there to hold her and comfort her. She was now completely and utterly alone in a cold and uncaring world manifest by her own will.

She remembered how Billy had looked at her, his eyes cold and hateful. And then how her mother's eyes had looked up at her, dead. As she curled up on her bed, shutting her eyes and wrapping her arms around herself as if to provide some imaginary comfort from someone who was no longer there, a tiny whimper escaped her quivering lips.

"_Mommy."_

That was enough to bring her back from the brink. She clenched her fists, holding back the tears that threatened to break her apart inside out. Summoning all the control she possessed she forcibly pushed the agonising grief for her parents and Billy out of her mind. She sat up, willing her emotions back down again. She stood from the bed, making her way to the mirror in her room. There she stood looking at her reflection. Though her face still bore the totalitarian dictator's scowl she always had for years past, now her eyes were red with unshed tiers.

Seeing her ruined state she heaved a long sigh, sitting back down on her bed. She closed her eyes, holding the bridge of her nose in despair.

'_Why is this all so hard? Why won't the pain stop?'_ Her heart still ached with the loss of the only people she had ever loved, and the end of all that was good in her life with them. Power, control and revenge gave her no comfort to her melancholy, as a sense of complete hopelessness and despair set in. She let out a low groan as she placed her hands around her hair as her head sank down to her chest.

"Why am I so weak?"

* * *

**Happy days are over. The story begins to speed up after this. There'll still be plenty of quiet close moments between them but everything starts falling into place soon. Hope you enjoyed the emotional trainwreck, cause it's only just beginning.**


	20. Give it up Mandy

**Well here we are again.**

**By the way congrats to my dad Barry and my stepmum Marissa! They tied the knot just a few hours ago before this chapter went up, bearing in mind though that I'm writing this comment on the night before the wedding. Best of luck to the both of them!**

**I guess I caught some of you off guard with that last chapter. Sorry onthewingsofapanda, I guess that would've been a king hit to the heart. But then again you can't have a drama without the drama. It's about how people work their way out of the situations they find themselves in by either their own foolish choices or by that of others that makes for any kind of story.**

**Anyway the drama's not over yet. This chapter's going to be the climax of the 'into hiding' phase of the fic. Don't espect everything that's happened to just go away anytime soon because this is gonna take time to be resolved, but then there's plenty more fic still to come.**

**So without further ado, let's continue our descent into the waiting abyss.**

* * *

**Give it up Mandy.**

The next three days went by far too quietly for either of them. Grim found himself almost choking on the tension between the half collapsed Mandy and Billy, who was changing into something far removed from his original self. Whatever was happening to the boy, he sincerely hoped it wasn't permanent.

Mandy covered up the pain within by doing near constant work and exercise. She was always outside, away from the cabin, away from Billy, pushing her body and mind to the limit so she wouldn't be able to think about how her life was collapsing in on itself due largely to the pain her own choices had bought her. Yet she steeled her remaining self-control and soldiered on, determined so to speak to break away from Billy, determined to free herself of her feelings for him, no matter how hard it was and how much damage it caused.

She hardly ever took a moment to sit still, always running, shooting, driving, anything to keep her thoughts off Billy. At night though it was a different story. Dinner was agony for everyone simply because throughout the entire meal not one word was spoken. In fact throughout the three days following the two never spoke to each other once, and they barely spoke to Grim at all. At night she had to spend time around him, they were living under the same roof, and slept only one wall apart. Furthermore she found it impossible to occupy herself with exercise when she was eating dinner, having a shower, or worst of all, in bed.

When she was lying between the sheets, the side of her face buried in the pillow waiting for sleep to relieve her, all the terrible events of late came back to her, tormenting her with anguish and grief. On the first night Grim thought he'd heard her crying. He pressed his head to the door, hoping to hear at least some sound that she was at least letting the pain out, and actually dealing with it in some way other than crushing it down within herself. Not a sound greeted him from within. Mandy hadn't cried since she was a toddler.

Worse still was Billy. He was very different to how he had been just a few days before. When he thought back to the random, bouncy, stupid kid of four years ago, and the strong, tough, caring boy he had the pleasure of spending time with these last few weeks, he couldn't see either of them anymore in what he had become now.

All day all he would do was sit around brooding, stagnating in a growing pit of darkness and anger, reflecting on the harsher experiences he'd had with his long time partner. Everything he'd chosen to ignore, every taunt, strike and contemptuous glare she'd ever given him had returned, and were now the sole remaining thing he thought about. He hadn't smiled since the fight, and had stopped talking in the goofy, slightly insane way he always did. The absolute worst thing though was something about the look on his face, the tone of his voice, and the look in his eyes, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. For Billy it had seemed so foreign, to be so cold and uncaring. But as tragic and out of place as it was, there was something about the hard eyes and cold voice that he was sure he recognised somewhere else.

He wished that he could talk to the boy, hearing him out for once, maybe undoing some of the damage Mandy had done. But when he saw the hollow look in his eyes, he just couldn't bear to be around him. It just weighed on him too much to see what had become of him, and to know that he had never stepped in to try and prevent it, despite knowing that eventually Mandy's actions would one day lead to where they were now.

The simple fact was that over what would soon be two months since they left Endsville, he had taken on the two kids almost as if they were his own grandchildren. He had grown to be proud of their accomplishments, concerned for their faults, and now heartbroken for how they had fallen from grace. He shook his head in despair at how the two kids he had taken care of as if they were his own had now been reduced to mere shells of their former selves. With nothing else to do though, he dutifully returned to his work.

It all came to a head late at night on the third day. Grim finished reading the last few words of the large book entitled 'Effects of Advanced Magic', closing the covers on it, sliding another into its place immediately after. He was interrupted by a soft knock on the door.

"Yes." He answered in a subdued tone.

The door opened revealing the child officially known as Billy. In all reality though the Billy he had once known simply wasn't there anymore. He stared at Grim with cold, hard eyes, devoid of the warmth and whirling passion that his old friend-master once had.

"Take me home."

The way Billy said those three simple words was enough to break Grim's proverbial heart. His words were so very distant that he knew now just how bad it really was, and how far he had fallen._ 'Goodbye Billy. I'd be there for you on your death bed, but I can see now you're already gone.'_

"Billy, go back to your room. Tink about it a little more mon. If in de morning you still feel this way, den we'll talk." Grim spoke as kindly as he could, hoping to get through to the soulless person before him. Alas, he failed. Billy stood in the doorway unmoving.

"Grim. Use your scythe to create a portal back to Endsville. I'll get my parents and go back home. You can stay here to guard Mandy until she no longer needs you. If she lets you go then you don't have to worry about coming back to me. After this I'm finished with you. Once Mandy's done you can go free." Again he spoke in a way that showed his soul really was gone, broken apart by the girl he once thought of as so much more than a friend, but who no longer had a place for him in her life of power and darkness.

"Billy, I know right now you're angry, but just stop and think about this."

"You will do as I say reaper."

"No Billy. Listen to me, just give yourself a bit of time to think okay? Whatever you do don't let your emotions trick you into going and rushing into someting you'll later regret."

"Grim," Billy spoke in a harsh commanding voice, scowling mercilessly at his insubordinate servant, "I own you!"

Grim sighed long and deeply. He closed his eyes as the memories those words bought up. He finally realised where Billy's bitter grimace had come from; it was Mandy's cold scowl. In the three days following their breakup Billy had now become the exact opposite of what he originally was. _'I'll miss you boy.'_

"Wait in your room." He spoke firmly to the hollowed out boy as he stared blankly yet mercilessly at his servant. He finally relented, turning to head back upstairs. As he left Grim couldn't help but see a flash of grief in his face, a brief flicker of the immense pain and sadness that had broken and swallowed him.

Grim sat, listening to Billy ascending the stairs, closing his door, then silence. He held his head in his hands. _'What am I going to do now?'_ He thought up how he was going to make the final confrontation that lay ahead. He knew that it would certainly tear deep wounds wide open and challenge long held beliefs, but he had to do it. If he didn't then the two kids he had come to love almost as his own would eventually cease to exist. Either way he approached it, he knew it wasn't going to be easy.

He sighed and rose to his feet, walked out of the study and climbed the stairs up to the bedrooms. As he reached the top he silently wondered about how far they had come, only for everything to fall apart so completely. How long had Billy and Mandy been close partners before he'd even come onto the scene, only for Mandy to have destroyed it all in her pursuit of power? But it wasn't just her doing. What if Billy had come out with his concerns before now in a manner that didn't involve screaming in her face? And what about his contribution? What if he'd had the conversation he was about to have before it all fell apart? _'How did it come to this?'_

He continued down the hall past his door, past Billy's, to finally arrive outside Mandy's room. He knocked on the door with his bare knuckles.

"Come in." Her voice was heavy and low. When he entered and his eyes settled on her she looked just that, heavy and low, sitting on the side of her bed facing him with unmoving eyes. It was plain to see she was little more than a burnt out wreck of her previously strong willed, domineering, ambitious self. He closed the door behind him, as they stared back and forth between each other for what seemed like an eternity, not that it seemed to matter to her if he wasted her time or not.

"Billy came to me a moment ago. He says he wants to go home." He watched the girl before him react. Her face lowered for a moment, though it never lost its despondent impression.

"It took five days to get here from Endsville. Just how do you expect to get him there and back without leaving me undefended?"

"He wants me to use de scythe. Create a portal back to Endsville."

Mandy looked thoughtful for a moment. "No. If you use the scythe any more than you already have you're going to give away our position. We can't afford to run any more risks than we already have."

"Den use dose fourth dimensional powers, dey can't be tracked."

"And risk damaging myself in the process? I don't see the point. We can't afford to run any more unnecessary risks than we already have."

Grim looked at her, concern written on his skeletal features. She had always been stubborn, it was a critical element to her nature, but right now she was just being unreasonable. Though she explained her decisions he could easily sense that they were more or less irrelevant to her, and that underneath these half-hearted excuses there was no real reason or logic to her argument. She still wanted him here he realised.

"So that's it? Billy can't go home? He has to stay here against his will just cause you won't let him go?"

Mandy just stared back at him. She spoke with all the heartless emptiness her wasted soul held. "I don't care."

Grim looked down in shock at the soulless girl before as she lowered her head away from him again, as if trying to hide the shame she felt. Her anger for the corrupt and her constant drive for power and control had destroyed not only herself, but her closest companion as well. He grimaced down at the heartless young tyrant as she sat in a pit of grief she herself had dug. He'd had enough of this. Though he couldn't go back and step to prevent this from happening in the first place, he could step in now to save her and her partner from further suffering. It was time he put an end to it.

"I think it's time we had a little talk, and you will listen, because what I have to say is important." She looked back towards him, keeping her eyes low only half listening. She could sense Grim's sobering stare as he stepped over to stand directly in front of her where she sat.

"Let it go Mandy. You have to forget about this new world order idea. Forget about power, and dominating people, and revenge against humanity, and immortality. Forget about this cold and dark persona you're so obsessed with. Just give it up."

Mandy whipped her face up to him in shock, staring at him wide eyed, too taken aback to form any argument. All she could do was listen despite the feeling that it was going to tear her apart from within. "What?"

"You have to drop this stupid idea you're fixed on. You're not being strong by being cold and uncaring, or by cutting yourself off from everyone else. You're not really after strength at all. You're afraid of being weak Mandy, of being weak and of being just another face in the mindless crowd of bigots. It's your insecurity, your fear of weakness, of failure that's causing you to do this, and dat in itself is a great weakness. It's self-defeating, it's just pointless." He explained to her in a stern manner, never taking his hollow eyes off her as she sat staring up at him rigid.

"I understand how you feel, honestly I do. I know what it's like to have to watch as people butcher and kill and do unspeakable things to each other for the most pathetic reasons, and to be honest I completely agree they should be punished for what they've done. But all de power and order in de world is not worth what you're asking of yourself. If cutting yourself off like this is your idea of how to accomplish your vision, then dat has to be the worst idea I've ever heard coming from you. I would've thought you of all people would know better dan dat." Grim finally laid down the law on her for what was essentially the first time in her life, and it was overwhelming her.

"Being dark, foreboding and pathetically cynical will not bring you happiness." He continued in his unyielding tone, even as she sat rigid with the shock to her mind. "It won't even bring you content. If you go down dis path you have set for yourself, then chances are you will very likely come to rule de world just as you wanted. You probably will find a way to become immortal, like you wanted. And all dose bigots and lowlifes out there, they'll pay for what they've done. But it will not bring you happiness, not in de long run. You see, you will be alone for the rest of your life. No one will ever love you again. If you do this you will live your entire life alone, do you understand?"

Mandy was too horrified to move. She sat there on the bed, frozen, looking up at Grim, every bit of her horror clear in her face. Now that she had experienced what it was like to be alone, without Billy or her mom and dad, the thought of living like this for eternity was something so terrifying she could scarcely imagine it. How could she live for an eternity like this and hold the reigns of a new civilisation? His words were cutting straight through to her heart, to her beliefs, her anger and her dreams, and everything she built herself upon, and as much as she wanted to cover her ears and drown out the words with screams that it wasn't true, she was simply unable to move.

Grim now changed his tone to something more hopeful. He had shown her the blackness at the end of the tunnel, now if he could show her the light at the end of another...

"Mandy, you've never really embraced anyone else before in your life. Love and affection isn't a weakness, it's one of the most beautiful things in existence. Happiness isn't found in yourself and your own power and status, it's found in others. Having people respect you out of fear is nowhere near as good as having someone who loves you."

He smiled softly at the young girl. For all her darkness and wisdom, Mandy was still only a twelve year old girl, who had in fact never really been shown any guidance from another. She had moulded herself on what she truly believed she had to be for strength and her own sense of justice, because few others showed her any other way. Her parents, though they loved their child, had been too wrapped up in each other to devote the time and effort to her, and after she had started on her dark path they found it too difficult to talk her out of it. Her friends had all been idiots, arrogant bastards, seedy perverts, narcissists and all round twisted specimens of human corruption. And he himself had been too hateful towards her to do anything positive either. It was only after Billy began to develop the use of his brain that she had a proper positive influence in her life. She was in way over her head right from the start, and now he was throwing her a rope.

"I know how you truly feel about Billy. I saw how heartbroken you were back when you thought he had died when we were fighting Boogie, and dat was years ago. Now you've only gone without him for three days and it's torn your heart out. And I know why you've been wanting to spend so much time with him now. I know you don't want to acknowledge it but de fact is you really do care a lot for him, just as he cares a lot for you. You're much closer than just friends, you're partners. It's always been you two together right from the beginning, you're the greatest part of each other's lives. Dat's why you're so broken now, because only after loosing him have you realised just how important he really is to you. And you know something else," He added with a smile, "Billy's as broken as you are right. He's not so much angry at you as how he's been hurt by loosing you. I'd bet every bone de kid feels much more for you den just friendship. I know you're afraid, but there's so much he wants to give you that will make you happier than you've ever been in your life, and he'll give it to you, if you would just let him."

He kept his hope up as Mandy thought about what he had said, lowering her gaze in silent reflection. She held her head downcast, thinking about everything her life had bought her, the life she had spent practically hand in hand with Billy from the very beginning. How she had been so relieved over seeing Billy alive again that she continued to feel it for days whenever she looked at him. How incredible it had felt in her dream to be the one on top, to control people like they were puppets. How it angered her to hear the people around them sprout all manner of lies and arrogant cruelty. And how agonisingly painful it had been to loose her parents and Billy, never having shown them any care at all. Was he right? Was justice and order really worth the sacrifice? And what if she followed his guidance, could she live with herself watching the monsters called human beings tear the world apart, knowing she had the opportunity to stop it, but didn't for her own sake? Everywhere she looked she saw only disaster and oblivion at the end. She thought for almost an age before she raised her face up to looked back at him again with her deep onyx eyes.

Grim's smile faded away, his hope crushed, as he looked upon the scowl he had come to know as Mandy's, and now Billy's. She spoke with all the cold iron will that had made her strong, strong enough to dominate all who she gazed down upon. And strong enough to ultimately destroy her in the long run as it had begun to do now.

"No Grim. I am the night. I am dark and cold. A life in the dark is what I have chosen for myself." She stared straight into him with her evil eyes, as deep and dark and cold as the deepest ocean. "This is my burden. It is the price I have to pay to see that those who spread corruption are punished for their arrogance and the horrors they sought to inflict on innocent people, and that the rest are punished for not doing anything to stop it. And there's nothing you can say to make me change my mind."

Grim looked sadly down on the girl he had come to think of as a granddaughter, knowing that the path she was now going down would lead to a destiny of tragedy and ruin. What's more knowing how stubborn and iron willed she was there was little hope of him ever being able to convince her otherwise. From where he stood now, looking upon the cold-hearted woman who had defined their lives over the past few years, he knew that it was too late to save her.

"Billy will stay here, regardless of how he feels." She answered finally.

Grim sighed sadly and stepped away. _'I'll come to your funeral some day Mandy, and there I will weep for my failure. I am sorry.'_

He spoke his final words with a heavy heart. "Congratulations Mandy, you have become strong, strong enough to rule over all with an iron fist, just as you wanted." He turned to open the door. Stepping through the doorway, he turned back to face her one last time.

"But that strength has come at a price hasn't it?" With that said he closed the door on her, leaving Mandy to sit on her bed alone once more.

Mandy closed her eyes, holding the bridge of her nose in angst. Once again just as she had done many times before in the past three days she cursed her fate. She cursed the burden put on her. She cursed the depraved people responsible. She cursed everyone else for not taking up the responsibility themselves. She cursed the gods for just sitting back and watching it all happen. She cursed herself for not being strong enough. She cursed Billy for being such close a companion to her for so long. She cursed Grim for not having anything to curse him with. And she cursed humanity, the world, the universe, and everyone and everything in it for being so easy to corrupt. But for all her cursing and endless hatred, she couldn't escape her sorrow and her grief for the loving mother and father she would never see again. Her lower lip shook for just a moment as she forced her tears back down.

* * *

Grim made his way down the row of bedrooms and turned towards Billy's door. How the hell was he supposed to break it to him? The girl who had once been the best part of his life was now his warden. How did Mandy deal with this? He would have to tell him that he was staying here, and if he objected that he would have to speak with Mandy himself. He knocked on the door. He waited, no response. He raised his hand about to knock again.

"Come in."

The voice through the door sounded even more drained than the previous. He entered, seeing Billy sitting on the other side of the bed with his back facing him. He was hunched over in a way that made him look like he was a thousand years old. He was about to tell him the bad news when he spoke first.

"I'm staying." He announced quietly, his shoulders slumped resignedly. "I just can't stay alive without her. Besides, I know Mandy wouldn't let me go anyway." His voice sounded tired and burnt out, like Mandy, but with a kind of hopeless edge that pulled on his black heart like a lead weight. Though he had his back to Grim, he could still see his reflection in the window opposite him, and could make out the tears streaked down his face.

With a quiet nod he silently closed the door, leaving the broken boy alone in his misery. He walked back down the stairs, back into his study. Sitting down in his seat, he bought his hand up to run his fingers across the top of his scull. He shook his head in despair for the two kids he had failed, a tear coming to his eye sockets.

"Oh I hate dis."

Two people shed a tear that night, though out of simple iron stubbornness Mandy still refused. She was above crying, and would never give in to weakness. It was a luxury she would never be able to permit herself. The ghastly pain in her chest remained though, a lingering reminder of her underlying insecurities and the decisions she'd made as a result.

Unknown to the three refugees the tension between them, their long stay in their woodland sanctuary, and their lengthy period in hiding was coming to an end.

* * *

**Now you know where my pen name comes from. I literally had that one line set out from the very beginning. I'm sure many of you can relate to this but it's so satisfying to see something you've worked on for three or four years finally coming to fruition, and finally laying down that one line just cemented it in. Thanks for all your support, I hoped you liked it. Next time we finally start seeing some progress towards unraveling the identity of the killer, and we introduce a new character.**


	21. Mandark

**I heard something funny-bleak a few days ago about the carbon tax. Apparently the government's doing deals with various companies to buy up acres of forest to use as carbon credits, that way the government gets the money while the companies still get to pollute. Is it just me or is Labor playing us all for chumps?**

**I just find it funny how the guys who can't predict what the weather will be like next weak can accurately predict what it'll be like fifty years from now. And the same guys who said global warming didn't exist also said that cigarettes were fine for your health. God everywhere you look you don't find answers you just find more questions.**

**Oh well, here's some more mind-numbing dribble to take your minds off things. Hey, it's better than A Current Affair.**

* * *

**Mandark.**

Next morning

Billy woke just before dawn. Unsurprisingly he had barely managed to catch an hour's worth of actual sleep, the turmoil in his head and heart keeping him awake practically all night. Grudgingly he got himself showered and ready for the day, making his way downstairs before anyone else had awoken from their restless night's sleep. He made his way to the kitchen, staring out the windows to the miserable overcast morning that had greeted him.

'_Hmm. Well that's fitting.'_ He thought, turning to make himself something to eat while he waited for his estranged partner to join him. From what he had heard coming from the next room she'd had a rough night as well.

Mandy also looked out at the grey skies from her room having just woken. As Billy had guessed she too had barely slept last night, unable to still herself with Grim's words still fresh in her mind. What's more she had been constantly tormented by the hole in her heart where Billy used to be. Last night they had manifested in a storm of feverish nightmares which she could not quite remember with clarity. The one thing she did remember made her stomach churn. It was the memory of the time when they were just eight, when Billy had been devoured by the Kraken while she watched. The only difference to the nightmare from when it had really happened, the one thing that her mind replayed over and over in her head, was that in her dream she had given a grief-stricken scream of anguish at his loss. She shuddered inwardly at the memory.

'_It's only been four days and already I can't keep this up. What's happened to me in these last few years?'_ For practically the first time in her life Mandy's unstoppable will had failed, and it had failed against her own emotions, long since the bane of her existence.

'_I've spent too much time with him. I've become so attached to him that I don't know how to let go. How am I supposed to sever these bonds when he's such an integral part of me now?'_ She frowned, thinking quietly to herself.

Mandy kept her train of thought going as she got dressed. _I'm starting to think I'll have to do something more drastic because obviously this isn't going to work.'_

Suddenly she paused. A new thought occurred to her.

'_What if I removed him permanently?'_

The new train of thought both interested and disturbed her. While it offered a new avenue to solve her ongoing problem, an underlying feeling of dread welled in from below. _'If I can't stay away from him of my own will, what if I forcibly take him out of my life so that I can't go back? That way without being able to return, I'll be able to slowly get him out of my system permanently. I'll be forced to forget about him, like burning my bridges. But how?'_

Stilling her suddenly tense nerves she wet her hair, brushing it up into the twin peaks that had come to symbolise her and her dark and authoritarian nature. _'I guess I should think about that later. I have other things to worry about. I'll just try to resolve this issue for now. At least that way I can sleep at night again.'_

Mandy left the bathroom to head downstairs with the need for food in mind. She had barely been eating since the fight, and it was now catching up with her. She could eat a horse. As she arrived at the bottom of the stairs she was met with the sight of Billy, sitting on the other side of the bench that separated the kitchen from the living room. He had a bowl of muesli before him, propping his forehead up against his arm. He looked at her with a dejected look, like all the misery and ruin in the world had been cast upon him. This was not far from the truth.

She sighed as they stared back and forth between each other, two broken down souls gazing into each other, acknowledging their respective state of ruin, reminiscing on what used to be. _'Max was right, I should've let him go a long time ago. Now I've damaged him too.'_

From the stairs she moved to take a seat opposite him at the long bench. They continued to regard each other silently for a moment before Billy finally spoke.

"You were right Mandy. I guess I really am an idiot." He spoke with a tired air, with a small sad smile displayed where there had once been passion and fire. "I'm weak, and I'm nothing without you. I would be lost without you. My life would have no purpose." A defeated sigh escaped him bas he ran his fingers through his red hair. "I know you see me as nothing more than a pawn, I understand there's no place for me in your future, but I'm willing to accept that. I just want to be at your side again, like the stupid loyal dog I used to be. I've decided to stick by you throughout all this, if you still want me. After all, best friends forever right?"

Mandy thought for a moment, bowing her head and setting her face in a serious visage. From where he sat Billy noticed something in her eyes, an activity that was not there when she first came in, her pupils and irises dilating and fluctuating almost at random. What he had said had taken effect. "Billy…" She searched in silence for the words to explain her thoughts, searching for a way to still the emotional chaos inside her.

"Before we go any further there's something you have to understand, about me." Mandy now looked up and into him again with a heavy gaze. "I'm not going to change. The way I am right now is the way I intend to remain, perhaps even more so. No amount of kindness or friendship, or reasoning, or explaining your own point of view is ever going to make me change. If you want to be my friend for whatever reason there is inside that big hollow skull…" She paused as Billy smiled at this. It lifted her spirits slightly to see he was beginning to return to the way he was previously. "… you're going to have to accept that this is how I have chosen to live. Any ideas you may have about turning me around to being some other idea of good, you should forget them, because they're just going to cause more pain for you in the end. If you want to be my partner you're going to have to accept me as I am now, along with my own... ambitions."

"I understand. I kind of picked up on that what with your plans to take over the world and all that." He answered.

Mandy leaned back in her seat. "So just ask yourself, is this what you really want?"

Billy nodded quietly, a grin forming on his face. "Mandy I wouldn't want you any way other than dark, foreboding and charmingly cynical." She watched as the soul seemed to return to him, and the joy and happiness of his existence flourished within him again.

Mandy sighed calmly, relieved that for now the trouble was over, and the awful tension between them lifted. "Okay."

She rose from her seat to make a sandwich while he watched on. As she methodically began to piece the meal together bit by bit from what they had left in the fridge, another thought occurred to her that made her furrow her brow.

"Hey Billy, what you said a moment ago…"

"You mean about you being dark, forbo-"

"No. What I mean is, how did you know?" She turned to him in interest. "I never told you about any of my plans for the future. I mean I told you about what I want and what I believe but I never actually said anything about any definite plans to carry them out. How did you find out?"

"I didn't. It wasn't hard to figure out." He added with a smirk. "You always talked about these things, about how someone had to take control and how you wanted to take eternal divine revenge of some sort upon all the bigots and liars of the world, and you never say something without carrying it out in full and then some. I just sort of expected that you would want to do something like that when you're older, ya know? I mean it seems like a pretty obvious sorta choice for you. But after you got your own kickass demonic scythe of ultimate destruction you had the power to be able to do something like that, so I guess that bought you halfway there already. When you told me about that _business deal_ with Max, that you'd chosen to do it your own way… I knew. I'd always suspected, I'm more impulsive than stupid nowadays so it didn't take long to figure it out, but after that, I knew." His smirk grew slightly and a strange ethereal gleam of chaos seemed to spark in his eyes.

Billy was back.

"Alright." Replied Mandy, her immediate curiosity sated. Within moments though another thought began to press on her. "But… how do you feel about that?"

Watching as he silently considered the question posed to him she herself debated over what it may mean for her for each possible answer. Naturally she assumed from his bright and carefree nature that he would oppose it. Why then did he remain silent?

"Eh." He simply shrugged it off as unimportant. Mandy raised an eyebrow; he had neither confirmed or denied that he was against it. All he had alluded to was that he didn't care what she did, that what she did to the world and the small-minded vermin living in it simply didn't matter to him in the slightest. How could that possibly be?

'_Oh well, it doesn't matter.'_ She told herself, not quite foolhardy enough to pierce the bubble of peace they'd formed again. She finished making her breakfast and left him to head up to her room again. Oddly enough despite patching things back together again she wanted to eat alone for now, still somewhat awkward about being around him following the angst of the past three days, and the troubling thoughts of how to get him out of her life. Though Billy and she had for the most part healed, the fact that the underlying cause was yet to be resolved still gnawed at her from underneath. What had just transpired over the previous few days proved that they would not remain silent forever. But despite these lingering uncertainties she was immensely relieved that the bad blood between them had passed. However, as she sat on her bed and prepared to eat, her appetite again fled her.

'_But I still don't feel right. I'll still have to get rid of him at some point.'_

* * *

Mid morning.

Later Billy and Mandy told Grim about how they had made up. He was so relieved to see Billy smile that he wrapped his arms around him in a bear hug, crying out…

"Oh tank heavens you're back Billy! I couldn't imagine not seeing yer big stupid smile again!"

After his emotional outburst he once again retreated back to his long, draining, labour intensive job of sifting through the mountains of information in his study. Again he had yet to find any information on the twin hourglasses, and by now he had gone through roughly three quarters of all the books and documents he had summoned. By now he was delving into books far removed from the actual subject he was looking for.

'_If dis turns out to be a dead end, we might end up having to confront dat thing head on. We'll probably be killed though; dat ting's just too powerful to go up against without having some trump card or knowing some weakness to exploit. After all it managed to go up against all three of us, twice, and we only got away by de skin of our teeth, and both times we only managed to get away because we got lucky.'_ His outlook became progressively worse._ 'Either dat or we'll have to leave de country, get a job in some backwater shithole and stay in hiding for de rest of our lives. Won't Mandy just love dat! And even then how long will we last? Dis world's terminal. Humanity's shot through with madness on every level. In a few years time there won't be much of the world left where we can run and hide to.'_

He closed the door to his study, cutting out any distracting noises, leaving him totally focussed on what remained of the immense task at hand. He set his coffee down on the desk as he sank into the leather chair. He cast his sight down again to the thick book before him, which he had started on just last night.

It had a rich burgundy leather cover over paper slowly yellowing with age. Emblazoned in fading gold letters on the cover were the words 'Supernatural Time Travel. Concepts and Effects.' Opening it to the page he was last up to he picked up where he'd left off. He slowly scanned through the pages one by one, reading over every word, meticulously combing for any slither of data which could provide any slight hint, some scrap which combined with some other scrap could shed some light, despite whole-heartedly expecting to find nothing even slightly related. He kept reading nonetheless as he picked up his coffee.

He bought it up to his face, but before he could take a single sip, he stopped. He slowly lowered the cup as her re-read the last sentence.

'Upon jumping from one time stream to another, the current life hourglass is instantly expired, with the remaining time being transferred to a new one, so the being in question can continue life in the new time. Every time a living being goes from one time to another, to the past or future, they receive a new hourglass in correspondence with their new rebirth into the new time stream.'

Grim's mouth hung open. _"Time travel? Holy… Could dis be it?'_ He swiped his hand across the desk, pushing the open book and the mounds of paper and documents onto the floor. He reached over to grab the list and the two offending hourglasses, putting the list directly in front of him with the other two behind it.

He worked his way down the list to Billy and Mandy. He selected their hourglasses, watching the thick, dark cloud form above the scroll, growing to cover the entire space of the desk. The sheer suspense of waiting made it feel like every second the cloud concealed the objects within was as bad as an hour. _'If it is as it says, den when dose two messed around with dat remote…'_

His suspicions were proven correct as the combined clouds parted to reveal upwards of thirty hourglasses between the two children in a dense mass that pushed aside everything else on the desk and piled on top of itself. Most of them were empty, with only a tiny portion of their life sand in the bottom, with one each with a mass of sand at the top towering above the others below.

He remembered exactly what had led to this phenomenon. Four years back Billy and Mandy had foolishly messed around with a universal remote he had given Billy to help him study. He then had to use another one himself to fix the unholy amount of carnage created in the aftermath of their folly. He selected his own hourglass, and again there were multiple empty hourglasses from when he had made the necessary jumps, each created and cut off one after the other, their numbers pushing many of the kids' out onto the floor.

Each of the hourglasses looked the same as all the others for the people they were for. And each of them looked very similar to the ones for their stranger, albeit with different names and different sand.

'_Well, I guess we know something important about dat thing now. It's either from the past or de future.'_

He pressed the hourglass symbols again, sealing them all back inside the list. Grabbing the list he made his way out to the living room again.

"Billy, Mandy, get in here for a sec." The two soon appeared from upstairs, spurned on by the newly energised tone in his voice. Billy tripped on his way down, tumbling head over heals several times, planting his face on the floor at the bottom. Neither Grim nor Mandy reacted. Billy didn't seem to notice either.

"What'z ub Grib?" Billy answered with his nose pressed into the wooden floorboards by the weight of his body overhead. Mandy leaned down to help drag him up by his collar.

"Look here." They made their way over to the table, where Grim had the list positioned in the middle. He touched the icon for the mysterious blank name, and the two dark hourglasses materialised on the table.

"You remember how I was studying why dat guy or thing that was hunting us had two hourglasses?" They nodded. He reached up the list, selecting the icons for Billy and Mandy. They each stared wide eyed as the forest of hourglasses formed on the table.

"Grim, last time we checked we only had one each. We saw ours when we went on that… _field trip."_ Mandy spoke, thinking of their little escapade into the Halls of Time. "Remember, we left the hourglasses upside down and ended up ceasing to exist. It was only because that old guy turned them upright later that we exist now."

"Mandy, that was before that mess with the universal remote. I just found out dat if you travel through time, you're given a new hourglass, while the other one is cut off instantly." He indicated towards the many empty hourglasses, most of which only had a tiny amount of sand in the bottom. "You both made many jumps using the remote, and every time you did you got a new hourglass."

The realisation dawned on them as to why there were two hourglasses for this one being that had been hunting them. It was Billy who spoke first. "This guy's from another time." Grim nodded.

Mandy thought for a moment. "This won't help us unless we know exactly when it came from.

"Yes I know. Now usually when someone ports through space or time by any means dey leave traces of energy. If we can trace de residual energy from when dey arrived then maybe we can find out where and when dis guy came from." He paused for a second. "The ting is, I don't know anyting about tracing energy. Only a handful of individuals in de underworld really can with any accuracy. We'll need an expert, someone with brains and equipment."

They remained quiet for a moment. Mandy lowered her face as an almost forgotten name occurred to her. Immediately she thought back to the partner she had swayed to her side a few years back, someone who she hadn't thought about since that one time shortly before they left.

"Mandark."

"What's dat?"

"Mandark? Wasn't he that dorky kid we met awhile back? All dark and gloomy, had a silly bowl cut, thought he was a Bond villain?" Billy remembered the youth, who was around their age. In addition to his lack of hair style, he possessed an ugly pair of glasses, a thin build and looked to be every bit of the stuck-up conniving evil genius he was, or at least used to be.

"Mandark is a business associate of mine. We met a few years ago. I think I made a positive impression on him. He's a genius with technology, engineering, physics, and has his own laboratory full of equipment." She explained, remembering the website she had seen of his exploits. "He would be our best shot at finding out where this thing came from."

"When." Billy corrected.

"Whatever. Look maybe he could help us. If he could trace that residual energy stuff, he might also be able to send us to where it came from."

"When."

"Shut it!"

Grim nodded in thoughtful agreement. "Den give him a call. De sooner we can get out of here, de less risk we're at of being found." Mandy got up to retrieve her phone, but called back to Grim as she scaled the stairs.

"Grim, that thing's never going to find this place. It's just too far away from anything, and there are too many other places to hide in the world. For all we know the thing's probably looking for us somewhere in Russia or Africa. It'll never find us while we stay here."

He shook his head. "Mandy, we still don't know just how powerful dis ting is. Remember dat when I summoned those books and de hourglasses, it gave off an energy pulse. I don't know how good it is at tracking such energy, but regardless, it's inevitably gonna find us if we just stay here. Besides, we're running out of money to keep us going. We have enough for another months worth of food at most, and dat's with rationing. After dat, we'll have to get out of here and start up somewhere else."

She just shrugged, already aware that they were slowly running out of time, continuing up the stairs to retrieve her phone.

* * *

Mandark was, as usual, very busy with his work. But then again it had never bothered him. A hectic workload usually came with his chosen path as an evil genius, always researching, developing and building more and more powerful and efficient weapons, guidance systems, power sources, laser scanning and tracking arrays and everything in between. But again, he was used to it, and he tended to enjoy it somewhat too, perhaps a little more than he should.

Yeah, definitely more than he should.

The difference between him and the other evil geniuses he'd known, so far as he reasoned at least, was that he worked for a cause. He worked towards something his reasoning told him was right and necessary. In addition he knew his limits. He always questioned himself and his beliefs, whereas they almost always let their egos go to their heads, with expectable results.

But then who was he to judge? Until he had met that blonde powerhouse Mandy he had been much the same. Still there was a certain satisfaction in being like one of the villains out of a classic Bond movie, only without the massive character flaws. Bearing in mind of course that just because he wanted to see the vermin of the world drown in their own sorrow and fear didn't mean that he wasn't also a power hungry megalomaniac. He was an evil mastermind after all.

As of this moment he was finishing the final development of a new power cell. Most of the work he had been doing for the past few years was aimed at furthering Mandy's vision, along with his own ambitions on the side. So far he had planned and developed almost everything he saw they would need in order to build and mobilise their army, and in some cases had already began limited production of the first specimens however unrefined they may be. And yet he had only scratched the surface of the new world Mandy had unlocked for him to explore. Mixing advanced technology with underworld and paranormal forces and entities had yielded results so incredible he would scarcely have believed it before. It had taken him a long time to get to where he was now though, and had taken the pouring of his very heart and soul into his labour for it to yield the fruit it had.

'_To think I would do all this for you.'_ He mused as he reclined back in his office chair, turning away from the huge array of flat screen monitors facing him in an arc on his wide desk. His idyllic outlook faltered though. _'And yet with the failing political situation we haven't made contact since our first meeting. Do you still have use for my capabilities? Are you still even alive?'_

It was well known to him by now that his chosen path and the logic behind it was full of holes. How could he still consider setting himself up in a position of power to satisfy his own self-centred lust for domination when at the same time the people he despised showed much the same selfish pride and desire for superiority? How could he justify his own megalomania and desire to grind humanity under his shoe while still trying to rid the world of the corrupt minds responsible for the countless atrocities committed in the same name of power and prestige? He was even going to all this work for someone he didn't even know still existed. But if she was still alive and was waiting for the day to come knocking he would be ready.

Everything he had accomplished, his new laboratory, the countless hours of toil and frustration, the resources he'd used in order to set up his masterpiece, were all to be used one day by his accomplice and mentor Mandy. Before he met her he was nothing more than a deranged madman, a pathetic self-obsessed narcissist, too consumed by jealousy and arrogance to find success in anything he undertook. When he met her she had brutally torn off every one of his shields of delusion, revealing the underlying insecurity and feelings of inadequacy that had undermined him at every step. She had shown him the error of his ways. She had taught him to think rationally, to put aside his insecurities, to rise above god complexes and petty rivalries, and work for a higher overriding cause. That cause was power, the power to control seven billion people and hammer them into shape. A new world order of justice and revenge built on darkness and fear and torment, where people who wanted to live like true human beings would have to earn the right, that was her cause. Never in his life had he been more inspired than by this stern little blonde juggernaut.

She had presented to him an offer, to work for her, putting his skills and resources to work building machines of war and destruction, so she could one day command them in her coming takeover. In addition he would be responsible for forging the required technologies to build her new civilisation. She would rule the world with an iron fist, and he would be there at her side when the world bowed down to them, ruling over his own substantial corporate realm.

He smiled at the thought. _'World domination, a new world order. How did I ever live without you Mandy?'_ Though he had no real attraction to the girl, he did tend to idolise her as the most perfect example of strength, power and success. _'I'm a hundred times what I was before you came into my life. You showed me the path to greatness.'_

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing. He pivoted in his seat turning towards the office phone on his desk to the right, only to realise when his hand came down on it that it was his cell phone that was ringing from the far right corner of his desk.

"Who the hell?" He stared at the offending device almost as if he'd never seen one in his life. One of the consequences of living the life of an evil genius was that you didn't have much of a social life. As such Mandark didn't give his cell phone number out to anyone except the most important people. That made this a particularly important call.

He picked it up gingerly, bringing it to his ear. "Yes?"

"_It's Mandy."_

His eyes shot wide. He hadn't actually spoken to her ever since their first meeting. Out of the blue a sense of outrage came to him. "Mandy! Where the hell have you been? All this time you never call, you never look into what I've been doing and now you just call in outta the blue? Fuck! You know how long I-"

"_Shut! Up!"_ She barked from the other end. He took a moment's time out to recover himself. That wasn't quite the way he wanted to greet her. _"Perhaps we should try this again?"_

"That sounds good… Mandy! Wow, it's been so long. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

As usual she got straight down to business. "_Listen, we've got a little problem, and it looks like it's originated from a time other than our own. Do you know anything about tracing time travel jumps back to where they came from?"_ She made her way down the stairs back to the living room where the others were waiting. They listened intently on what little they could hear on the other end.

Mandark thought for a moment. "I believe I could, maybe. None of my equipment's purposely designed for that so it'll be difficult. Do you know anything about when the actual jump took place? How long ago did whatever it was come through?"

She looked over towards Grim. "Hey, any idea how long that thing's been here for?"

Grim looked at the dark hourglass with the sand still flowing through it. He looked to the bottom, at the growing pile of used time. "Oh, I dunno. Looks to be about… maybe four years, give or take."

"_Grim says about four years ago."_ She spoke into the phone and waited while Mandark sat back down to his computer, bringing up the appropriate files.

"Okay. My computer's been monitoring all major worldwide energy bursts since it was created. If such a jump occurred, then the energy it gave off may have been recorded. I don't know if it'll be enough to go on but…" He went quiet as he put the phone down and proceeded to bring up the relevant data, displaying tables and charts dating back well before the new laboratory had been built. On the other end Mandy stood waiting on edge, Billy and Grim sitting and looking up at her in anticipation as she paced about the living room. After perhaps another thirty seconds she heard him pick up the phone again.

"I've found something." He came back. "Looks like you were right about the time. There's one recorded event, an energy spike that seems to match the approximate date, four years ago, but there's not much to go on. I don't think I can effectively analyse and trace it." Mandy groaned inwardly.

Mandark however wasn't quite finished yet. "Hold on. There's this guy I know, he might be able to help. You remember how I used to have that stupid rivalry with a guy named Dexter?"

"_Yeah you told me when we met."_

"Well we're not rivals anymore. We're not exactly friends, but we've helped each other out a few times since you talked some sense into me." He leaned back as he thought about him. Dexter had even greater technological capabilities than he did, and even now that he was coming into his own he still lagged behind somewhat in Dexter's chosen fields. He'd earned a name for himself in various civil and corporate projects, though lately he was being forced more and more to keep a low profile to avoid the nationalists' unwanted attention.

"Listen, I'm going to give him a call. He's probably got this recorded as well, and most of his equipment is superior to my own so he'd likely have better readings. If he doesn't then I'll call right back and tell you. But if by chance he does, then we'll try to trace the signal back to the original time and location. It'll take awhile but if we're successful then I'll call you to tell you the results."

Mandy nodded. _"Alright, I'll speak to you soon."_

"Best hope not too soon."

Mandy ended the call, letting him get to work. Mandark immediately started dialling again while milling over what he had to do. Though his rivalry with Dexter was over, Dexter and he were always going to have a very awkward and strained alliance.

The trouble stemmed from what each of them was working for. Dexter was aware of what Mandark was working towards, although he didn't know to what level. It was a simple clash of ideals, freedom against control, and their individual beliefs were totally irreconcilable. No matter how much Dexter respected him now as a fellow man of science, he would always be going against his own sense of justice whenever he did business with him, something Mandark had to keep in mind. So while he saw his fellow man of science as a friend and part time collaborator on the one hand, he also saw him as a potential danger on the other. This was the essence of their alliance; they were trying to shake hands which were at the same time curled into fists ready to fight.

"Hello Dex. It's me… Look I was hoping you could help me out with something. It's for a friend of mine…" He paused as his friend responded. Gritting his teeth he answered. "Yes, it's her."

* * *

Mandy closed the phone and sat down at the table again where Grim and Billy were waiting to hear what was to happen.

"Well? What's de go now?"

"Mandark's going to call a friend of his, a guy named Dexter. He said that he found what we were looking for but there wasn't enough to go on, so they were gonna try to trace it back to where and when it came from, then he'll call us back with the results."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Billy asked with a frown. "I don't like this, getting other people involved. Who knows what this Dexter guy's gonna do, can we even trust him? Is he gonna hold it over us or something?"

"I don't know but we have no other choice. We'll just have to trust Mandark's judgement and let him deal with it on our behalf. It's either that or we sit here and do nothing until the money runs out." She answered flatly. Billy relented, still unsure but trusting in her reasoning.

"Alright, but if either of them try anything I'm sicking Cerberus on em."

"Well den." Grim surmised. "I guess we have the day off."

With the matter out of their hands and nothing more to do, the three refugees settled down to wait for the return call. Billy and Mandy soon made their way down to the river for fishing again in the cool autumn weather outside, taking the time to ease away the tension lingering from their fight. They both knew it might be the last opportunity they had to spend time together in their secluded little corner of paradise, and were sure to make the most of it, savouring every relaxing moment in the cool tranquil weather. Meanwhile Grim took a seat at the couch, turning on the TV to surf the channels for anything good, thinking of a way to reward his charge for their hard work and resilience throughout their near two month long time in hiding. After everything they'd been through together, seeing how they came together and took care of each other, he knew they deserved it.

There Grim, Billy and Mandy waited while the two geniuses began their work.


	22. Goodbye

** Iiiinnntttteeeerrrnnneeeett sssssssooooo sssssssooooooooowww... Oh well.**

**How about that eh? Nine months later and they finally caught the sewer rat! My family's divided over wether his brutal death was warranted or not. I've seen the videos and you gotta admit it was pretty gruesome. But then if your father was tortured to death and your mother and sister were gang raped by his thugs simply so he could feel big what would you do? What's worse was all the 'I-never-did-anything-to-you-guys' crap he poured out before they emptied his skull. What do you say in response to something like that? It's so hard to find reason when dealing with unreasonable people, it makes you feel like you're going insane.**

**Anyway about the chapter. Here the romantic tension between our favourite little hellrasiers gets kicked up a couple notches. I made little squee noises while writing parts of this! Also in here we begin to see more of Mandy's emotional side, as well as the effects of the underlying pain she's been carrying around, but that'll come later. This is also the end of their time in the cabin so say goodbye to paradise, but don't worry, it's not the last we'll see of it.**

**You know I've been wondering if maybe I'm focussing too much on the physical beauty and perfection of the characters. Real people as we know aren't perfect like that. Am I taking this too far? Oh well, it is just a fanfiction anyway.**

**Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did making it. This goes out to the Libyan people!**

* * *

**Goodbye.**

Though Grim had originally stated that their stay was not going to be a holiday, the hours following their phone conversation with Mandark saw it become just that. The three spent the day doing more or less whatever they wanted at whatever pace they wished. They didn't bother to do any more training, driving or exercise. By now they had already done enough of that as both were now proficient with a gun, and both could drive a car with a manual or automatic transmission, provided the dash was low enough for them to see over, and both were stronger and in better shape than they had ever been before from the exercise they had done. Ironically their time spent in exile had been far more productive than all the years spent at the cesspool of a school they had attended. In addition to that, they were beginning to get the feeling they wouldn't be here for much longer, so they figured they would make the most of the time they had left.

For Grim the relief from work was like a cool summer breeze freeing him from the smell of his own stress. It had been so long since he'd had a day off he almost felt giddy with excitement and immediately set down to getting the most out of his free time. For Billy and Mandy though it bought them back to another day long ago when the feeling was much the same. For them the day felt just as calm and relaxed as it did the day after the end of their first round of troubles, like the air itself carried new life into their bodies.

Billy and Mandy started off by catching a few fish down in their beautiful river nestled in the secluded little gully below. They walked down side by side with their equipment and a rod each, neither speaking as once more they slipped off their shoes and stepped out into the cool water, letting it gently wash over their feet and flow between their toes, sending tingles from their legs up to their heads as they tossed their lines out into the deep placid waters further out. As they savoured the sweetness of the air and the cool kiss of the water on their feet, as well as the comforting sense of each other's close presence, time gradually became an illusion, ebbing and flowing like the calm river or the rippling torrents across their toes. Closing their eyes and taking the moment to feel and connect with their surroundings they stayed like that, only braking off when a fish began to tug on their lines.

They stayed out there until the early afternoon, catching and in most cases releasing the fish as they came. As Mandy released another shimmering fish and prepared to cast out again a sudden impulsive thought came to her. Looking around wide eyed, checking to make sure Billy and her were alone, she set her rod down and stepped out onto the pebbled bank. Normally the thought that had occurred to her would have been instantly dismissed as utter insanity but right now, when everything was just so perfect with the world, she overlooked her hesitation and went with it. She then turned to Billy who was looking to her in wonder.

"Billy, you know how best friends sometimes do things you don't tell other people about?" She asked with a slight nervous edge, waiting until he nodded.

The auburn haired youth watched on in wonder for another few seconds, before his breath caught in his throat. His eyes widened and froze in shock while his mouth opened to gasp though no sharp draw of breath came. For just a moment his heart skipped a few beats as he watched as Mandy, working with an almost serene calm, took her dress by the bottom hem and pulled it up and off her body, followed shortly by her black bike shorts, leaving her standing before him in nothing more than her white bra and underwear.

Billy's fishing rod clattered to the watery bank at his feet as she stood facing him, revealing her flawless white skin to the love struck boy for the first time. His heart started again and immediately began beating with such ferocity he couldn't think straight. As Mandy looked into his bright blue eyes she watched his reaction without response. It was only when she saw his eyes trail down, taking in every inch of her exposed skin that reality hit her. Though she remained calm on the outside, inside a hot flash of fright tore through her, making her arms and legs lock solid in panic and humiliation.

But despite this her courage gradually returned to her as she remembered why she was doing this. Keeping her posture relaxed and her face perfectly calm she stepped forward across the smooth white pebbles, turning her onyx eyes away from Billy and onto a spot out in the river just to the left of him where she'd stood previously. Though she willed herself to be calm as she made her way slowly across the bank the knowledge of how much of her body she was showing her partner still inspired a shy childish panic inside of her. What her companion didn't know at that moment was that her heart was hammering so hard in her chest for a moment she wondered if she would faint from her nerves. And yet her courage still shone through, keeping her going even as she struggled to still her breathing.

Billy was so struck by what had just happened he couldn't even follow her as she stepped past, his eyes still locked on the spot where he had seen her strip even as he saw her in his peripherals as she made her way to the water's edge, taking in her elegant waltz as she faded from his sight. As Mandy stepped out into the river the feeling of the water around her feet once again took hold of her, washing away her nerves with its cool pure touch. She closed her eyes and took in the calming sensation as she gradually walked out further, the water rising higher up her ankles and then her calves.

It took several seconds for Billy's mind to begin to overcome his shock. After Mandy disappeared he suddenly began to stress over her loss. He had to see her again. He needed to see Mandy, no, the _angel,_ he had to see the angel again. As his breathing raced and the stress of her not being there before him reached breaking point he whipped around rapidly, looking down into the river. There he saw her again, the goddess from his dreams, step by step making her way out deeper and deeper into the water now up to her lower back, only this time the deity he yearned and wished for with all his heart and soul was completely and absolutely real.

'_I can't take it! I can't take this anymore! Mandy please stop, don't do this to me!'_

When the water had reached just below the middle of her curving back she stopped. Watching rigid with his mental agony he saw as she stood still and silent, taking in everything around her. Then, instead of continuing in her seductive torment, whereas he had expected her to turn to him and beckon him to join her she lowered herself down into the water, before lying herself out with her back against the stone white riverbed beneath her. He watched as she settled herself in, the upper forward parts of her shoulders and her face up to her ears standing up above the water's surface, her head supported on the pebbles while the rest of her body lay out in front of her immersed in the crystal current, her arms and legs suspended weightless halfway between floating and sinking. Seeing her settle down into the water's embrace Billy relaxed. Now he understood, and it filled him with relief. The sight of her serene features and flawless figure eased every ounce of hesitation he'd felt previously. He smiled. Reaching up he grasped the back of his tee-shirt and pulled it up and over his head, tossing it back to the bank behind him, followed by his jeans.

Opening her eyes at the sound of footsteps through water Mandy looked up and back to see Billy stepping in to join her, clothed in just his black boxer-briefs, a contented smile on his face as he waded out towards her. She studied his figure acutely, noting how his training had built him up ever so slightly. He appeared even more athletic than he had when she'd seen him in the motel, his slim lean build with his shoulders projecting out to his sides somewhat, alluding to what he would one day look like in years to come. She watched him as he lowered himself down to lie back against the riverbed by her side, turning to face her. There they lay together, half naked, completely content in the coolness of the water and the warmth of each other's close companionship, until they dosed off just a minute later.

They slept there for a short while, until they were woken by the sensation of small fish tickling their feet and nipping at their toes like they had the bait in a strange sort of karma. When they came to they noticed that they were now lying on their sides facing each other. Knowing better than to make anything of the situation they calmly pulled away, neither mentioning anything as they returned to the bank, put their clothes back on and began the walk back to the cabin for lunch, their rods, tackle and catch held between them.

Grim again cooked the fish they had caught in a way that made the golden brown flesh just disintegrate at the tough of a fork. He pretended not to notice they were both soaking wet when they presented it to him and left to get dried off, but when they were gone he smirked and sniggered. Even when they returned with new clothes he still had to suppress a smile at the sight of their damp hair. He knew they hadn't bought any bathers with them, but kept it to himself. When the two began to eat they were stunned. They had never truly realised just how sweet and delicious the fish here was, without the contamination of the thousands of tons of filth Endsville pumped into its waters. What's more they hadn't realised just how much effort and skill had gone into making it. They made sure to thank Grim for it before they returned their plates. It was also likely the feeling that they wouldn't have fish from that river again that made them appreciate it all the more.

In the afternoon the kids sat down to play more of their beloved video games, long since their favourite pastime. Some of the games they played, though vastly more modern, were virtually the same as the ones they had grown up with all those years ago, before they had even met Grim. They bought back long distant memories of two eight year old children, a stupid boy and an evil girl, both the best of friends despite everything that said they shouldn't. Throughout everything, from before they even went to school, their first days with Grim, the long years of danger and the following peace, and now, the one constant was a couch, a television, and two controllers.

Grim went into town again around mid afternoon to get dinner and fuel. He was immensely proud of his two 'grandkids' as they had come to be. He didn't know what was lying around the corner, hell he didn't even know if they would survive whatever was coming. What he did know was that no matter how hard the going got that those two would endure and get through it. Nothing less than being burned to ashes and dispersed on the wind would ever hold them down. He knew it from the moment they met, when they stared him down without so much as a hint of fear. As of right now he figured he would treat them to a little feast as reward for how they'd handled themselves throughout the ordeal.

Later that afternoon Mandy went out into the forest to just watch the sunset. She could barely believe that she of all people, who had come here with the mindset that beauty was for the weak, would take such interest in this. But having come here and lived in what could only be described as paradise, she would forever remember to just occasionally stand back and gaze in wonder at the beauty of the world, even if it did lower her just a bit. Behind her sitting on the front porch Billy gazed out at the view in appreciation with her.

Or was he? When she turned back to face him she couldn't help but notice him flick his eyes up towards the sunset, as if he had been interested in her instead. Suspicious as she was she dismissed the notion as simple paranoia.

Of course Billy really had been looking at her back as she stood out in the orange light filtering down through the trees. He couldn't help but marvel at just how beautiful she had become. Though a good part of him wished he could stand up and go on out to her, to hold her close as they watched the sunset together, he knew that such things could never be, and that he would see to it himself if only to protect what they had. Thus he shifted his gaze to the orange-pink shades overhead when she turned to look back to him.

Before long the light blue and orange sky overhead grew dark. With a sigh Mandy turned to walk back inside, Billy following after her just in time as Grim set the roast pork on the table.

Again tonight they had the privilege of eating some of the very best food they had ever tasted in their lives. Everything was so succulent and tender, the meat dissolving into their mouths at the slightest inkling, and there was so much there to have. They couldn't believe that Grim had done this for them, and as thanks for simply being themselves no less.

'_I didn't know you thought of us like that. I suppose I should be thanking you really, for everything.'_ She thought quietly to herself, displaying a look of quiet content on her face.

As they finished their feast Billy had slouched over so he was propped up against Mandy's shoulder. For her part she was content to let it be, for now at least. Mandy, no matter how much she wanted his affection to continue, knew that all of it would soon be at an end. But for now though she was content to be in his company just one last time.

'_I'm going to miss him.'_ She soon regretted thinking of such matters. A deep hurt began to take hold inside as she thought once more of losing the one person she had left who was precious to her. Once again her addiction as she had come to define it began stabbing at her inside. She rose from her seat, walking out into the forest again. The sky overhead was fading into a dark blue, with the moon and stars beginning to come out in the east.

Out here she could think to herself. Here she could confront such painful matters. _'I'll only miss him for awhile. Then, over time the bonds I have with him will wither away, and I'll eventually be free of him altogether. It will take time, and it won't be easy… Oh who am I kidding, this'll be the hardest thing I'll ever have to do in my life. Why does this feel so wrong?'_

Shaking her head at the hopeless insanity of it all she turned back to the cabin, where the lights were now beginning to come on one by one, illuminating the area around it where the last twilight was now slowly fading to blackness. Out of her despondency she felt a driving last will take hold inside. _'But right now I don't care anymore. I just want to be with him one last time. I don't care if it makes me weak or if I fail, I just want to be with him. I'll make the most of the time we have left together.'_ Braving her emotions she began walking back.

A few minutes later the three were settling down for the evening, getting ready to watch a movie. It was an old favourite of theirs, Blade Runner, the directors cut. Mandy and Grim had come to like its wonderfully artistic style, and its view of the sad strange technologically advanced future, where human happiness was no more than a dying memory, and empathy and compassion was a sign that one was not normal. Over time Billy, as his brain slowly came online, had come to love it as well for the same reasons. Grim fixed up a large bowl of buttered popcorn, and after turning out the lights and sitting down together, the movie began.

Mandy sat nestled between Grim on the far left and Billy on her right, watching through the opening credits and the deep moving sounds of the Vangelis soundtrack. As he watched and listened to the sweet sad melody Billy glanced across to Mandy, seeing her as she looked across to him. They both held their gaze for the moment before turning back and staring at the screen contentedly. Mandy sighed, tired of holding back. Almost without a second thought she leaned over into him, propping herself up against his shoulder. He looked down to her as she gazed up at him, and just smiled softly, turning and opening his arm up to accommodate her more comfortably. Mandy moved again so she lay out across him, resting her cheek against his collar as he lay back in the lounge, wrapping his arms around her as she placed her hands on his shoulders.

They watched as the city of Los Angeles came into view amidst the towering balls of flame from titanic factories. Mandy lay snuggled up to him watching the television, while Billy held her softly around her back as he lay propped up in the corner. It was the closest they had ever gotten. Although Mandy didn't smile, she was truly happy, the happiest she could ever remember being. She found herself wanting to go to sleep in his arms forever.

Slowly the film moved on, the sky outside growing ever darker and colder as the moon came up. After a long line of moving moments and themes they past the iconic silhouette of Roy standing above the roof of the Bradbury, staring down at Deckard below. Past Roy's moving speech, _"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe."_ And finally the door closed on the replicants Deckard and Rachel escaping to an uncertain future, signalling the end of the neo-noir film.

Grim reached out with the remote, stopping the player and turning off the television. He turned the lamp next to him on, bathing the darkened room in soft yellow light. They sat there silently for several minutes. In her spot still nestled in Billy's arms Mandy thought about what was, before they were attacked. She then thought about what is, having been hiding for so long, waiting for an answer from Mandark not far away. And finally, what will be.

"What's going to happen to us?"

"Huh?" Grim looked over to the girl lying against Billy's shoulder. She moved off him, out of his warm embrace to sit back in her spot between them on her own.

"What are we gonna do when this is all over?"

"Well for starters," Billy spoke up, "I suppose we'll go back to Endsville. My mom and dad are still with the Nergals. We'll have to rescue… pick them up from there first. Then I suppose we'll just get down to fixing everything back to normal." He noticed Mandy lower head, a notably sombre visage taking over her features.

"What about me? My mom and dad are dead. I'm an orphan." She spoke solemnly, almost chocking on the last word, the sense of loss once again biting into her from within. A feeling of total helplessness descended on her. "What am I gonna do now? I have nowhere else to go."

Billy put a hand on her shoulder, which she didn't shrug off. "Mandy, do you remember back in that town we stayed at the first night? Remember how I was talking with my parents before we headed off?" She raised her head to meet his gaze, remembering the conversation that took place nearly two months ago.

"What about it?"

"Mom and dad were thinking, what if we could help you? They told me you could stay with us for awhile if you wanted to. You can stay with us as long as you want until you can find somewhere else to go."

Mandy stared at him heart-struck. Never could she have thought that after she had been nothing more than a hard-hearted tyrant to everyone around her, that her friend's family would actually go out of their way to extend a hand to her when she was most vulnerable. Despite all her callous disregard for Billy and his parents Gladys and Harold, she couldn't suppress the swirling warmth that bubbled in her chest and belly. She lowered her face slightly in her own gesture of humility.

"Thank you Billy. I'll keep that in mind."

The three refugees received a start when the sound of a phone ringing emanated from Mandy's pocket. She took out the little device and answered it. "Yes?"

"_I've got it. I know where and when the jump came from."_ Mandy immediately sprang to her feet.

"You do, where?"

"_Alright."_ Mandark set to work relaying what he and his accomplice had found. _"The jump originates from somewhere underground in Endsville, and comes out not far away on the outskirts. The place we managed to find accurately but the time it came from we don't know precisely. We weren't able to pinpoint it but it's somewhere around 3190 and 3200 AD. We think the most likely time it originated from is approximately 3198, but anything closer than ten years or so is mostly guesswork."_

She looked back towards her companions as they sat on the edge listening in rapt attention to every word. Two things struck them, how far ahead it had come back from and how close to home it had originated. What did this mean? But she knew there was nothing more he could tell her from the information he had. They would have to find out themselves. Mandy thought back to his previous work. She remembered something about time travel, but didn't know how serious it was. But then again, if Boogie's old minion Creeper could do it, why not Mandark?

"Listen, can you get us there?"

From his spot at his computer Mandark looked towards the far end of the cavernous space he worked in. Through an archway into another room he could just make out a large ovoid shaped object projecting out of a raised platform based on the specifications he'd taken from Creeper. "The time displacement equipment is ready and operational, and I've tested it to an extent. I think I could do that. Do you remember where my new laboratory is?"

Mandy thought about what she had seen on the website. "Yeah, an industrial estate just outside Chicago right?"

"_Right."_

She remained silent for a moment. "Get it ready. See you soon."

"_See you."_ Mandy hung up the phone as Mandark closed his, before turning turned to begin making sure the powerful machine would be ready. He had created the oval shaped device with plans Creeper had provided him through interrogation, but it had taken Dexter's help to get it operational. In reality though once you understood the principles it was actually fairly easy to make one of these, thus why ill-witted Creeper of all people had been able to do it in the first place.

Mandy sat back down into the couch while her two companions looked at her in anticipation.

"Well?" Billy asked in expectation.

"Mandark knows where and when the thing came from. He wasn't able to pinpoint when exactly but he thinks it came from around the year… I don't remember, it's a thousand years in the future, but he knows for sure it came from Endsville somewhere underground."

Grim and Billy looked at her intently. "Why de hell would someone come from so far in de future back jus to come after us? After all what do we have to do wit dem? It's practically an entirely different world."

"I don't know. But that's what we're going to find out. Mandark's completed a time machine. He says he can send us to where and when this thing came from." She thought about what their next move was to be. "If we go to wherever this thing came from, we could stop it before it comes back to get us. If we arrive after it's already left we could find out more about it, about why it's here, why it's after us, and about any weakness, so we can destroy it when we get back."

"Hang on." Billy interrupted. "If we're in the future, far away from the thing that sent us there, how're we supposed to get back?"

Grim and Mandy were again somewhat surprised at just how intelligent Billy had grown over the past few years. A sense of pride again filled Grim. _'Dats me boy.'_

"Well think for a moment." She began. "If this thing can get from the future to now, then it must also have used some kind of machine to do it. Mandark said that it came from somewhere under Endsville, so I say we just track down the other machine when we get there and use it to return. If not we'll go to the underworld and build one ourselves."

Grim saw the logic in this. He nodded. "Where is this Mandark of yours?"

"He's set up a new laboratory on the outskirts of Chicago, just off the highway. I can tell you where closer in". Though she didn't have access to her computer where the location was kept, she still knew it's location off by heart, and she knew the name so it wouldn't be too hard to find out anyway.

Grim stood from his seat and looked back and forth between the two. Now that they knew where they had to go and what to do they could finally get to work. "Start packing. We leave in an hour."

* * *

Billy immediately got started on packing away everything he had bought with him over the past few weeks. He quickly threw all his clothes and some small food items into a backpack. He then moved on downstairs, piling together all the movies and games they had collected together, as well as half a pantry full of food and water, enough to last them a couple of days if they were careful. Along with them he bought together a small number of books from the bookshelf, figuring it was best they be protected.

Grim sent the masses of books and paper he had taken out back to the dimension from whence they came. He packed away the laptop, sealed away the hourglasses back into the list and packed it away as well. He moved out to the living room and shrunk the case filled with weapons back to the size of a toy car, depositing it in his robe. Turning to the masses of food stuff and entertainment he sealed it all away with his scythe. He and Billy then began giving the whole cabin a rough going over to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything.

Mandy worked at a more gingerly pace as she packed away everything of hers, but paused when her eyes came to rest again on a draw of her desk. She opened it, revealing the picture she had bought with her, of her late family together. She silently debated whether she should leave it here, a symbol of her detaching from them, or bring it with her.

'_It's one of the only pieces of them I have left now. The only other piece of them is this cabin. I know that I should let go, but I just can't help it. I want them to be here now with me.'_ She sighed, putting the little framed photo into her bag. She kept a backpack filled with what was left of their emergency fund, a change of clothes and her 1911 handgun in the likely case of emergency. She gradually carried the bags out of her room, down the stairs and out to the car, Billy taking his backpack by the handle and moving out with her.

Grim helped load their bags into the back. Billy and Mandy looked back to the cabin, reminiscing on what had been their home after their lives back in Endsville were turned upside down almost two months ago. The beautiful wooden cabin had typified and defined their new lives ever since they had been forced to run and hide. It had been almost like a vacation in paradise, situated in the most beautiful corner of the world. After living a life surrounded by the scum of the earth they had come here and found themselves entirely at peace in a way they had never been before in their lives. The experiences they had gone through in here, the times of wonder, of joy, of crushing anguish and hope, would last a thousand lifetimes and beyond.

'_And love.'_ Billy remembered back to earlier, where Mandy had laid her head down against his shoulder. She had held herself so close that one time, and he had relished every moment of being with her as he knew she did with him.

He let his gaze travel across to the left of the building. He noticed just out front, three jerry cans stood together at the ready.

"Hey Grim." He and Mandy looked across to the boy as he indicated towards the jerry cans he had filled earlier. As soon as Mandy noticed them her heart sank. "What are they for?"

Grim heaved a sigh, knowing Mandy wasn't going to like this. "We have to cover our tracks so dat whoever's looking fer us can't pick up on our trail. We have to make it look like we were never here. We should burn de house down, dat way it'll look like we could never have been here in de first place because it was already destroyed."

He could see the pained look of reluctance Mandy had on her face when she looked up to him. Though he expected her to be angered over loosing such a great place, plus everything inside, he hadn't expected this. He clearly saw the pain the decision was creating within her.

"I'm sorry, but it's eider this or we risk dat thing finding it and catching up to us. If dat happens we won't stand a chance. We'll be killed for sure."

Mandy looked reluctantly back to the cabin before her. She closed her eyes in defeat, her logical side knowing it had to be done. "Fine. I'll do upstairs though."

They each took hold of one of the large grey containers. Grim got started on the kitchen while Mandy went upstairs. He worked his way from there towards the passage next to the staircase, into the laundry and the study. He continued spreading the acrid smelling petrol around, careful not to spill any on himself. He stopped before it was empty, walking out front to wait for the kids.

Billy doused the fuel around the living room, over the table, chairs, on the walls especially. Once he was content that it was made flammable enough he moved on towards the lounge room. He disconnected the TV before he spread the gasoline over it and the other electronic devices around it. It seemed so odd to him, that he found himself actually wanting to not burn something. Still he continued on everything around him, saving the couch for last. He remembered how he and Mandy had just passed the hours together right there. He stared at one corner of it. _'Mandy and I were so close right there just an hour ago.'_

He sighed before emptying the last of the fuel onto the couch, turned and left.

Mandy had been working her way through the upper level slowly, first spreading a trail of it on the stairs for the fire to follow up. She sloshed it around in the bathroom, then into Grim's bedroom, then Billy's. Finaly after she had emptied most of it she opened the door to her room.

'_Mom and dad's room.'_

She couldn't do it. She couldn't bring herself to torch this. She dropped the jerry can on the floor, letting the remaining contents pool on the wooden floorboards, stepped into the room, closing the door behind her.

* * *

Grim and Billy were waiting silently for Mandy to return. It had been about five minutes since they had come out, and Grim was waiting to put an end to the place.

"What's de hold up? What's taking her so long?" Grim scowled as he looked up towards the window upstairs. He motioned towards the house to bring her back down when Billy stuck his hand out to stop him.

Billy had known since he had pointed out the containers earlier why Mandy was so hung up on destroying this place. "Grim, let her have this time. It's kinda important" Grim relented, both watching the still cabin before them, waiting.

* * *

Mandy lay curled up on the bed, lying right in the middle. Her parents had slept in that very bed, and for once in her life she had just wanted to be with them. She tried to think of her mom and dad lying on either side of her, with her snuggled between them, held secure in her parents love. She remembered that on one occasion they had slept in this very bed, trying to feel the warmth left over from so long ago. She could almost feel their presence.

More than anything all she wanted right now was to just be held in their arms. She didn't care that she had become weak, all she cared about were her mom and dad. But they were gone now. She would never see them again.

She closed her eyes, and softly spoke the words she had wanted to say since they died, and knew she should have said before she lost them.

"I love you. And I'm sorry."

With that she slowly rose from the bed, to step onto her feet one more. She walked slowly towards the door, stopping in the doorway to say one last thing before she left forever.

"I miss you."

* * *

Grim and Billy were stirred from their wait as Mandy came out the front door, closing the door and taking the key with her. Billy noticed immediately the sullen look on her otherwise hard set features. There was a blank hollowness about the way she looked at them now that he knew he had never seen before. She looked like the brooding darkness she had cultivated within herself had turned on her, devouring her spirit, leaving the broken shell of a little girl where once a strong and fearsome young woman resided.

As she walked down off the porch out into the clearing, Grim finished the job by drenching the front of the house with the remaining litre or so of gasoline. As he was doing this Mandy was working her way back around to the side of the cabin. She searched around in the darkness for a moment, until her eyes finally caught on the little old light blue tin lunchbox of her fathers, which she had discarded after retrieving the key. Bending down she retrieved it, replacing the key within its body and returning with it to the clearing.

As she watched Grim finish off the job, setting the empty containers aside to be destroyed in what was to come, she stepped forward, placing the little box on the soaked wooden deck in front of the door. They retreated back to take one last look at the cabin that had been their home after they'd been rendered homeless, and for Mandy, so much more.

Grim opened the door to the car, reached in and retrieved a Zippo lighter from the front. He walked forward towards the doomed cabin, flipping the lid and lighting it. He was about to toss it onto the porch when…

"Wait."

He looked back to Mandy, closing the lid on the lighter. She had her usual scowl of strength on, but underneath he could see the heartache that was tearing her apart.

"Mandy, I know you don't want to loose dis place, neither of us do, but it has to go."

Mandy shook her head. "I know that. But it's not as simple as just a place to stay Grim." He looked at her, not quite understanding what she meant by it.

"My mom and dad built this by themselves with their own two hands. This is the last bit I have of them left." She stared sternly up at him as she stepped over. "If anyone's going to put it to an end, it's going to be me."

Now he understood. Had he been in her position he would have probably left it standing despite the risk. He relented, handing over the lighter to her.

Taking it in her hand she sighed as she walked forward towards her parents' last legacy. She flipped open the lid, lighting the vapours within. Mandy took one last look at her mom and dad's place, before she threw the lighter into the fuel on the porch.

The flames took hold instantly, searing the porch and making its way under the door inside. Mandy turned away, walking slowly back to the two behind her. From there she turned back to watch side on as the cabin burned, the flames spreading throughout the bottom level, before climbing up into the top floor. They seared their way into the rooms, drawn in by the volatile fuel spread within and the vapours in the air. At last they made their way into Mandy's mom and dad's room, incinerating the carpet, the bed, into the walls.

Mandy continued to watch while Grim and Billy turned around to get in the car. Billy hopped in the back, Grim taking the drivers seat. Mandy just stood there, watching on as the last link she had to her parents was destroyed in what was to her their funeral pyre.

"Goodbye."

Turning away she walked over to the other side of the car, taking her seat in the front adjacent to Grim. He started the engine and they pulled away, the orange glow of the flames fading slowly into the distance as they came to the end of the dirt path and pulled out onto the road. They drove through the quiet town, turning south onto the road that had bought them in originally. After travelling down it for half an hour they turned east onto the highway bound for Chicago. This time they would make no stops and no detours, driving until they reached their destination.

* * *

Three hours later.

It was somewhere around a quarter past midnight, the border to Washington two or three hundred miles behind them. Billy had long since fallen asleep, resting his head against the seat belt, the whir of the transmission and the tyres providing a droning lullaby. Grim continued to focus solely on the long road ahead, resisting the temptation to fall asleep while his mind flitted back and forth on what lay ahead of them. And somewhere along the endless dark road, Mandy lost herself in the darkness.

For hour after hour she stared vacantly out the window, her head resting against the door pillar, gazing out towards the endless empty highway in front, and into the vast blackness of the land beside them. Nothing intruded on the silence except the ever present droning of the cars tyres and the purr of the engine. Overhead the streetlights flashed by. The orange glow overhead flickered in and out of the car one flash after another. None of this crossed her barren mind as she leaned her head on the door pillar, staring out into the vast abyssal plain beyond.

Mandy was numb.

Right now, for the first time in her life, she felt completely and utterly empty. This was the very thing Grim had warned her about, something few people were ever unlucky enough to feel, but she had stubbornly continued on her path to isolation, leaving her stark and hollow inside. Mandy had never felt this before, and though she didn't think about it, she could feel it deep within her, the dreadful emptiness within that she found herself falling into, eclipsing the rest of the world.

She had lost everything. She had long since broken the bonds with the common people that walked the school halls around her. She had just broken her last bond to her mother and father. And she knew that inevitably she would break the last and closest bond she had, the one she shared with Billy. But that didn't matter now. If he was to go eventually it may as well be that he was already gone. She just kept her gaze on what remained of the outside world, an empty flat plane that stretched on until it was swallowed in the blackness, the ghostly orange glow of the streetlights washing over her one after another in an infinite void where even life itself lost its meaning.

Grim glanced away from the road for a moment, noticing Mandy's condition. He sensed the hollow state she was in. It seemed to hang around her in a choking veil, constructed of all the depression and resentment she herself had cultivated within for her entire life.

"Mandy."

Wearily she turned away from the window to stare at Grim, where he could see just how badly she had been afflicted by her own brooding acrid heart. He had to bring her out of this, if only for a short time. "What do you want most in life?"

Mandy sat there, lowering her gaze to stare straight out ahead. "I don't want anything anymore."

Grim had expected as much, the current unfeeling nature of her mind putting an end to all her hopes and dreams. All her aspirations and driving will turned to dust by the very darkness that had created them. But still he didn't give up. He couldn't give up on her. "Try again. Think, if you could have one thing in dis universe what would it be? What have you always wanted more than anyting?"

She sat there silent for a long time. Slowly, moment by moment her mind began to pick its way pack to its old self out of the self-destructive void it had found itself in. Grim waited, keeping an eye on the road and on the girl. He silently hoped that she would break down and cry, saying she wanted her parents or Billy or to be loved, and not the path she had chosen for herself, so that they could begin piecing her life back together the way it should be. But alas, it was not to be, as Mandy's blank eyes once more took on the hardened scowl and mouldering fire that had forged her into the terrible tyrant and dark overlord she was and would become.

"Power."

"To do what?"

"To control others. To crush the corrupt, to build an empire, and to achieve immortality, so I may dominate the world for all time." She scowled once more as the emptiness was replaced by the fearsome dark power she exuded from every fibre of her being.

Content that he had at least saved her from the void for now Grim returned his attention to the road. Mandy focussed once more on what she symbolised, her ideals, of power, of cold logic and reason, of iron-handed justice, anger, vengeance and merciless cruelty to all those who drowned themselves and others in their own pride and arrogance. She remembered Survival of the Fittest, of freeing herself from compassion, of breaking her chains of attachment to others, of what her friend and part-time mentor Max had taught her.

She laid her head down on the pillar again, going over and over these thoughts until they faded, and of what they were about to do as her eyes fell heavy with fatigue. _'Chicago… Mandark… Future…'_ She fell asleep moments later, Grim still driving along the endless road towards their distant destination.

* * *

**Next chapter... Oh-ho-ho wouldn't you like to know.**


	23. The Portal

**In this chapter we get to know a little bit more about Mandark and how he fits into the decaying state of things. I had fun with this because I have never seen a single actual episode of Dexter's Laboratory in my life. The most I know about it is through fanfics and Wikipedia. It was only a few hours ago that I learned his last name was Astrominov, not Androminov, and I only heard his characteristic nerve grating laugh thanks to a Youtube clip while I was putting the finishing touches on it.**

**Okay this chapter is the end of the 'In-Hiding' arc of the story, and marks the beginning of the 'In-the-Future' arc. I named this chapter after the song The Portal (For whom the Bell Tolls) by Steve Baker and Carmen Daye off Donnie Darko. I think it fits perfectly especially considering the ending.**

**Once again, hope you enjoy! Keep those reviews coming in!**

* * *

**The Portal.**

Grim drove throughout the night into the morning. They stopped for breakfast and fuel in southern Wisconsin, just before they reached the border for Illinois. When they stopped to get out they staggered and lurched, their limbs stiff like wood, congregating in a line beside the car. At the same time they reared back as far as their seized joints would go, a mass of cracks and pops emanating from their spines and other joints. They staggered in, ordered, ate and left to push on south while the sun rose higher and higher into the morning sky.

The highway, once a vast, unending strip of tarmac surrounded by endless darkness, was now a vast, unending strip of tarmac surrounded by trees, farmland and the occasional steel mill and chemical plant. As they crested over the top of a hill they could make out the sprawling metropolis of Chicago in the distance. Billy marvelled at the sheer size of the city, like an immense grey flowerbed stretching out in the distance. Neither the endless suburbs, nor the towering skyscrapers in the centre could be distinguished from one another beneath the fine cloud of smog that blanketed the area. He could make out the massive lake in the distance behind the city, just before they dipped back down from the hill, obscuring the view behind more land and developments.

"Do you think Chicago's gone downhill like Endsville has?" Billy asked as his view of the vast mass of concrete fled.

"I don't know. I guess it would've had to considering the entire county's slowly collapsing, but I don't think it could've been as bad as Endsville. It comes down to the quality of the people living there. Nowhere could be as bad as Endsville" Mandy answered him. "The whole world's heading towards a day of reckoning regardless of whether my plans are realised or not, and Endsville will have to be ground zero for something."

Gradually more and more structures began to pop up on the side of the highway as they drove on. A small airfield, a paper mill, a factory making car parts, a truck depot, a labora…

"There!" Mandy pointed to the wedge shaped white building with 'Dark Systems' on a billboard outside. Grim turned into the driveway, pulling into one of the vacant parking spaces out the front amidst various employee vehicles and light trucks.

Mandy and Grim stepped out, letting Billy climb over from the back into the sunlight, opening the back and handing their backpacks to Grim. They looked on at the building before them, the sun reflecting off the great glass peens lining the front of its three floors. It was just as Mandy remembered it from the photograph in the website, albeit there wasn't as much pollution in the morning sky when the shot was taken. The gleaming white concrete built up into the now common modernist shape gave it an air of looking towards the future; a future filled with miracles, light and joy. It was a ruse though, and an ironic one at that considering that the future its owner and his co-conspirator were working towards was cold and grey and impersonal, a very bleak contrast to the external image.

This particular ploy had been introduced to him by Mandy, who herself had been introduced to it by Max; the skills of manipulation and deception. Mandark had employed them far more successfully than she, who in large cases was preceded by her reputation and her frightening demeanour. But then again, that was where her power lay in.

Grim locked the car, dropping the keys into Mandy's backpack and sealing them both away as she lead the group forwards. Grim hadn't taken up his human form as Mandark had already been told of his existence and status by Mandy. It wouldn't have mattered to him anyway considering what he had seen in his days of abusing science. His staff however…

She pushed the glass doors open so her cohorts could follow her in. The interior was much the same as the exterior; all shiny white walls of sharp design and lots of glass. At the far end of the foyer was an enormous television screen, on which a globe of the world continually rotated slowly in amidst a brilliant view of stars and galaxies behind it, the image reminiscent of the days of SPECTRE from the 007 movies, their world maps symbolic of their mutual desire for world domination. Beneath the enormous television was a curved desk with a computer and other office supplies set up on it, including a secretary dressed in a red suit with bushy red hair sitting at the desk, watching them walking up to her.

As the three neared her she leaned across to pick up an intercom phone.

"Mr Astrominov sir, it appears the guests have arrived, and they've bought Grim."

Mandy listened in slightly surprised by the fact that she would be so at ease with the reaper's presence. She even appeared to be interested in him. Clearly Mandark had told her in advance. What else had he told her about them she wondered? The receptionist lowered the phone and turned to them with a seemingly genuine smile.

"Mr Astrominov will be with you shortly. He has been expecting you." She looked towards Grim with fascination. "So… you are the Grim Reaper?"

Grim and Billy looked at her questioningly before Grim gave a skull smile and bowed slightly. "Yes madam it is I, de one and only. I must say I'm surprised, most mortals just cower and flee at de sight of me."

She smiled. "I was in Townsville, so there's not much I haven't seen before."

"You were in Townsville?" Billy asked.

"Yes. I worked as a secretary there as well. The girls and I, we had some good times back then." At this point her eyes seemed to glaze over, and her smile started to slip. It was clear she was trying to remember the good times solely without being reminded of how it had ended. Perhaps there was another place as bad as Endsville. After a moment she seemed to return. "But that's in the past now. This is the future. I've been instructed to assist you in any way I can. Can I get you anything, coffee, tea, soda?" She asked politely. The woman seemed genuinely eager to assist them. Mandy easily sensed her competence, it was a quality hard to come by nowadays.

They just waved their hands. "No thanks."

The three sat down at the desk as they waited for their host to arrive. And sure enough, within a few seconds, Mandark Astrominov in all his glory marched through the glass doors adjacent to the television screen. He regarded them with a joyful grin.

"Mandy! So glad you could drop by." He reached out and shook her hand.

"It's been a good three years, I suppose I was a little overdue for a check up." She turned to indicate towards the two behind her.

"Alright you've already met Billy," She pointed towards him, who gave a smile and a nod of the head in greeting, "and this-"

"I think I can tell who Grim is." Mandark turned towards the door he had just come through. They followed him through to the first floor work station. Again everything was portrayed in the same ultramodern style as the outside. Around and above them was somewhere around fifty people bustling around computers and desks, working on designing various pieces of technology for use by the company. Above them they could see up into the two floors above through a great square gap in each floor, giving an unobstructed view of the workings of the lab to the media which happened to turn up now and then.

"Now how's everything going? Are you still working towards our goal?" Mandy asked as they passed by a large fish tank filled with exotic glowing fish.

"Well first, you'll notice I started Dark Systems for funding and access to public markets." He indicated around him as they strode further towards the back. "It's all a front of course. These guys only do minor consumer electronics, programming and light work. I do everything important myself down below."

Billy spoke up at this time. "Why do you need all these guys if you do all the good stuff yourself?"

Mandark smirked, glancing across to Mandy. "Again it's all a ploy. It makes it look like a respectable company with an interest in helping the people, building a brighter future and all that crap. If people got a hold of what the true purpose of our organisation is…" He shrugged. "Well how many ways can you kill a person?"

Mandark led them past the legions of scientists and rows of computers and desks, all little more than a façade, to a gleaming steel elevator at the back of the building. He ran his key card through the scanner opening the door. Once they piled inside the tube-like car the door slid shut after them. Inside there were only two buttons, one for up and down. Mandark selected the latter, causing the car to begin its steady descent.

They stood in silence as the lift descended into whatever the lower level of this place was. After around thirty seconds they felt the elevator slowing down as it reached the bottom of its travel.

You'll be happy to hear that I've already gone through a number of prototypes and development phases in the creation of an army. It's almost complete. As of now the first basic trial models are complete…" The elevator stopped and opened out into what appeared to be a massive concrete cavern, filled with machinery and computers, where he alone worked.

"…and are now going into limited production right here." The three newcomers stared around at the sheer dimensions of the drab chamber. Mandark strode out into the laboratory, indicating to the others to follow him. It composed of a curving roof extending twenty metres or so above, with hundreds of pillars extending up to brace it against the weight of everything above. Archways were set into the sides leading off to other areas for different equipment and production phases.

"Only I am allowed down here for simple security reasons. No other personnel have access to the elevator so basically everything I do in here is secret and unknown to the public." They followed him as they passed by a multitude of huge machines and advanced technology, much of it developed and built by Mandark some shipped in by private contractors. That one so young could understand so much, and put it into practice was amazing, at least to someone who hadn't been living with the Grim Reaper. But even still it was an achievement to behold.

Mandy turned to make sure Billy wasn't going to revert back to his old ways and do something stupid. He was peering around the room at the various machines in awe, with his head darting back and forth from one object to another, trying to take it all in.

"Billy, be sure you don't touch anything, or press any big red buttons, or anything like that." She ordered just in case he couldn't help himself. But then again, if he couldn't help himself then she doubted her orders would be of much use regardless.

"Don't worry Mandy. I assure you this facility was designed to be idiot proof. In order to get serious done you need the code to do it. Also I took the liberty of testing it on a friend's sister." He remembered back to Deedee, the girl he once had a crush on. He had invited her down to his new laboratory and told her to go nuts. He shuddered at the memory, at the sheer volume of stupidity she exuded. However his defensive systems had done their job and no losses were had, except a few broken computer screens.

"She destroyed Dexter's lab several times in the past, but mine managed to escape unscathed. So I fail to see how Billy could…" He stopped to consider what he was about to say, noticing Billy get quite close to a large energy cannon. "You know, I think I won't tempt fate."

They continued along down the hall past more machinery. As they passed by an archway into another room to their right, Billy noticed out of the corner of his eye something the rest of the world would find very ominous. He left the group to investigate, standing in the open archway to the enormous hanger-like space.

The others hadn't noticed he was missing until he called out to them.

"Hey." They looked around to see him staring into the room, something unseen to them drawing his attention. "What's this?"

They followed him to the mouth of the great hangar, where Mandy gaped in amazement. The space inside was filled with several rows of high metal gantries, five across, extending towards the back of the space for several hundred metres, and twenty metres high. Each of the metal gantries was divided into three rectangular spaces stacked one on top of the other. Each of the rectangular spaces in the gantries was filled by a robot. Bipedal mechanical soldiers the shape of a man, each with a tall heavily armoured steel body, and a sharp head which housed two slitted optical scanners. They stood seven feet tall on powerful athletic legs. What surprised her was the presence of what looked like metal muscle fibres and other more organic looking components where she'd expected to see hydraulics. Their arms were of a similar sculpted organic design.

The room was filled with hundreds of these powerful grey, lifeless, pitiless machines, all standing ready for activation. All ready to kill on the order of their master.

Mandark grinned as they surveyed the small mechanised legion with fascination. "As I told you the first early versions have gone into limited production in this very lab. These are just the first batch done just a few weeks ago. Mandy, your army is almost ready to begin creation."

Mandy gaped at the glorious sight around her. Every one of these machines would one day serve her as she sent them to destroy all who would defy her will. Even if they were just a stopgap before the completed series it was a testament to the shape of what was to come. As she walked down the hall filled with the machines, she could feel the wheels beginning to turn in the universe. _'It's beginning. I don't believe it, it's already starting. I thought it would take longer for all the pieces to start falling into place, but from this…I'll be in power by the time I'm eighteen.'_

She wandered down towards the other end of the hall with Billy and Grim tailing a short distance behind. The rows of robotic infantry came to an end, and the space was now taken up by several hundred larger machines the size of a car. These were seemingly a cross between the semi-organic soldiers she had passed, and a tank. They had a similar vengeful looking head between two wide set shoulders. Each arm was replaced by a turret mounting what appeared to be the high energy plasma version of a heavy machine gun on swivel mounts. The heavily backwards sloped body stood about eight feet high, with ultra-hard alloy armour on the front and rear, and a heavily armoured wide base with metal and rubber tracks for locomotion. They looked like they were designed primarily for the ground based patrol and sweeping devastation and slaughter role.

Beyond them were the knights of the growing mechanical army, the gunships, gunmetal plated terror birds. She stared up at each one as they towered overhead a good ten metres high, supported on three articulated legs jutting out from the wing roots and tail of the machines. The body resembled a giant armoured insect, sleek with an aerodynamic upper shell with various plasma cannons and missile launchers underneath. The two stubby wings jutting out the sides housed anti-gravity field generators, providing the lift necessary to push it off the ground and manoeuvre, while the flat tail held two smaller diagonal wings to assist with steering and control. The head tapered to an edge under which its slitted optics were protected, aided by two searchlights mounted below. It seemed Mandark had followed the hard and menacing theme into all his work. It appeared to have worked very well, each machine exuding a fearsome aura before they were even turned on.

Mandy continued surveying the legion before her, the terrifying array of weapons and equipment assembled on her will. Mandark gave a wicked smile as she turned around, staring up in awe at the beginnings of her future civilisation.

"One of the things you may find interesting is that these guys, particularly the infantry, aren't actually robots per se." The three looked to him in wonder as they began to walk back the way they'd came. "It's difficult to explain. They have a conventional frame and armour, sensors, and a fuel cell just like any robot, but they have a brain, emotions, they feel the same passion for vengeance as their master does. They also have muscles, a nervous system, they can even heal some damage to their bodies' right down to the frame, but all these organic parts are made out of metal and silicon. This was only possible because I was able to tap into the capabilities of the creatures living in the underworld."

"Wait what are you saying?" Mandy asked.

"They're not robots, they're demons!" That evil little smile on his face grew wider as they neared the archway. "Their organic components are created using underworld technology, then assembled into the finished product. They're cybernetic demons. The patrollers and gunships are machines but even they use underworld derived components." He turned to her with a look that all but proved he was still a slightly crazed evil genius. "Hah-hah-hah! Hah-hah-hah-hah… ahem. They need a more powerful fuel cell than the ones they have but otherwise they're ready. So what do you think? Is it what you had in mind?" He questioned her as the group exited the hangar and turned to walk down further into the underground chasm.

She nodded sternly. "Good. Everything is perfect. An army of a few million of them is exactly what I'm looking for. I think we should move production to the underworld as soon as the final development stages are complete. That way full scale production can commence, and no one will know about it until it's too late." She had been thinking about the problem of how to create the army for awhile now, and had been entertaining the notion of using the vast resources of the underworld. Mandark nodded in approval.

"That would be ideal. It would be too difficult to effectively supply the parts and resources on Earth without arousing suspicion. We'll get started on setting up the new factories as soon as possible."

"One thing's bothering me," Billy spoke up, "what happened with that guy Dexter you were working with?" Mandark paused and swallowed.

"Dexter and I are friends to a point, but he still suspects me. He knows that I've always been up to something, he's just never known what. He wasn't at all happy with helping me when I told him who it was we were working for." He stressed this part as it became clear that the information he had provided them with had not come to him easily.

"Here's the thing though. Dexter's been under heavier and heavier attention from the nationalists. They want to seize his assets and imprison him so he would be forced to design weapons for them. He wants to leave the country, but he can't go anywhere because they're watching him at all hours. I made a deal with him that in return for his help I would help him leave the country for Bolivia while making it look like he died trying to escape. He agreed, so after I help you guys I have to get to work on a plan to free him. I have a little stealth helicopter prepared that we're gonna try and make it across the border in. It should work so long as we can slip through their radar undetected."

He resumed leading the three down the crowded laboratory in a tense silence, past assorted machines and experimental armaments, to show them all what they'd come here to see.

* * *

They continued onwards in silence down into the farthest reaches of the cavernous laboratory. As they neared the end the various arrays of machines began to thin out, until their path came to an end before an enormous computer screen, with a large work bench, and several towering boxes of microchips and cables that Mandark worked at. Though he designed and engineered what they had seen today, it was this lifeless computer and the other automated facilities in the lab that did the actual labour of putting it all together. He turned to the right of the giant console and moved towards a small archway set into the corner of the laboratory, just an empty rectangular concrete opening into another room.

"Why exactly have you three come here Mandy? What would posses you to want to go to this future?" He asked at last. So far he had only been told to trace something that had come through, and that they wanted to go to wherever it came from. As to what came through and why it concerned them so much he did not know.

"That thing we asked you to trace for us? Well it's been trying to kill us for the last month and a bit." She answered bluntly. Mandark's eyes widened dramatically as she explained. "It… killed my parents, and a number of other people, some of them we knew, and we've been in hiding ever since. It is extremely powerful, resilient, and it's survived everything we've thrown at it so far. We need to go back to where it came from so we can find out why it's after us and find a way to destroy it, then come back and kill it." Mandy explained with the discipline of an army officer, though she was still sore about the matter of her parents. Mandark's face twisted, saddened at the loss.

"I'm very sorry for your loss. Don't worry, I can definitely help get you where and when you want to go."

They followed him through the opening in the wall, into another domed room with a ten metre high ceiling, a small control panel off to the right, and at the back on a raised platform was what they assumed to be the portal. It consisted of a large thin ring of metal, with power cables jutting out of each of its segments, connecting to the control panel off to the side, very similar to the one Creeper had designed and to which Mandark had extracted the plans from. The metal itself had a faint shine to it having been meticulously maintained for its important task. Grim, Billy and Mandy stared at it, taking in every feature from the grate that held it off the ground to each of the linked segments that made up its body.

Mandy was wary of the machine, not knowing exactly how well it worked.

"You sure this thing is safe? That we're not going to be torn to atoms when we go through this thing?" She asked Mandark. Billy's eyes opened wide at the concept of utter bodily destruction.

Mandark just smiled, dismissing her concerns with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry. I've tested it and it works perfectly for both time and space transportation. You just walk through the ring, and come out the other side in a bubble of energy." He led them towards the control panel. "Now you said that you were going to come back once you were done gathering information on this thing. You're going to need another time machine to do that so-" Grim cut him off.

"We're gonna use de one dat ting came through in. If it came from the future den there must be another machine where we're going as well. If not we'll figure out anoder way. We'll even build our own portal from scratch if we have to."

Mandark nodded. "I'll be sending you to the approximate location of where whatever it is came from, so the other machine should be near where you come out. But you better be right about that other one. If you get there and it's been dismantled or something you're gonna be there a long time."

"Who cares? The longer we're gone the more time you have to take power yourself." Billy added with a smirk.

"Billy don't say such stupid tings. Mandark would never betray us right?"

"Oh yeah, uh huh, he would." Mandy answered.

"Yes it's true I really would, without a moment's hesitation." He admitted as if it were plain facts. "It's not like I'd kill you or anything, I like you guys. I'd just make it difficult for you every now and then, just to keep you on your toes."

Billy spoke up again at this moment. "Hey just one thing. Is we gonna be naked when we go through this thing like in the movies or something?" He spoke with a little bit of his previous slang shining through. Mandark smirked, chocking on a laugh in response.

"No Billy, those are just movies."

"Can I go through naked anyways?"

The others looked at him, deadpanned.

"What? I likes to feel the breeze on me."

The others looked at him, deadpanned.

The others planted their heads into their hands in despair.

Billy sniggered nastilly as the others deadpanned.

"Okay, why don't we get started?" Mandark suggested as they all turning towards the control panel.

"Now pay attention. First you have to input the coordinates to where you want to go. Type them in first." He showed them as he inputted the latitude and longitude for the destination. He reached over to seize a piece of paper and a pen, writing down another set of coordinates on it, folding it and giving it to Mandy. "Hold onto those and input them in the other machine so it will send you back here." She nodded and took the slip in her pocket.

"Alright, after the coordinates you input how far forwards or backwards you want to go. It's not like inputting a date to arrive at, you actually have to put in how many years you want to go through." He typed more numbers in on the panel. "Remember these, and input them in negative form to go back the exact amount of time you went forwards. This also helps you to adapt to the jumps. If you left here and were in the future for five days, you would arrive back here five days after you left, so it won't lead to confusion and everything being out of sync." They looked at the number, carefully taking note of how long they were going forwards.

"And finally once all that's done, and assuming you have power…" He lifted up the little plastic cover to a big red button and pushed it, causing the ring to erupt to life in an enormous green vortex of energy, traversing space and time. They stared silently at the technological miracle, seeing the doorway to their destination open up before them, oddly unimpressed having seen it all so many times before.

"So are we clear on exactly what you have to do?" Mandark asked them one last time before they disembarked. The nodded their heads.

"You've done well Mandark." Mandy spoke, extending her arm to shake his hand respectfully. "Thank you, for everything."

"No need. It was my pleasure, now as ever."

Having subtly thanked her accomplice they ascended the gantry towards the swirling green vortex of energy. Mandark stepped back, folding his arms as he watched.

Grim and Billy continued to stare at the portal a mere foot away. Mandy turned back to face Mandark, who nodded on her direction.

"Good luck."

She scowled in response. "Thanks, but you know I don't believe in luck."

With that said they stepped through the event horizon, out of their world, into...

* * *

She never would've thought that it would end this way.

'_I'm so cold.'_

Empress Mandy of the Night was numb. She had been living an accursed half life for so many hundreds of years now. Her entire reason for living, all the power and control she once thirsted for, the desire to bring darkness and misery to all mankind, had long since faded into oblivion. In its place was left a soulless empty void of absolutely nothing.

'_I'm so tired.'_

In the beginning, shortly after her takeover was complete, she was euphoric. Finally she was god. Every living person on the battered and ruined world left in the wake of her takeover lived in fear of her day in and day out. They did only what she let her do. There was no crime, no lies, no arrogant bigotry, only iron-handed order. But it hadn't lasted. Before long the memories of one particular event in her life, one particular decision made so long ago, began to eat away at her.

Slowly, as the centuries past, she began to feel the emptiness growing inside her. The brooding anger and hatred that had kept her going for so long failed. Her heart became cancerous, her entire life and soul slowly beginning to implode on itself as the years passed.

She felt the growing sense of being completely alone eating away at her at every moment. Try as she might, she could not hold onto her former strength and anger and desire for control that had made her great. Now all she had was an empty stare, her soul having long since died from the emptiness inside. Now she was numb, forever condemned to sink into the cold pit of darkness she herself had created.

Mandy closed her eyes, apathetic of the vast city that stretched out before her. It was a dying dystopia, just like her.

Though her body had been permanently frozen at twenty years of age, in reality she had felt every one of the days, weeks, months and years that she had gone through alone. She was so very old, and tired, and her body was finally starting to react. Her immortality was now coming to an end from the sheer loss of will to live.

Her deserted mind had started a countdown. At the end of it, she would cease to exist, destroyed by nothing more than her own personal choices in life. She knew it, and she knew she could stop it on a whim. And she knew that she didn't care anymore. There was no longer any point in her going on living anymore.

Opening her onyx eyes once more she cast her gaze out the window of her citadel looking out over the world's last remaining city. All her life she had watched over that same view, when it first grew up in the aftermath of the war, through its golden age, and through the long sliding downfall to the state of decay it was left in now. She cast her gaze from the dying city below her, to the long dead one opposite on the other side of the mountains. Down there, in the remains of Endsville, was where she truly belonged. She was just as hollow and dead inside as it was, and inevitably she would join them all in silent oblivion.

She didn't care.

She was numb.

She was forever haunted by what she did.

* * *

_**"Have you ever seen a portal?"**_

**Next time, the beginning of the future arc. Mandy comes face to face with the disturbing reality of her future world. Getting very very dark now.**


	24. A Strange and Disturbing New World

**Here we are again at the beginning of a new story arc. From here on out over the next few chapters the story starts to go to some very dark and graphic places where the characters will be twisted and stretched right to the breaking point. Get ready cause we're taking a step into the mouth of a black hole right...**

**About...**

**Now.**

* * *

**A Strange and Disturbing New World.**

The year 3198.

Somewhere deep underground, in the ruins of the former city of Endsville, lay a cavernous complex of titanic concrete halls.

Each of the spaces within connected directly to a single great hall, its roof suspended high above the floor on hundreds of massive concrete pillars. This main chamber led to the surface via a single elevator tunnel, which came out directly overhead into a small, drab concrete building on the surface.

Inside the countless rooms and empty spaces of this lifeless tomb of human spirit, nothing stirred. Indeed nothing had stirred for many years, not a single current of air or glimmer of light having occurred within its walls since it was sealed for the last time, and even before then it had become mostly abandoned. Thus over the countless centuries of its existence it's once bustling heart of technological miracles and horrors had long since faded away to nothing. Now all that was left was silence, its vast pillars left standing alone and forgotten in the blackness.

This lack of light and movement that had permeated its existence for the past four years came to an abrupt end in an instant. Out of the silence within one room at the end of the cavern came the faint buzzing sound and ghostly blue glow of electrical discharges. In the middle of the room a multitude of small arcs of electricity began to surge from a point just above the ground. The discharges snaked their way to the floor and into the surrounding air, heating it and causing the first air currents to swirl around the room in ages.

The bursts of electricity rapidly grew stronger, forming a small electrical storm in the centre of the room. The point of ground directly underneath the growing miasma was seared by the extreme heat being generated. As the surge continued to grow in intensity a small circle of the concrete floor began to turn to a fine ash. In the centre of the electron storm a ball was forming from outside the physical dimension it was entering into. This perfect sphere of ancient energy expanded outwards, the heat of its surface vaporizing the concrete to particles upon contact with the growing orb.

After its short period of growth it settled down into a state of semi-solid energy, an infinitely hard ball surrounded by the last fading arcs of lightning, and the quickly cooling crater burned into the concrete floor. The orb stayed perfectly still, having been designed to let whatever surface it had heated on contact to cool enough for living beings to safely come into contact with.

Thirty seconds after the silence of the cavernous space was broken, the energy shell that had served as a time travel bus dissipated and vanished. In its place stood Grim, Billy and Mandy, precariously keeping their balance on the curved nest burned into the floor.

Neither of the three spoke as they simply regarded what had met them the instant they had stepped through the vortex. At first they saw only total blackness. The only indication that they were all together was the sound of their collective breathing and the swaying of their clothes.

They each held their breaths, watching and listening and waiting for anything. Of all the strange worlds and dimensions they had ever encountered throughout their grim adventures, nothing quite constricted their breath in their lungs as this, some place just below their old home town where they couldn't even see their hands in front of their faces.

Grim raised his scythe. "Hang on a sec." Channeling its energy up the shaft into the blade he made the scythe glow a brilliant blinding white.

They squinted, getting used to the sudden flood of light that assaulted their eyes. After a moment they adjusted to it and had their first glimpse of the future. The scythe's blade illuminated the cold grey walls around them in all their tired and drained misery. From what they saw it looked very much like the room they had just left, with a domed concrete roof and a flat floor. Every surface was run down, weathered simply by the ravages of time.

They scanned to the right slightly, their eyes falling on a doorway with a metal blast door. The thick sliding panels of the door were recessed back into the walls around them, giving the appearance that whoever had last left through them simply hadn't bothered to close them, as if there was no reason to do so. The metal showed the age well, having been covered in a thin film of corrosion, with some kind of grime or moss growing on parts of it and the surrounding walls.

Billy gazed upon the decaying walls and door with an uneasy sense of apprehension. "Well this looks hopeful." It appeared Mandy's sense of sarcasm had rubbed off on him.

Mandy continued to scan around to her right, noting the same weathered walls around them. As she turned around, her eyes widening at what she had noticed was behind them to the left.

"Looks like we've found our ticket home." She commented. Billy and Grim followed her gaze, seeing that they had come out right in front of the other time machine. What's more, it was virtually identical to the one they had come through. They looked over the metal segments in the thin ring, noticing that they were unlike everything else all in relatively good order.

She looked to the right of the machine, seeing a control panel set near the wall. Assuming leadership once more she stepped out of the crater followed by Billy and Grim and made their way over to the control panel. It too appeared to be in good shape. However when Mandy went to touch the surface, her finger tore away a thick layer of dust that had built up on its surface over the years. Though it was in good shape, it too had gone years without use.

As she brushed away the layer of dust she scanned over the relatively simple controls. They too were the same as Mandark's, which helped them all the more for the return trip. Reaching for the back pocket of her bike shorts she took out the slip of folded paper. Going over the coordinated written downs she reached for the control panel and began typing in numbers.

"Don't ya think we should be doing this once we're ready to go back?" Billy asked as she finished inputting the codes for the location.

"We don't know how long we're gonna be here for." She answered as she thought back to how long they had come forwards, then began typing the second part of the equation in negative numbers for going in reverse as Mandark had said. "Best to put the numbers in now and leave them than come back a week later and find out we lost them. If something happens and we lose the coordinates then we could arrive anywhere. That and we never wrote down how many years we were supposed to go back. Even I forget sometimes." She finished inputting the codes. Moving her hand to the plastic shroud she lifted it up, resting her finger directly above the red button.

"But not that often." She corrected sternly, closing the shroud. With one last look towards the inert portal that would take them back they turned and walked out through the rusted out old doors.

As they emerged into the main chamber they quickly found Grim's scythe wasn't providing anywhere near adequate light. They could see part of an ancient flat concrete wall behind them, and a small expanse of floor, but the roof was so high the light never reached it. Mandy summoned her scythe to her hands, lighting the blade to shed more light out into the decaying monument they found themselves in.

Under the combined light of the two scythes they could finally make out just how truly massive the place they found themselves in really was. The light barely managed to reflect off the curved ceiling over three hundred meters above them, stretching out into the distance. The sheer vertical face behind them served as the end of the chamber, towering over them like a cliff face. Ahead of them stood a pair of titanic pillars rising up to hold the roof, each fifty meters wide, with another pair behind them just visible on the edge of the area lit by the scythes finally disappearing into the inky blackness at the end of the light.

Craning their heads skyward they gawked stupidly. For once neither of them could find anything smart to say. Turning back down with a few cracking vertebrae the trio walked out into the vast empty void between the pillars on either side, staring out into the darkness ahead. They could hear every step they took in the total silence of the abandoned place. The sense of being alone beneath the towering walls and columns around them to be somewhat unnerving, making them all feel so very small. Billy and Mandy vaguely remembered the feeling from somewhere, it took them a moment to remember where. It was similar to what they'd felt when they had taken a walk in the worst part of Endsville, to see where an old friend of theirs had lived. Looking back from where they were now it was difficult to imagine that they had once lived simple suburban lives. Only two months gone, and the memories already seemed vague.

They continued to walk down between the epically wide columns as the doorway and the rear of the cavern slowly vanished behind them. With their only reference gone they soon lost track of how far they had come as they strode out further into the seemingly endless chasm, while their scythes cast out their white light like a beacon, lighting what little they could see of the immense hall in a strange and eerie blue glow.

The three walked in silence through the decaying monument for an hour. Every pillar took an eternity to pass, and every one that faded into the darkness behind them was replaced by another before them.

"Where are we?" Mandy spoke up at last.

"I suppose it would have to be some kind of laboratory, like de one Mandark had, just on a much larger scale." Grim answered. "Though I think it's been awhile since dis place has seen anyone. I'd say that sending dat guy back to kill us was probably the last ting dat's ever happened here, and it would have probably been fading away long before dat."

As they continued to scan out into the gloom ahead of them Billy's eye caught on a deformity off to the far left. He looked over, followed by Grim and Mandy, to find another doorway much like the one leading from the time machine room to this place. They stopped to look, noticing that it too was left open, and had been decaying much like everything else in this place. Inside they saw something glimmer in the faint light.

Distracted they turned to walk towards the door. As they approached they noticed the bulkhead and its recess was actually much more rusted and decayed than the previous one, having been disused for many years more. The rust and grime was far worse here, having eaten into the metal's surface.

Carefully Mandy approached the doorway, walking through and emerging into another wide hangar-like room. The ceiling was high and it stretched out into the shadow but it seemed to be much smaller than the hall they had just come from. The faint glimmering objects lay just ahead. She continued in towards its centre, and out of the shadows shapes began to form. Before long she began to recognize the nearest one as looking vaguely human. As she tentatively edged towards it she realized that it definitely wasn't human, but a machine, standing a good six feet tall, with an armored body, head and limbs. In its right hand it held what appeared to be some form of heavy plasma rifle with a wide bore. She scanned the thing from head to foot before noticing others like it standing idly next to it. They all had the same malicious features, indicating they were the same model, and all were showing their age.

As Mandy followed by Grim and Billy worked her way down the row of machines, she encountered others, from small surveillance drones sitting on platforms to massive tank-like machines mounting plasma cannons on a turret above their body. Each machine had an aggressive edge to their design, and each of them showed their age in corrosion and broken pieces.

As they worked further back she began to notice the machines were changing. Whereas the previous specimens had been mindless robotic zombies guided by simple programming, the ones they were encountering now were far more lifelike, showing more curving and organic structures, and were far sleeker and more athletic, boasting what looked to be muscles instead of hydraulic rams. These more advanced machines, if the word could be used properly to describe these things, also showed far more extensive decay then the others, some of which were falling apart at the seams.

Towards the end her eye caught on some kind of huge machine that had apparently collapsed under its own weight. Though the two metal projections on either side had broken off, the metal twisted and rusted through at the stumps, she could make out the shape of a gunship. Behind it were the wrecks of small tracked tanks and behind them were the last remaining pieces of the very first robotic soldiers.

Mandy stepped back, covering a gasp with her hands. They were the exact same ones she had seen in Mandark's laboratory. These were _her_ machines.

'_I did it! I rule the world now! All my ambitions and plans have come true! My perfect world, my civilization, my order, it's all real!'_ Gasping and reeling for breath she staggered back in shock. Turning to see the others Mandy saw they had each recognized the three machines from before, and had come to understand their meaning. Grim stared at her with his mouth hanging open while Billy gazed to and fro between her and the ancient army before he smiled awkwardly.

"Looks like you eventually win Mandy." Billy congratulated her, settling down to a more relaxed smirk. She found this surprising considering as far as she had known he had always been so bright and happy, always optimistic about people and the ways of the world around him, not like the dark and ruthless tyrant she was. But then he was always happy for her to succeed, no matter what it entailed. To him she was all that mattered, not the rest of the world, not the people living in fear of her, not even himself.

* * *

Once the three had made their way back to the enormous chamber they opted to cut short their long trek by mounting their scythes and cruising the rest of the way at an easy pace, Billy on the back of Grim's while Mandy rode her own. Even at their quickened pace the pillars either side of them still seemed to inch past at a snail's pace as they glided towards the other end and, hopefully, an exit. As they cruised Mandy's mind wandered and she began to think about the condition the place had been left in.

'_Considering how big this place is it shouldn't be that hard to just maintain it. If I have the resources to build it, logically I would have enough to keep it going.'_ She mulled to herself._ 'This place has been abandoned for some reason. But why would I let something like this just crumble away?'_

One thing Mandy was mildly opposed to was the concept of waste, more as part of her perfectionist streak than anything but opposed to nonetheless. So far as she reasoned everything that had ever been created had been done so out of someone's labour and expense. And everything that went to waste took someone's hard work to oblivion with it. In her future society she would run a tight ship, where waste was to be kept to a minimum so as to help foster growth and minimize the draw on natural resources. The complex they were in now represented an enormous investment in time, effort and resources. Why then was it allowed to fall into disrepair? She frowned.

'_This isn't right. This isn't how it's supposed to be.'_

On top of that there was the strange backwards development she had seen in the decaying museum of her military from days past. Why were the later models so lifeless and robotic when the originals and those to come shortly thereafter had been so demonically motivated and athletic? Why was she using those hulking old machines instead of the cyborg ninja supersoldiers she had envisaged striking terror and admiration in the minds of her enemies and allies respectively? How were they supposed to execute her will with lightning efficiency when they looked like they couldn't even move at running speed?

She continued to think about this as they continued on in silence. Eventually, after another half hour of gliding just above the ground, they began to make out another giant flat surface marking the beginning of the chamber. In the centre directly in front of them was another door. As they neared it though, disembarking and shining their lights on its rusting surface, they noticed it was closed.

"I guess dis is de exit." Grim established as they stepped up to the door, letting the light from their scythes dim slightly.

They scanned over its surface. They could find no control panels to open and close it, and no motion detectors. There weren't any hand holds to pull the doors apart either. Grim stepped forward and knocked on the steel door. There was no response either in voice or action of any kind.

"Don't worry, I have a key." Mandy said. She turned out the light of her scythe, leveling it at the door in question. Grim and Billy stepped back ready for the imminent blast. She began to power up the scythe to attack.

"_Beep!"_ The door chirped and immediately slid open on grating rollers.

She stared questioningly at the open doorway with her scythe still leveled ready to fire. She relaxed the charge on her weapon, letting it sink back down to a stable form once more while the others joined her in wonder.

"What was that?" Mandy asked.

"Maybe because you rule now and it's your place the scythe is like a key, just like you said, only literally." Billy suggested.

They continued through the door to the short corridor beyond, leaving the door open behind them. Ahead of them stood another door. This time Grim leveled his scythe, charging it up to open it. He kept it glowing with a powerful green aura, ready to blast it to pieces, while the door stood silently.

He lowered his, letting it go back to glowing like a white flare when it became clear there would be no response. Mandy just walked forwards, bringing a small charge into the blade of her angular scythe while holding it at her side. Again the door beeped and slid open, exposing an elevator car, confirming Billy's idea.

They carefully looked over the car. Inside the steel walls curved around in a cylinder, and though it was probably old, it looked to be in relatively good order. Cautiously they stepped into the lift, contented by the way it didn't shake or bounce when they added weight to it, indicating that it was at least strong enough to hold them.

On the inside they again noticed just two buttons, one with an up arrow, the other a down arrow. Grim pressed the up button, causing the car to jolt, and the sound of machinery coming to life for the first time in years to reverberate around inside. The heavy steel door closed, and a moment later they felt gravity grow stronger as they began to move upwards towards the surface. Once locked inside and moving Mandy began to fidget with her feet, eyeing the ceiling apprehensively while thinking. Billy shared her apprehension while Grim noticed.

"You remember how Mandark said the thing came from Endsville?" Mandy spoke up, Grim and Billy nodding. "I wonder what... what's up there now? What's happened after all this time?" They all contemplated this silently as the car continues upwards.

* * *

It took about two minutes for the car to come to a stop at the top of its run. Moments later the doors opened again, giving them their first glimpse of the future of their world.

It was dark, and cold. A faint light drifting in from somewhere managed to just barely light the world before them in a harsh blue glow. Through the open door they saw the elevator had opened out into some kind of stark concrete building. Not a sound or glimmer of movement greeted them, the empty grey structure having been long since deserted.

Grim cautiously led the way, his scythe at his side as they exited the elevator, the door closing behind them. They scanned around the small building warily. The building appeared to be built much like a pillbox with thick reinforced walls and curving edges. Their feet left faint impressions in the dust across the bare slab floor. Though a faint light could be seen coming in through the small windows around the exterior, casting shafts of light through the dust in the air, it was difficult to tell if it was day or night.

As they moved around the bitter cold pressed itself upon them. Right now the children's breaths were drawing fog, and Mandy had to wrap her arms around her elbows to keep her skin warm. In the twilight they could make out the individual rooms, small office compartments, and they could barely see out the small windows. They were open with any glass that was once there long gone. All they could see through them was grey, lost in the glaring light from outside even though it was still dark.

The air smelt stale and was filled with fine dust. There was a faint movement in the air from outside, slow moving currents that cycled it along too slow for humans to feel, but even then the air still felt old and dry and worn out.

Slowly they managed to find their way towards the exit. Again it was an armored steel door designed to resist attack set into the surrounding wall. Mandy charged her scythe, making it slide open to reveal...

'_What is this place?'_ They all thought at the hideously bleak sight that beheld them.

The building they had just exited may have been very slowly falling to pieces, but it was by far the best building in Endsville.

This however was an easy accomplishment, because it was the only building in Endsville left standing.

Grim, Billy and Mandy gaped in stunned silence. The ground stretching out before them was parched and grey, little more than weather-beaten rock dust, never able to hold any form of life again. Stepping out they gazed about the remains of their old home town. Sitting atop the ground were the last remaining ruins of countless homes and structures. As they walked out into the street they could see that every house was practically reduced to little more than their foundations and parts of their outer walls. Twisted cables of rusted metal reinforcing, most little more than stumps by now, jutted out in places from the remains of concrete slabs and walls. Few structures within their field of view were anywhere near recognizable, most having been weathered away to little more than piles of rubble atop the dead earth.

In the distance, towards what was once downtown, they could make out the remaining lower floors of once giant skyscrapers and apartment blocks, many now reduced to towering piles of rubble, with the empty foundations of long since deserted factories in the distance opposite. That put them somewhere in the south-west of the city.

The deathly picture was completed though when they looked up at the sky. Where once it had been a bright blue with white clouds and the sun shining away, now it was the colour of a television screen that had been turned off. There was a thick layer of dark cloud chocking the earth, driving the amount of heat received down to abysmal amounts. In the scarce light that managed to slip through they could make out pail streaks of browns, greens and oranges, the end result of a final war and the thousand years of industrial toil and grime that followed, punishment for the depravity that they had allowed to take over the human race.

They continued to gape in silence at what had happened to their world. Though the young tyrant had intended for this for so long, to grind people into the dust under a sky that never showed day, to see it with their own eyes was more than they could take, simply overwhelming. Even Mandy herself, who had come to see the value in beauty along with dark and oppressive environments over their time in hiding, was deeply unnerved at what she saw.

"Well…" Grim spoke up at last. "Let's get going shall we?"

They began to walk down the cracked and broken streets, past the ancient wrecks of cars and trucks long rusted down to little more than their frames. The tarmac underfoot was little more than broken patches connected by the grey dust and would've been difficult to distinguish if not for the remains of houses on either side. The remains of the town were deserted, with not the slightest trace of life anywhere. Not even a single dead tree could inhabit the dry grey dust and rock that had replaced the soil. The air smelled like ash and sulfur, and the bitter cold sent a shiver to their cores under the chocking thick blanket of clouds, though with absolutely no moisture left in the air their breaths ceased to draw fog.

Looking left and right at the post-apocalyptic landscape Billy couldn't believe what he was seeing, or even understand how it had gotten to be so bad. _'When the Martian reaper attacked he pretty much destroyed Endsville, but it recovered soon after. And every time it was destroyed after that it was always rebuilt like nothing had ever happened. But by the looks of things this has all happened long ago, and the place has been left to rot ever since. What could have done all this so that it never recovered?'_

As they continued through the shattered remains they noticed one large heap of rubble up ahead that looked vaguely familiar. It was the base of a large brick building, and though everything above shoulder level was already gone, they could make out the dimensions as well as the presence of where rooms had once existed. Mandy was the first to realize where they had seen it before.

"This is the school." She spoke in a daze. Billy shook his head half in disbelief. How much of their lives had they spent here? A thousand memories occurred to him, sitting at the lunch table with Mandy, Junior and their other limited circle of friends, the school sociopaths, narcissists, bigots, perverts, their old dead teacher Miss Butterbean and the half dozen drunks and crack addicts that replaced her. All of a sudden the sight of the destroyed cesspool with all its depraved inhabitants blown to oblivion bought an odd feeling of satisfaction. He smirked at the cruel sense of justice dealt upon it; that the place had finally gone to hell where it belonged, along with everything else in the horrible town. Then again, Endsville always was a depraved hellhole, and it had received its judgment as a result. He frowned again a he remembered his previous question?

"How did this happen? Endsville's been destroyed heaps of times and it always comes back. How did it get to be like this?"

"Endsville's a tough cancer that keeps regrowing, but it's the people that live there that are responsible. To destroy Endsville you have to destroy the people, and not just so they're dead, but so they're not even people anymore when they die." Mandy answered as she turned away from the wreckage. "You have to turn them against each other before you destroy them. Once they break their humanity you don't even need to do anything more, they'll just keep killing until there's no one left to kill."

"How do you do that?"

"I don't know." She replied. "When you turn the heat up on a person they are forced to reveal what they're really like underneath, whether they're noble or corrupt. You just have to find a way to turn up the heat."

Leaving the ancient ruin they then followed the road down a path they both knew very well. They had come to and from school and home down this route hundreds of times, and even in the state of total ruin it was in now they found their way with ease. As they neared where their homes used to be they began to recognize the individual houses. Each and every one of them they could trace back to their old lives, before they left.

They passed Billy's house first, or rather what was left of the foundations. Billy's house was made predominantly of wood, and thus time hadn't been easy on it, having quickly been eaten away in the following few years after whatever it was that happened to this town. With so little left they spared it little more than a secondary glance as they continued on just across the street.

Finally they reached Mandy's house. Mandy's had survived better than everything else due to its hardened box-like construction and thick concrete walls. Even the top floor outer wall of her room was still intact. Still, more than a thousand years of darkness, wind and rain had taken a heavy toll. The entire top floor and roof appeared to have caved in from inside, and the remains of the once plaster white concrete walls outside were brown and grey, striped of their pristine surface, with pieces slowly cracking and crumbling away from the centuries. The lawn outside was the same pulverized rock dust as the rest of the earth.

Mandy stared at her house. She was unable to shift her gaze from what had been her home all her life. And now, as she looked at it, all she could remember was that night, when she came home through that door, and saw with her own eyes her parent's lying on the floor dead. She froze as she remembered her mother's empty stare back from her place on the floor. Her parents, her family, were dead, and she saw them dead. Her chest began to tighten uncomfortably and Billy and Grim noticed her breathing become erratic and laboured.

She turned away, unable to look anymore. Billy was quick to take his place by her side shielding her from the view and all the painful memories it bought with it. They both sensed her distress, and rather than dwelling on it they all just quietly moved on, away from the haunting house.

* * *

Slowly they began to leave the carnage behind as they scaled a steep rocky hill on the outskirts of the town, the incline marking the beginning of the mountain range that divided the city from the desert they had crossed on their first night after leaving. It had been three hours since they had emerged and they hadn't seen a single source of life anywhere. The going was difficult as they climbed, following a perilously steep path set into the side of the rise lined with razor sharp rocks that threatened to cut their palms to ribbons if they planted a hand down awkwardly. The entire mountain range seemed to be made of this grey slate, rising higher and higher above them in one peak after another. Their trek was made all the more challenging as a result of the poor state of the air they breathed, full of fine grey dust, near freezing cold and with less oxygen than they had previously been accustomed to.

Finally as they reached a small plateau set into the side of the rock they cast their gaze down to the remains of the city below. From here they could clearly see the true state of Endsville as a whole, as well as begin to get a better idea of what had happened to the city. Throughout most of the city the buildings were almost totally destroyed, with little left standing above the first two floors. Further out though, closer to the manufacturing and factory side in the southern and eastern parts of town, there was an area where everything was leveled. Within the heart of the area there was a circular patch of town where nothing had survived, an enormous crater burned into the ground from some ancient cataclysm. Something had wiped out everything in that part of town, and then heavily damaged everything else. Only a nuclear weapon could do that.

Or perhaps a certain girl's demonic red scythe.

Mandy looked to the sky again. She realized that regardless of the cause of the explosion that finally sealed Endsville's fate, the destruction of the blue sky above and the toxic Venusian atmosphere that replaced it could have only been the result of a nuclear war. The ash and dust blasted into the upper atmosphere by the countless megatons and the ensuing worldwide firestorms throughout the war had blocked out the sun. Circling on the air currents in the upper atmosphere high above the clouds and rain the finer particles of radioactive dust remained in the air for centuries, even as the heavier particles settled to earth as fallout and continued to slowly decay. This had never been fully alleviated, and over time the original aerosols from the bombs had been added to by pollution from her empire's massive industrial complex, choking the lower atmosphere in the dense blanket of cloud that now blocked out the sun's light. The laboratory had been created amongst the remains some time after the war, after Endsville had been destroyed, when her new ideal civilisation was being forged.

Satisfied now that she understood the fate of their old city, she turned and looked up towards the inhospitable mountain range that now confronted them. High above they noticed what appeared to be a faint orange-blue glow coming from the other side of the range reflected off the clouds overhead, along with a strange cluster of lights dotting the surface of one of the higher mountain peaks. If there were people anywhere, then it would probably be there.

"Grim get on your scythe. We'll ride the rest of the way." She ordered, summoning Judgement to her hand once more.

Grim nodded, mounting his again with Billy on the back as she hoped on hers, the ruby and onyx staff melting slightly to accommodate her though she still wished it had been made with a real seat at that moment. They kicked off again, using the scythes' power to push them off the ground and speed upwards across the sharp rocky steeps, towards their distant destination.

* * *

Back in the ruins of Endsville, a lone sentinel watched them speed off into the distance. Standing on a pair of metal tracks the armoured machine's slitted red optical sensors gazed up at their position from its place several kilometres away across the outside of the city limits, its twin light plasma cannons tracking them as they moved.

It had been slowly patrolling the perimeter of the exclusion zone around Endsville for months now without any sight of life, until now.

Zooming in on the moving targets in the distance it analyzed one of the perpetrators, the larger one consisting of a human skeleton and black robe. It identified the target as the legendary Grim Reaper. The other two appeared to be mere children, a boy and a girl. All three were performing an illegal activity in being within the limits of the exclusion zone. That however was largely inconsequential. Of greater significance was the fact the reaper and the children appeared to be riding scythes, powerful supernatural weapons, a pair of them. The possession of such destructive power by anyone outside of the Empress' jurisdiction constituted a grave danger to her authority and the stability of her society as a whole.

Normally it would have fired on them then and there but this situation was well beyond its ability to handle on its own, in addition to them already being well out of range. They would need to be detained, and would require interrogation into their activities.

Saving the details of their current position and course to its hard drive it uploaded the data on the subjects, their activities and their current heading towards the city. With the information of their visit stored within the mainframe, all the machines and security personnel knew of their presence, and it was left to return to its duty of patrolling the exclusion zone with its scattered kin. Now the security forces need only wait for their arrival.

* * *

**Are we feeling a little on edge yet? You should be. You're about to find out why I upgraded this to an M rating.**

**Next time, Mandy's life becomes a living nightmare.**


	25. Torture

**I Had to do a lot of research in geology for this, describing all the terrain and all that. Most of the machines in this, robot soldiers, gunships, tracked patrollers, sentry drones, are all based largely off Terminator and Killzone, with a bit of the show's demonic supernatural shit thrown into the mix. Voila! Cyborg-Ninja-Demons!**

**Before anyone reads this I think I should give you all fair warning. This chapter is not something you wanna go reading before bed. It's violent and bloody and horrible and promises to upset stomachs just a bit. There is a definite reason for what happens at the end of it though as it is a plot point in itself, and I assure you none of what happens to any of the characters is permanent, though it does drastically turn everything upside down for a while.**

**Well, take a deep breath. Hope you... enjoy... sort of...**

* * *

**Torture.**

Grim led the way up the mountain range with Mandy tailing off to the side a step behind. Though the dead rock they glided over was new to them, they had been to these mountains before. Previously these hills had been covered in trees and shrubs and other vegetation, an almost untainted natural retreat from the depravity of the streets below. It was around here years ago that they found the abandoned mine shaft they were lured to when they went in search of the 'Secret of the Universe', revealed by the 'Secret Decoder Ring' on the back of a cereal box. It appeared the terrain had changed somewhat since then, the constant darkness replacing the fertile soil with bare rock. Wether it was herself or others that were responsible they did not know.

The icy cold air and dust rushing past attacked their skin, making them feel like they were slowly freezing from the outside. Around them they could see what looked like a thin coating of ice or frost on the rock the higher up the rocky range they got. They could see tiny particles of dirty ice slowly floating in the air around them, the only moisture present in the environment trapped within the tiny ice crystals. They streaked towards their faces as they sped through the bitterly cold air.

Gradually they began to work out from the growing light that it was sometime in the morning. From time to time a small gap in the heavy clouds would open up to give them a view of the layers higher up. Through the gaps the light shone through in different shades of dull and bright orange with the amount of dust and oxides high in the stratosphere above. Though the masses of pollution lowered the temperature, it did serve to block out some of the radiation that would previously have been blocked by the now non-existent ozone layer. Yet despite the daylight conditions high above, it was still almost as dark as night at ground level.

At the shallow angle they were ascending they found the glow of whatever lay on the other side of the range obscured by the peaks ahead of them. But they knew it was there. They didn't know what it was, but instinct told them it was civilisation, to go towards it like a moth to a flame. So with that single purpose in their minds they just continued winding up along the numerous mountains, each higher and more inhospitable than the previous.

As they wound their way up through the giant canyons and valleys between the deserted mountains a new sight came into view.

The three stopped as they rounded another mountain face to gaze up to the highest peak of the extensive range, and soon realised what they were looking at was no mountain. Rising high above the other peaks along the spine of the sparse ridge stood an awe inspiring monolith of slab-sided weathered concrete and steel. It was a titanic ziggurat, stark and imposing, with walls that could never be broken down, everything Mandy had imagined it to be. The colossal square based pyramidal structure stood so high it forced the clouds to part around its flat top. It towered menacingly over the surrounding wasteland, casting its cold gaze over the ruined world below.

It was this structure they had seen dotted with lights. They had been the small windows piercing the structures massive outer walls, and the spotlights atop the flat peak high above, to glare down on all who were unfortunate enough to dwell below. Mandy gazed up in open awe at the dark, foreboding structure towering ominously over the landscape. It was every bit the embodiment of everything she had ever sought for or believed in. Looking up at the titanic vision of power it became clear that somewhere in there another Mandy sat on her hard throne, looking down upon her lowly subjects with...

'_What exactly am I like in this future?'_

"Hey Grim, looks like you gots your bleak and depressing future." Billy commented light-heartedly on the dehumanised situation they found themselves in. He nodded in agreement.

"Feels like home t'me, but I for one suggest we steer clear of dat ting. Hell only knows what'll happen to us if…" The three froze as a sudden, unnerving, unwelcome thought occurred to them, "... if we get caught."

They pushed the offending notion from their heads, there was no time to be distracted by off topic subjects. Turning around they changed directing, riding back the other way to curve around the right side of the barren rocky mountain face they were caught against, that way they would be shielded from view if anyone or anything happened to be looking down from the fortress. They couldn't risk getting captured and being bought before any cold-hearted lieutenant, even if this was their future. They had their own job to tend to.

X

Cruising down in the secluded ravines between the rock faces the geology they came across became even stranger. The rock appeared to form coarse lumps and knolls instead of the bare slate elsewhere, twisting around itself into claws and spines in almost complete defiance to the forces that had weathered the rest of the range into a series of sharp ridges and faces. Entering into a small plateau they were astonished to find it studded with gardens of stunning violet crystals. They stared around them in awe. Some of them grew like flowers in beds along the dead rock, while others rising up in clusters from below stood above the level of their heads.

Never in their lives had they imagined they would find something so beautiful in such a lifeless place. And yet somehow it was sad.

"Dese crystals are supernatural relics. Dey are sacred in de underworld." Grim spoke with a sombre note as they cruised slowly through. "Dese crystals are the last remains left behind of innocent souls who were killed wrongly, who knew it was time to go, but wanted out of the goodness of deir hearts to leave something good behind for dose still living. It takes a thousand souls to make a crystal de size of a pinhead. It is a parting gift to de people dey love, to deir friends, and to people like dem who just wanted to live happily together."

"There's so many of them." Mandy spoke in a daze as she stared out at the hundreds of brilliant clusters. What terrible thing could have caused the death of so many innocents as to create this? Could it have been during her reign, or were they left over from the last days of the world they had come from? Billy though remained quiet, watching on as they slowly passed through the valley up the lifeless rock faces still studded with small violet crystal patches.

The detour cost perhaps half an hour of their time, but in addition to seeing the sad beauty of the crystals it gave them the piece of mind of knowing that they wouldn't be seen. Billy however lost this piece of mind while he was scanning the mountain face between them and the fortress that had dominated the landscape to their left.

A few minutes after leaving the valley they had stopped for a moment so Mandy could take a swig from a bottle of water from her backpack. While she drank, her mind still set on what they had just seen, he surveyed the bleak scenery behind them. His eyes caught on something reflective high up the mountain behind them, imbedded on the near vertical rock face above. It didn't look like one of the crystals. He strained to see it out of curiosity and suspicion, and upon close inspection he realised it was a surveillance camera. It was pointing straight down at them.

His heart raced while the rest of him froze, unable to tear his gaze from the lifeless little steel box staring back at the three of them. He quickly turned away, trying to calm himself, this limbs still too tense to effectively manoeuvre himself.

'_Oh crap! What do I do? What do I do? Have they spotted us?'_ He scanned around at the surrounding landscape, trying to detect any unwanted presence that may have been hostile towards them. He craned his head skyward, searching for helicopters or airships or whatever they used now.

Finding nothing he calmed down slightly. _'They haven't seen us. If they had they'd come after us. I think we're safe for now.'_ He took a moment to calm his racing heartbeat, and steady his breathing which he had just noticed was giving away his panicked state to the others. Mandy was looking at him questioningly while Grim craned his neck to see the boy behind him.

"Billy, you okay mon?" He asked with a hint of concern.

He took a deep breath to bring himself under control. "Don't worry. I'm fine."

With that Mandy shrugged it off, handing the water bottle back to Grim who made it disappear into his robe before taking the lead as they got underway once more. Billy resisted the urge to look behind him to see if the camera was following them, more concerned with his own state of mind.

Had he looked back he would have been alarmed to notice that it was indeed turning to follow them.

X

Not long after their stop they began to see the eerie glow that had first drawn their attention to this side of the range again. As they pushed further through the ridge they saw the faint blue glow radiating off the thick clouds of pollution in the murky morning sky through the gaps in the mountains, although what was causing it was so far still obscured by the range.

As they wound their way through to the downhill side of the rocky mountain span they turned up towards one of the last remaining peaks before them, coming up and stopping on the edge of a cliff, wherein they each gaped at what they saw below. It was here that they got their first sight of the endless urban sprawl they had been heading towards for the past few hours. From their vantage point high above they gazed down at the monstrous expanse of lights. Beneath them towering skyscrapers and decaying slums stretched out for hundreds of kilometres in one vast hive of human existence.

The city was bathed in a thick layer of smog rising from the massive factories spread out through the various regions of the city, hundreds of thousands of smoke stacks pumping fine ash and gouts of flame skyward. Moving like blood cells through the roads between the giant cores of industry and commerce millions of ground vehicles churned out their own noxious fumes, adding to the near hellish visage the sprawling metropolis presented themselves with. The entire mass radiated an overpowering sense of oppression, of human degradation, of lingering paranoia and fear, but most of all of struggle. It was the cornerstone of her rule, each individual person struggling to get ahead with or without a drop of care for anyone else, and in doing so deciding wether their struggle would pay off or only add further to the situation that bought about their struggle in the first place. The small-minded individuals that made up the bulk of the population each held no particular ambitions, no real respect for anything other than themselves, and no general sense of rational thought, and her society was built to give them the life they deserved.

Here now stood the very essence of this future, that each person had to struggle and suffer just to survive, and that the people who had once trodden down on their fellow man like stepping stones to advance their own selfish ends now had to wallow in the misery and paranoia they had created as a result. She had taken humanity in all its depravity and built a place they could truly call home.

It was in this toxic world of madness and inhumanity that the answer to their questions lay. The concept made each of the three nervous, to see the absolute lowest of humanity up close and personal, stripped of the thin veil of respectability they each seemed to carry themselves with. Even Mandy held a sense of anxiety over what she feared she would find.

Grim raised his scythe, pointing it at himself once more to apply his human skin. The field of energy twisted around him, laying down on him to form tendons, muscles, organs, skin and a suitable set of clothes. The rugged human Grim looked down at the decaying sprawl beneath them in silent anticipation of what they had to do.

"Alright, let's go." They mounted the scythes once more to take them to the edge of the city, to the various suburbs of near deserted apartment buildings bordering on the sparse rock wasteland.

X

As they rode the last leg of the journey they began to pick up on the scent of rotting and dirtiness that permeated this place's existence. As they got of their scythes, ordering them to vanish with a flick of their will, they saw up close that not only had the society, infrastructure and buildings rotted, but so had the people. The roads were lined with basic brick and concrete apartment buildings, drab and lifeless, most falling into disrepair, not too different to what they had seen in their own city. The majority appeared to have been gutted with no one living there.

Walking through the empty and broken streets on the outskirts of the town they couldn't help but stare at the few people who dwelled in this place. They were practically soulless, as if they had been traumatised from the very moment they were born. They grovelled around in rags, idly slouching around, wallowing on the concrete and in the dirt, most looking like they were suffering from serious malnutrition or other diseases.

The three certainly looked out of place in this living hell, with their healthy bodies, clean clothes, upright posture and general activity. These people didn't seem to notice or care, as their minds were no longer active. Not one even glanced at the strange three making their way through town. Even the children, their bellies swollen not from over eating but massive malnutrition, just stared on straight ahead, as if nobody was home.

They watched these human wrecks lay about, waiting for death, as they continued on towards what they sincerely hoped was a more prosperous part of the city, where people actually lived. It was funny to think that in a city of one billion inhabitants, a great many of them weren't really living at all.

As they moved through the streets lined by thousands of buildings in a state beyond decrepit, they began to see their first signs of advanced technology, or at least the wreckage of it. On the sides of the road there were what appeared to be the rusted out remains of cars, though they appeared to be devoid of wheels of any sort. Their wondering was sated when overhead a small vehicle streaked past, of the same general size and shape as the few wrecks they had seen. Therefore they were gazing at flying cars, supported on anti-gravity fields of some form where the wheel wells traditionally sat.

Not that it would've mattered to the people around them now. They had probably never played any sort of functioning role in her society, eking out a wretched existence off the refuse cast out from the city abandoned along its fringe. As they got closer in the people began to come about as slightly more lively, though still obviously dejected and worn out. Some of them glanced in their direction, before going back to whatever it was they were doing to try to survive. Their eyes were mostly blank and uninterested. Each was almost undistinguishable from one another. It was ironic that in their often mindless desire to advance themselves as individuals they had in fact destroyed not only their individuality but their chances of ever getting ahead.

Billy looked around at the slightly better off people. "These guys must be the workers. They look strong enough to actually do something other than sit around waiting to die."

Mandy thought back to what she had learned from Nineteen Eighty Four. "They shouldn't give us too much trouble. They're more concerned with themselves and doing whatever it is they do to survive."

"Yeah, we should be safe from Big Brother around here." Billy added.

Mandy looked across to him surprised at his words of insight. _'No way! He couldn't have. Don't tell me…'_

Billy noticed her surprised and questioning stare. "What? The Proles have no intellect, so they pretty much do whatever they do without the government having to be looking over their shoulders all the time. The book said so."

Mandy's jaw hung open. "You… read…. Orwell… Nineteen Eighty Four?" She struggled to speak as Billy just stared back at her oblivious. Grim also joined in on the new surprised staring fad.

"Yeah, it's my favourite book… What?"

Mandy closed her mouth turned back to the road before them as she digested it slowly. Her eyebrows remained raised as high as they could go. Billy, reading a book, a very deep and thoughtful book. To her was like a fifth dimension. Grim sniggered as Billy deadpanned.

"Okay." She spoke recovering from the little episode. "We're never gonna find anything useful here, what's the plan?"

"I thought you knew. You're the leader." Billy spoke.

"I was just following with you and Grim!"

"Well I was following you two." Human Grim retorted. Mandy rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance. Ahead of them she spied what looked like a monorail track, along with the grating sound of metal rolling on metal.

"Come on." Leading them towards the sound they soon arrived at a raised train platform. It appeared to have gone a good many years without being cleaned, though despite the ingrained grime and graffiti it appeared to be in good shape. Half a dozen others stood waiting with them. A minute later a train arrived. They stared dumbly at it as it pulled up. All the doors and many of the windows had been torn out. The body appeared to have been gradually thinned away from the outside by the toxic rain, and was noticeably warped in places. The other commuters got on without taking much notice. Grim, Billy and Mandy though just stared.

"Ya know I just realised, Amtrak really isn't all that bad." Billy spoke up. Grim and Mandy grimaced slightly and stepped onboard as Billy took one last wary look around. He paused when he noticed another pair of cameras mounted high on the wall watching over the station, with another two set at the other end.

"Billy." Mandy called to him as he stared up into the lens tensely, watching as it gazed back silently. The sound of the train lurching bought him back and he jumped onboard as it took off towards the city centre. The three took their seats towards the back. The wind buffeted them slightly through the open door but mercifully they were protected by a window. The dilapidated carriage they were riding in was surprisingly empty save for themselves, especially considering this was the time people should be crowding onboard to go to work.

Mandy looked about her, at the decrepit train, and out the window at the decrepit buildings, streets and people. She frowned, Billy and human Grim looking with her.

"So what do you think? Is it everything you wanted it to be?" Grim asked.

"No." She spoke quietly, studying the state of her society outside. "Something's wrong. I wanted a place where people would be forcibly kept in line, where everyone would pull their weight and do the right thing, or else. I wanted stability, and order, but I don't see it here. I see a perfect society left to rot." They each watched the scenery outside, her words echoing inside their heads as they thought.

"Well it should be better closer in. We'll figure it out then." Grim answered. They were silent for the rest of the trip.

X

An hour and a dozen stops later they disembarked the monorail into a wide concrete station with a curving roof.

"Well at least the trains still run on time." Billy remarked as they soon exited the station out into the beginning of the commercial district of the city. Here the signs of human activity became much more prevalent. The buildings around them now towered high above into the cold, fume choked air, be they dingy and squalid apartment blocks or corrupt ailing business centres that were near bankruptcy, all casting heavy shadows on the millions of people below, blocking out much of the remaining sunlight barely filtering through the orange gaps in the clouds.

They had to take to the footpaths to the side of the roads now as the once deserted bitumen became filled with bicycles, motorcycles and scooters. The sound of a million two stroke motors buzzed in the air, and with them came a thick oily cloud of exhaust that fell over everything at ground level. Overhead the car-like flying vehicles they had seen before scooted around above and between the buildings, high above the tremendous mass of traffic that choked the streets, along with various light trucks and transports who cruised on through. Ironically their view of the future tended to change depending on where they looked. Up above it was just like a scene from their favourite movie. Down on the ground it more like a developing country like Vietnam or India, though there was still plenty of light and neon left in amidst the human soup, centred around nightclubs, hotels and the remaining private and state run corporations.

Also they managed to figure out from their surroundings that the populace still spoke English. They learned through the neon signs around the buildings, and also from the 'colourful' language emanating from the millions of angry, impatient, selfish, and all round jerky people choking the streets.

Grim accidentally brushed past one such individual, a short, thin man in a cheap green suit jacket. He turned around to angrily denounce him and what he assumed were his kids.

"Hey watch it shit head!" He stopped upon seeing Grim turn around to face him, noticing his muscular build. He just shut his mouth and continued walking, leaving the three in relative peace.

As they continued to walk through the packed city streets, Grim began to think more seriously about what they were going to do.

"Okay, so now that we're here, we have to find out what this thing is, and who sent it, and why. But first we gotta find a place to stay, and then get some clothes that don't stand out so much." The two nodded, somewhat unhappy at the concept of wearing little better than rags.

"But all our money's over a thousand years out of date. How are we supposed to get a place to stay with no cash?" Mandy asked with a scowl.

"What if I got a job?"

"Wouldn't that require all those background checks?" Billy asked. "From the looks of things I don't think anyone's hiring anyway."

"Then why don't we steal some from a shop or something?"

"That would draw too much attention." Mandy answered.

"Whatever, we'll figure something out. We'll live in one of those abandoned places out on the fringe if we have to."

A few moments later they noticed the body of a deceased man lying on his face in the gutter a little way ahead. This in itself was not altogether particularly surprising to them as they had all seen death before. Similar scenes came out of the worst parts of Endsville. Neither was the fact that most of the passers by didn't even bat an eye to the corpse of what was once a living person, most barely capable of thinking outside of themselves.

Mandy tended to plan for a future like this, where individuals would be forced to choose to either retain their humanity and live like human beings, or drop their thin cover of morals and care for one another and fight amongst themselves for every little thing, like they wanted to. She knew what base instinct was; to fight and kill each other for the body of a rat, and she hated those people who pretended to be civilised and upright while still doing the same thing, the ones who were conceited and arrogant, the liars and sycophants, the hypocrites, the bigots. For so long she had bodily yearned to expose them for the twisted, mindless freaks they were, and to turn them on each other, keeping them in a constant state of fear and misery, and it appeared she had done just that. Thus why it didn't horrify her that these people didn't care about the corpse they were stepping over.

What truly horrified her beyond all thought and reason though was when a small band of squalid, malnourished children and teenagers, some younger than them, coming out from behind one of the decaying apartment buildings to crowd around the body. At first they thought that they must have been family, mourning over the loss as they dragged the body back into the shadows between two buildings. But when they had the body off the road away from the public, they realised exactly what they were there for.

Grim and Billy gasped in absolute horror, while Mandy shut her eyes tightly, turning away from the pack of animals as they tore the body limb from limb, before they began to feast on the corpse's flesh.

Mandy wrapped her hands around her elbows, appalled at what she had allowed to happen, that people had been reduced to this level, all under her watch.

'_It wasn't supposed to be like this! This isn't what I wanted. This isn't supposed to be how it is. People are supposed to be miserable and turn on each other, but… not like this.'_ Disgusted, with the cannibals, with herself, with the crowd, she kept her eyes turned away. The three silently walked away from the pack of vicious animals that only looked human on the outside as they devoured the corpse of the man, who in some way was probably just as cannibalistic as them.

They had just passed the horrible scene when over the sound of the engines and angry voices came a powerful roar that made the earth tremble up into their thighs. The three looked skyward as an automated gunship of a type similar to what they'd seen in the laboratories, with an armoured alloy underbelly and short stubby wings, cruised on through the bustling metropolis above the streets, casting a blast of coarse, dirty air propelled off its grav coils down on those below. It scanned over the masses with three blinding spotlights, methodically sweeping across the streets in even arcs, while a plasma cannon rotated to sweep across the areas lit.

Billy noticed one of the spotlights sweeping the crowd coming towards them in the usual methodical manner. The light reached them, shining down on them with its dazzling blue-white beam. It lingered on them, making them close their eyes and turn away from the bright light as spots appeared in their eyes and a slight feeling of dizziness washed over them.

Billy realised something as he tried to block out the light. Whereas with everyone else the beam had just swept over them and continued methodically, it was currently fixed firmly on them, not moving on. When finally the beam did sweep past, he thought he noticed the powerful terror bird moving along slightly faster than it had been when it came.

The others had picked up on it to a point as well, watching it in silence as it disappeared around a corner, the engine noise fading very rapidly afterwards. Yet still no one said anything.

Grim continued to lead the group through the mass of people, all three now slightly on edge because of that little incident. Through the crowd they saw the first signs of exactly who and what did the Empress' bidding on the individual level. On the path before them the crowd of people began to part around a large, humanoid robot. It appeared to be similar to one of the machines they saw near the entrance of the robot bone yard back in the laboratory. It was crude and bulky, with dark red eyes instead of green, and none of the original demonic athleticism and fury of the prototypes.

It marched towards them steadily, looking straight ahead, its large plasma rifle pointed towards the ground. The tree avoided eye contact with it as they moved off to one side to allow the heavily armoured thing to pass. It walked by without so much as acknowledging them, each giving a muted sigh of relief once it was gone.

The moment after it had passed they began to notice others dotting the streets. Some prowled around the footpaths while others stood still, guarding one spot, surveying everyone crossing their paths. Some formed groups of five or six, led by a human officer in a black trench coat uniform much like the SS officer that had inspected their cabin. In addition to this, hovering through the air above the crowd's heads they spied a number of small spidery surveillance drones. They cruised to and fro across the street, watching and listening to everything going on below.

At that they began to scan around at the number of potential threats. They took note of the officers, the robots, the gunships patrolling the streets, the sentry drones, the… cameras.

They only just noticed the streets around them were dotted with cameras. Everywhere, atop buildings, on posts, in the shops beside the road, they were watching everything.

Billy remembered back to the incident with the patrolling gunship, and his heart began to race as he, along with the others, began to notice that the cameras weren't focussed on everything and everyone as they normally should be. They were focussed solely on them.

He tensed up again, looking around him at each of the mechanical sentinels that dotted the street. Though the other machines appeared to be focussed on doing their own jobs, all the cameras were focused solely on their being. As they moved they followed them, turning on their mounts to track them. Grim and Mandy were also becoming increasingly aware of this, and it was beginning to worry them as well.

"Uh guys…" Billy's voice wavered as the fear rose within him. "I didn't tell you before because I thought I was being paranoid, but back in the mountains, just after we saw the big building…" They turned to face him nervously. "There was a camera on one of the mountains, pointing right at us. I thing we've been found out."

The two youths looked at each other nervously, knowing that all of this could come down on their heads very quickly and very heavily. Even now there was another gunship hovering directly overhead, far higher than before, amongst the tops of the skyscrapers in the dense smog.

Billy and Mandy breathed nervously, a faint film of sweat breaking out across their skin as they unconsciously moved closer to Grim. "I think they're watching us."

"They are watching you."

The three whipped around towards the hushed voice of a man directly behind them. They stared at the man alarmed, his hard face partly covered by his long, dark shaggy hair. He wore a weathered brown trench coat, fastened with some kind of patchy old belt around the torso.

"Who are you?" Grim demanded.

The man held up his hand for silence. "My name doesn't matter. All that matters right now is that you are all in terrible danger. The machines are walking in circles around you. Thirty metres behind us a sentry drone has been watching you ever since you left the station. They will get you soon. I can help you, but you must follow my orders to the word. If you don't do exactly what I say, you'll all die." He moved around them to the front of the group, his sharp face still partly hidden in shadow.

Mandy glared menacingly at the stranger, trying not to show how on edge she was at his words. He had offered them to help them despite the danger to himself, and for what, care and compassion? Impossible.

"Oh? And why should we trust you?" She demanded in a lowered tone. "You just show up after following us for god knows how long and expect us to believe you wanna help us?" He raised his head slightly so they could get a better look at the hard, thin face, with harsh blue eyes and pronounced cheek bones.

"I'm with the local resistance cell. We have a hideout nearby for people like you. We can protect you, but you have to trust me." His tone was cold and flat, but had a subdued sense of urgency.

The three looked to each other. What other choice did they have? If they stayed out here on their own they knew with everything watching them they were as good as dead. But if they followed him, he could lead them anywhere. He could be part of a street gang for all they knew. Mandy thought back to their mission, the information they needed. _'Then again he did say he was with the resistance. If we go with him then we'll have a place to stay and be able to find a way to get the information we need.'_ Ironic as it was, it was the best choice.

Nodding to each other they turned back to the man. He turned, beckoning for them to follow.

They quickly snaked their way through the crowd, taking the next right down an opposite street. The cameras still pointed towards them as they moved hurriedly through the crush of people. Overhead the gunship kept them in its sights. Hopefully they would soon be safe in the hands of the enemy, rather than being blown to pieces by Mandy's own servants.

The mysterious man took a turn down into an alley between two enormous apartment skyscrapers. He slowed down somewhat as they made their way to the end, where they found themselves surrounded by concrete walls on three sides, and the empty alley they had come down behind them.

He came to a halt before a doorway leading into the building on the left. Billy and Mandy stood directly behind him facing the door, with Grim standing warily off to the side slightly.

The strangers hand opened to grasp the doorknob, but stopped before turning it. He spoke in the same stern yet reassuring voice he had presented them with. "There is one thing I must ask of you first." The three nodded eager to just get it over with and get inside out of harms way.

"What is it?" Grim demanded.

"Do you trust me?"

The three stood there in silence as they considered the question. They each thought quietly to themselves.

'_We only just met him and he expects us to trust him?'_ Mandy thought with a scowl.

'_Maybe it's a test, we have to trust him or else he won't let us into the resistance. Or is it the other way round?'_ Billy wondered.

Hesitantly they looked to each other and one by one nodded slightly. The man looked from them back to the doorknob grasped firmly in his hand. In an instant his calm stoic face twisted into a cruel sneer. Stepping out of the way he opened the door for them.

Each of the three gasped in horror. A seven foot armoured machine stared back from inside, its plasma rifle levelled at them.

Billy and Mandy didn't even have time to shout as the machine fired, striking them both in the abdomen. The powerful bolts of electrical energy ripped through their nervous systems, stunning and knocking them both unconscious in a second. They fell to the ground with a thump, their faces relaxing from their shock as they went limp.

"Kids!" Grim jumped back as soon as he saw the two fall, reverting back to his skeletal form and summoning his scythe. The machine stepped out the door, aiming the rifle at him.

He slashed at the machine, causing it to burst in two, spraying shards of molten metal across the scene, some hitting the mysterious traitor's cloak.

Before he could attack again a powerful bolt of energy shot past him, blowing a hole in the wall behind him. He whirled around in time to block another blast from several more machines at the end of the alley, all advancing on him in a line of metal.

He struggled to hold them off, blocking the numerous bolts of high energy plasma as they left long blue streaks in their wake through the air. They blew further damage into the wall behind him as he blocked and blew apart blast after blast of the enemy's energetic gas.

As he fought he heard the heavy footfalls of more machines coming out the door behind him. He had time to take a glance back at the two kids lying unconscious on the ground, before he took off into the sky to avoid capture, barely avoiding a surge of electricity that would have incapacitated him too if he'd been hit.

Below him a dozen more machines poured into the alley, continuing to fire up at him in alternating bolts of plasma and lightning as he escaped into the murky skies above the buildings. He gazed down sadly as two of the bulky machines hefted Billy and Mandy over their shoulders, taking them out to an armoured military transport that had touched down out the front of the alley.

He was interrupted by the arrival of the gunship from before, coming in to blast him to billions of pieces of fine ash. He stole one last glimpse of the two before he sped of into the distance, the gunship blasting at his retreating form with its powerful cannon.

The armoured transport took off into the sky with the two prisoners on board, joined by two more gunships flying guard as it soared away in a wide arc, bound for the facility situated out in the vast desert to the far east of the capital.

X

Several hours later.

"… GAH!"

Mandy sat bolt upright on the hard floor as soon as conscious thought returned, her first thought being the soldier that had its gun aimed at them and the ensuing flash of light and pain. It was gone, the robot, the alley, the man in the trenchcoat. For a moment she desperately hoped that it wasn't real, that her fears hadn't come true. Yet her last hope was crushed as she quickly realised her surroundings; cold metal walls and floor, a bench at the back, and a thick armoured door to keep her trapped. She had been captured.

She gasped for breath as she came to realise the gravity of her situation. _'I've been captured. I'm the prisoner of a totalitarian dictatorship. Oh god what's gonna happen now?'_

Mandy calmed down greatly as she looked up to her left, to the unconscious form of Billy lying slumped on the bench, here with her, _for_ her. Despite everything she had taught herself about cutting herself off from him, that he was just a burden, she couldn't help but be thankful he was with her now.

Slowly she rose from her position on the floor up onto her feet, moving over to check her friend's condition. She could see no wounds or physical trauma from the way they were captured. He just lay there asleep, all the peace and tranquillity of the world displayed in his face. For the second time Mandy had the faint desire to run her hands through the boys hair, to hear him sigh contentedly from the feel of her fingernails through his orange-red locks. It made her insides feel funny, all fluttery and warm. But again, she knew she couldn't, and never would. This was the price of the life she had chosen, and she had long since deemed it worthwhile in pursuit of her ambitions. If the ends justified the means in regards to her subjects, then they would do so for her all the same.

"Billy. Come on wake up." She tapped his forehead softly with her fingers, causing him to stir and let out a groan at the disturbance. "Billy…"

"WHOA!" He shot upright the same way she had as he remembered the last moments before their capture. He looked around alarmed, before calming down at the sight of Mandy's concerned visage. Seeing him recover she returned to her usual stoic controlled manner. He really needed the reassurance of Mandy's general take charge personality, knowing that throughout every trial and hardship they had faced in the past he could always look to her when the going got tough, like it was now.

"Are we where I hope we're not?" Billy asked her anxiously.

Mandy nodded glumly. "It looks like it. They must've bought us here just after they got us." She scowled menacingly at the image of the treacherous man who had led them into the trap. "That lying bastard."

"Yeah. But why would they want us?" Billy asked. They had the general idea that the ruins may have been off limits, and possibly the area around the fortress they had made their way through. "I mean trespassing in a forbidden area wouldn't really be worth all the trouble of setting up a trap would it? It's just not really that big an issue."

Mandy thought for a moment. "Well, we were riding on the scythes. They're powerful weapons, and would be a serious threat. Grim was also with us, and he was only human for half the time."

"Where is he?" Billy looked around their surroundings, noticing one member of the group missing.

Mandy thought back to the moment before their capture. "Grim wasn't in the line of fire when we were taken, so there's a possibility he might have gotten away." She shrugged. "Alternatively he could be in another cell. I only wish I knew."

She took a seat next to Billy on the hard bench of cold metal. "So assuming that Grim did manage to get away, and is currently trying to find some way of getting us out, how do we stay alive long enough for him to get us?"

Billy had a simple idea that would solve their problems immediately. "Hey why don't you just break out your scythe and level this place so we can just walk out the front door, or what's left of it, no problem." As always massive force was the answer. Mandy was surprised she hadn't come up with such an obvious solution.

"Alright, one second..." She opened her right palm, concentrating on the scythes presence, willing it to form in her hand.

She looked down to her outstretched hand after a moment, having not felt it form in her grip. Looking to her hand she could see no red scythe.

Billy looked on expectantly, not understanding the delay. "Well?"

"I don't know, normally it just appears in my hand when I will it to." Mandy spoke while concentrating harder on summoning her scythe. "I can't get it to work. It's like something's blocking it." She gave up after another few moments, thinking for a moment on why it wasn't working for her. "This must be a specialised facility they've taken us to. I don't know, maybe there's some kind of field around this place that suppresses supernatural stuff."

"So we won't be busting outa here anytime soon." Billy said it more as a statement, which Mandy only need nod once slightly to confirm. "Alright, so how do we survive long enough for Grim to hopefully come and get us out?"

Mandy sighed, rubbing the side of her face with her hand. "Look, they want us for the information we have, about the scythes, about Grim, anything. They'll keep us as long as we know something they don't." She turned to look at Billy sternly, who stared straight back at her. She commanded him as clearly and as calmly as she could, knowing that he needed her authority right now. "We mustn't tell them anything. If we do they'll kill us. While we still know something they don't they will have reason to keep us alive, and we'll still have a chance at getting rescued."

Billy nodded in understanding. "It's just a matter of holding out until death himself comes to tear this place apart to get us out."

The two sat there beside each other, waiting for the rescue they hoped would come soon. Yet as much as she tried to remain calm and neutral, Mandy couldn't help but think back to the little thought that had occurred to them while they stared up at the fortress.

'_What if…'_ She pushed the unnerving thoughts from her head, concentrating on the moment, on being as strong and hard and unyielding as she had ever been, regardless of their dire situation.

X

Meanwhile.

Grim flew high amidst the grey clouds on the thin cushion of energy his form exuded. He had tracked the transport from the sight where they were attacked to this massive facility, far out in the vast arid wasteland devoid of all life.

He gazed down on the thick concrete walls, the laser cannons lining the perimeter, the heavily armed and armoured guards patrolling outside. The prison itself consisted of three triangular prism shaped blocks joined at the centre in a thick concrete dome, with only a few thin window slits letting the light from the inside seep out. Each of the long blocks was a row of prison cells leading off from the centre, all hardened under their wedge shaped sarcophaguses of concrete and steel. It was most than likely that there was much more underground, research and testing areas, equipment, and other more exotic devices.

Even from this height as he glided directly over the fortress through the now thin clouds he could feel something invisible sapping his strength. The invisible suppressor field made him push ever more of his energy into supporting himself high above the enemy in the remaining smog from the city.

He knew the closer he got to that place, the more he would struggle to use his powers, rendering him incapable of a rescue himself.

'_I have to find help. Maybe dere's some real insurgency or resistance dat I could find.'_ He turned to fly away, the suppressive effects wearing off quickly, allowing him to streak through the murky afternoon skies unimpeded like a meteor.

As he streaked through the ruined orange atmosphere for another few minutes, crossing hundreds of kilometres in seconds, he extended his senses in search of any sign of life. He soon found some, and it wasn't far away. Closing in he spied what looked like a lone quad bike similar to the ones back in their time driving in a line across the desert. A man sat in the saddle, a rifle slung over his back.

'_A patrol.'_ He thought. The quad was heading for a small cluster of hills rising up from the surrounding desert. Trailing along behind it Grim could make out a number of large holes cut into the side, where machinery and people could be seen at work within. Atop the hill he could make out communications equipment and long range scanning dishes. Inside there were transports similar to the one that had taken Billy and Mandy away. They were clustered around on the ground, their crews milling around their machines in a flurry of activity

Upon closer inspection from his vantage point barely out of sight above he noted they all seemed relatively old, and had anti-government icons and graffiti plastered all over them, most of it bright and offensive. He also spied the powerful weapons the men and women around held.

'_Perfect! What luck.'_ He shot down towards the ground, landing about fifty metres from where the group of transports lay on the vast barren steppe, landing in a cloud of dust. Summoning his scythe he re-applied the human skin he had been using, before making his way steadily towards the rebel stronghold, quickly formulating a plan to get them on side.

He steeled himself as he saw them notice him, moving to greet him with their weapons lowered but at the ready nonetheless. Reviewing the hastily prepared plan he sighed and prepared himself. _'I hope this works. Billy, Mandy, please just hold on.'_

X

Fifteen minutes later.

Mandy was jolted from her boorish state by the sound of footsteps. Not just one set but several, heavy, metallic sounds emanating from the machines that had taken them, approaching from outside.

She rose from her seat on edge as the sounds slowly came closer as they made their way down the corridor outside. Her heartbeat began to race, her palms began to sweat, and her breathing became harsh and laboured as anxiety began to fill her.

Billy noticed her agitated state and sat up. "Mandy?"

She urged him to remain silent with her hand as she listened to the approaching sound of the armoured footfalls. Billy too picked up on it, and remained quiet and listened tensely as they got closer. As the heavy footfalls came from right outside their door Mandy froze, holding her breath as an abject terror flared inside her, hoping they wouldn't stop at their cell. They listened and waited in silence as they marched along directly out front.

Finally the tension began to ease as the footsteps slowly faded in the distance as the machines continued past. Mandy relaxed, lowering her head and letting out an enormous sigh of relief as the sounds vanished, realising that all the resolute defiance she had imposed on herself had collapsed all too easily. She sank back down to sit to Billy's right as he looked to her in wonder.

"What is it?" He asked her as she breathed deeply. She kept her head lowered, and her expression unreadable.

"Billy, you know this is a dictatorship right?" He nodded. "And you know that dictatorships don't care about human rights, especially this one right?" Again he nodded, remembering the grizzly scene of the children lowered to ravenous animals simply to survive.

Mandy remained silent for another moment, trying to keep herself under control, to keep up her strength and discipline against the anxiety growing again deep within her.

"Think about it. They want information from us, but we won't tell them. What if…" She looked across to him to see the realisation dawned on him as well. "What if they try to force us?"

Billy saw her nervous state underneath her controlled visage. It was one of the few times he had ever seen her openly afraid. "Well if this whole thing is yours, wouldn't you be the one to decide what is acceptable treatment for prisoners? Would you do it?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure I'm even the one in charge anymore. From what I saw it looks like the whole place has become corrupt. I don't know what some officer would be capable of."

"Mandy don't worry. I don't think they'd hurt us. I know these guys are bad but I doubt they'd do that to a couple of twelve year olds. Besides, we've been in places like this before and nothing really bad ever happened to us."

Mandy calmed down somewhat as she let Billy's words sink in. _'Yes, we're just kids. They wouldn't hurt us. This is nothing we haven't been through before.'_

"They'll probably sit us down in some room and ask us some questions like they usually do. They might threaten us, or even slap us around a bit. But I don't think they would do anything to really hurt us. All we have to do is keep quiet until they're done, and Grim'll eventually come rescue us."

As soon as Billy stopped speaking they heard the sound again. Heavy footfalls, previously covered up by Billy's talking, coming from right outside. They only lasted for a moment before they came to a stop.

The two froze in terror again, their wide eyes locked on the armoured door as it slid open to reveal several of the pitiless drones staring in at them,.

Mandy gasped silently, seeing their glowing eyes centred on her. She remained still, staring back into their soulless eyes as their presence crushed her determination like an elephant to an egg shell. All her strength fled her, and all of Billy's reassurances fell away.

The one at the front raised its left arm to point at her, speaking in a deep artificial voice.

"_Girl. You will come with us."_ It lowered its hand, waiting for her to cower in terror so they would have to come in and forcibly drag her out.

Mandy just sat there, wholly immobilised by the dread flooding her from all the darkest corners of her mind at what was awaiting her out there. This was not like the previous times they had been captured. This time she instinctively knew it was much worse.

She felt a hand slide into hers and grasp her protectively. Turned to look Billy once more she saw the caring way he looked back at her, with his blue eyes dire and screaming for her protection. Suddenly she found herself drawing strength from his calming presence, the same way he had found strength in her countless times before. The machines waiting for her now didn't seem quite as terrifying with him holding her hand.

'_He needs me. Billy needs me to be strong. I have to be strong for him. I can't break.'_ Her hand closed around his, stilling herself once more into the indomitable young woman he looked up to. Strengthening her resolve and summoning all the courage she had within she turned back to face their captors, ready for whatever was waiting for her. _'Besides, it's probably nothing just like Billy said. I just have to keep my cool and everything will be fine.'_

As calmly as she could she rose, albeit a little shakily, from the bench and stepped forward through the open door, her shoulders held high, never ceasing to scowl coldly at the emotionless machines as they bound her hands before her in handcuffs. She turned back to face Billy one last time, neither saying anything as the machines prepared to take her. Billy stared at the strong young woman he had come to care for over the years, seeing her dark scowl of iron resolve once more before the door closed.

The guard on her right wrapped its powerful hand around her upper arm as they hauled her away down the endless rows of cells.

Mandy kept her will up as they escorted her down the long corridor, all the while fighting the tremendous apprehension building deep down within her. Though she didn't show it she felt as though her stomach was tied in an ever tightening knot. Her legs, though keeping up with the armoured automatons holding her captive, felt like they were about to collapse under her weight like jelly. As they continued towards the end of the corridor, approaching the entry to an elevator, she could feel herself getting weak almost to the point of wanting to fall to her hands and knees, and a feeling of nausea and light-headedness that made her bite her lip to steel herself once more.

'_Come on Mandy, you're stronger than this. You're tough enough to shoulder anything. All you have to do is stay calm and in control, and don't panic.'_ She reasoned to herself. _'Alright think, how do you manage stress? Deep breathing? Yeah, that works.'_ Concentrating on keeping her cool she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in through her nose, letting it out slowly the same way. Levelling her shoulders back she opened her eyes, setting her face in a stern grimace as her guards bodily hauled her towards the doors ahead, content that her fear had been banished back down in her belly where it belonged.

The metal doors of the lift opened before them, the guards forcing her inside and crowding in around her. It was then when the door sealed shut and the car began to descend into the lower levels of hell that her determination began to break down.

She looked up and around her. The machines crowded around stood so much higher than her, and the way they crushed her small form into one tiny confined space in what was already a small car, began to fill her with terror. No amount of reassurance could have consoled her from the dread that took hold throughout every inch of her body. Her breath came in gasps, clenching her teeth as she stared wide eyed out in front. She lowered her head so they wouldn't see how afraid, how absolutely sick with anxiety she was.

And still they went further down to whatever was awaiting her. She began to realise how utterly alone she was, separated from her companion, surrounded by these things which could kill her in an instant if they wanted, on her way to what could possibly be her worst nightmare. No one was here for her now.

Mandy closed her eyes, wrapping her hands around her elbows like a scared little girl. She struggled with herself, willing herself to be brave and stand up straight like someone tough and courageous. But she failed. Now, for the first time in her life, she wanted someone there with her, to hold her hand, and not just anyone.

She wanted her mother and father there for her, to hold her close so she could bury her face into their arms. More than them she wanted Billy. She wanted him to be here by her side, to hold her hand, and comfort her, and wrap his arms around her, and hold her close, and kiss her forehead, and tell her how everything was going to be alright.

Finally, after what seemed like an agonising eternity, the car stopped and the door opened. The machines exited the tiny space, Mandy still held secure between them. At last she managed to rally her courage and control once more as she stepped out into the dark high ceilinged room. She heard the door close behind her, trapping her in this place, yet she forced herself to remain neutral. Alas, despite the stern and dominating visage she showed, her legs still buckled slightly under each step.

Looking ahead she saw the guards bringing her towards an upright padded rack in the shape of a crucifix, surrounded by another two robotic guards and a human officer who looked a lot like…

'_Him!'_

The officer in uniform waiting there for her had the exact same face of the straggly man that had led them into the trap. Though he was now wearing the uniform black trench cloak with his brown hair combed back, she still recognised his hard features without the wig. He stared down at her disdainfully, a compassionless, arrogant manner in his gaze. She glared acid at him as she was forcibly bought up to the man.

Without him saying anything he raised a hand, Mandy noticing the small plastic tube in his fingers. Pulling the small containment tube apart he took hold of the object within; a syringe. He watched with satisfaction as the girl's eyes widened slightly, trying to cover her anxiety. Mandy locked her jaw together, urging herself to stay unaffected as he reached down and took a rough grip on her left upper arm, holding her still as he bought the wide bladed injector in. It punctured her skin with a brutal stab, requiring some force to cut down into the muscle. Mandy was shocked at the pain it caused, and had to screw her eyes shut, turning away as she gritted her teeth against the hurt as he injected her with some unknown drug.

She felt the serum begin to take effect almost as soon as he pulled the syringe out of her arm, the machines shoving her past him on towards the padded crucifix. Holding her hand over the slightly bleeding wound in her arm she felt her skin tingle and buzz with nervous activity, a wave of dizziness causing her to falter slightly in step. She looked down to her arm as she felt the ache from the injection suddenly intensify, as if a network of tiny blades was carving out into her arm from inside. The officer of course knew what it was, a serum designed to muddle and affect the touch sensors of the brain, resulting in the doubling of any sensation picked up by the nerves throughout her skin and body. It was highly effective. Rarely did he ever have to go any higher than basic electroshock, though he was always more than happy to do so. For this young girl though he guessed an hour tops would be all he needed to break her will. In fact he greeted the opportunity with anticipation; he would treat it as a pet experiment of sorts.

Her armoured escorts moved her into position with her back against the padded white rack, unlocking her from the handcuffs. She struggled to control her breathing as they forcibly held out her arms. Two held her securely by the wrists, the others locking her into the rack with several large padded straps. They drew them across her shoulders, lower and upper arms, lower and upper legs, and a large belt tightened securely around her small waist. It was actually a relatively comfortable sort of embrace, to be secured so thoroughly that if she had the might of an elephant she could not break free, though maybe it was in relation to what she feared was about to happen.

'_This can't be good. They wouldn't strap me to a rack if they planned on just asking a few questions.'_

Once she was strapped in, unable to move anything except her hands, feet and head they retreated back so the backstabbing officer could step in. Though her feet were raised an inch off the ground on a small platform, the thin man still towered over her. With her magnified sense of touch she felt the biting cold of the room increase as he blocked out the artificial light from high overhead. He sneered down at her, while she maintained her strength in defiance.

"I am going to ask you a number of questions." He spoke in a subdued tone, taking on an impersonal demeanour at odds with his narcissism. "You will cooperate with us willingly and answer to the best of your knowledge. Will you answer truthfully?"

Mandy glared back at the pompous fool. "Go to hell. I'm not going to submit to a pompous, stuck-up little worm like you." She knew that ironically this arrogant fool before her was also hers to command. How could she have allowed some vile maggot like this to command her forces? A thin, sadistic sneer formed on his lips as he motioned to one of the machines.

"Secure the first electrode."

Mandy felt her skin begin to freeze over as one of the machines turned to walk over to the nearby control panel, picking up what looked to be two very sharp metal spines. The colour ran out of her face, all the while gaping wide eyed with dread at the razor sharp points as the hulking thing returned with them in hand, a pair of alligator clips attached to a wire in the other.

Instinctively knowing that something very bad was about to start, she switched her gaze to look up to the officer supervising the machines as it moved over to her left arm. Her heart was racing and her breathing became fast, but through some force of will she somehow remained in control.

She clenched her jaw, glaring defiantly up at him despite how absolutely afraid she felt, while the robot positioned the point of the metal spine directly against the middle of her left palm between the two middle finger bones. With one hand it held the huge needle there, placing the other at the rear of the skewer. Applying pressure it began to cut into her skin. Mandy winced and gritted her teeth as the tip penetrated her skin, all the while the guard slowly increased the pressure, cutting a little deeper with each second, drawing out the experience as its victim began to gasp and heave.

Having drawn it out long enough, with one swift, brutal movement it forcibly drove it in through her palm, the spine grinding its way between the bones and tendons, exiting out the back of the padded rig.

Mandy's mouth hung agape, her eyes wide with shock while her breath caught in her lungs. For a moment she couldn't believe what had just happened. But then the pain came, and instantly overwhelmed her. A moment later she clenched them shut tightly, her features contorting as she lost her control.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

The supervisor watched on as the girl screamed in pain, her mind begging and screaming for any form of relief or escape from the anguish. The serum working on her system amplified the pain to something she could scarcely believe. The cries were not that of the tough, headstrong young woman who had been there moments ago, but were those of a little girl who had been gravely injured, who needed to be comforted by her parents. As she continued to writhe and scream the machine secured a wire to the blunt end of the spike sticking out of her hand, a large stream of blood running from the wound down her hand to drip onto the floor. The officer ordered the machine to move again as Mandy continued to cry out.

"Secure the second electrode."

"Guh… Uhh…" By this stage Mandy had managed to regain some control, still gasping in pain from the large spine driven through her left hand. She opened her eyes through the haze of hurt and looked to her hand. There she saw the wide end of the skewer sticking out of her bloody palm with the wire attached. It was all real, and it hurt so much. It made her want to cry out just from the sight alone. From there she managed to lock her pained gaze on the machine as it advancing towards her uninjured right limb. This time she glared furiously at it, gritting her teeth to block out the pain and fear as it came closer and closer.

'_I'm not gonna scream. I'm not gonna scream. I won't give this bastard the pleasure of hearing me…' _

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! Ugh! Oh… Augh! AAAAHH!" Mandy pressed her head against the soft headrest as she screamed and howled in every kind of suffering and anguish once more. The officer watched and listened in amusement and a twisted sense of satisfaction to the crunching sound the skewer made as it was driven in, and her continued cries of pain. Still, though she writhed and shouted out in distress, he was surprised to see she hadn't shed a single tear thus far. This girl would indeed be an interesting subject to study the effects of extreme pain on youths, and her partner as well for that matter, but the boy would come later.

Gradually the hurt in her hands subsided to something she could just barely endure, and she began to fight back to control again. She bit down on her lip, forcing the excruciating pain and nausea to the back of her mind, taking her self-control back so as to glare hatefully at the officer again. "Uuuhh… "

He walked in, rearing his arm back to deliver a powerful back hand to the right side of her face. She recoiled in the harness from the blow, again willing herself to stand her ground against the pain in the side of her cheek and her hands from being moved. A thin trail of blood seeped down from the side of her lips as she willed herself not to whimper. She turned her face back to stare into the man's eyes, ignoring the waves of discomfort from her face and the immense, excruciating pain radiating from the palms of her hands. She locked her eyes on his, defiant of the fear in her stomach and of the bodily pain.

He turned away from her, making his way towards the control panel where the wires attached to her hands led to. Positioning himself behind it he motioned for the guards to back away, giving him a clear and unobstructed view of his young victim.

She was scared. She didn't want to be hurt. She wanted someone who could comfort and protect her, someone who could give her strength to endure. She wanted her father.

'_Dad…'_

"Now, you and your friends were seen in possession of two artefacts of supernatural power, namely two scythes. You were also seen in the company of the Grim Reaper, the spectral image of death. We have this recorded on video surveillance. You will answer truthfully. If you refuse to cooperate we will break you down until your will to resist is gone and you answer truthfully of your own accord."

Mandy breathed deeply and readied herself as he turned up a dial, positioning his finger above the button. There was no escaping it now. They were going to torture her for information, and their survival depended on her enduring the pain long enough for Grim to hopefully rescue them.

'_Dad.'_

"Tell me about your scythes."

Mandy kept her mouth shut, small rivers of blood forming across her wounded hands. One drop ran down her finger, falling from the tip to drip down into a small pool beneath her hand. She did not relent in her defiant glower, even as the thinly built man grew tired of waiting.

Moments later his patience ran out. The officer pressed his finger down onto the button, depressing it into the panel. A blistering surge of electrical energy shot down the wires, running straight through the steel skewers, into the young girl's body, causing Mandy to arch her back and scream.

"_DADDY!"_


	26. The Resistance

**Poor Mandy. Always so confident in her own force of will, and so up herself about being self-sufficient and not needing anyone else to support her or provide affection or comfort. Well where's that force of will now?**

**Here we see how the kids react to the horrible situation they've been put in, as well as how they get out of prison, and learn all about the history of this horrible place.**

**The story brightens up a bit after this and the pressure's taken off a little, though there's still loads more to come yet. On with the show.**

* * *

**The Resistance.**

Four hours later.

When Mandy had gone into her interrogation she had been a strong, resolute, defiant young woman. When she came out she was a little girl.

Nothing could have prepared her for the nightmarish experience. She had screamed in anguish throughout every moment of her torture, right up until her body was near collapse from complete exhaustion from the stress. Though she hadn't told them anything of the scythes or of Grim, her strong, defiant nature slowly gave way under the exhaustion and the hours of sheer blinding agony. The pain was like nothing she could have ever imagined. The closest she could put it down to was like having her hands held in the flames of a burning stove, only spread throughout her entire body, turned on and off repeatedly for what felt like an eternity. She had felt pain before, and had been in some very tight jams on her past adventures, but to actually have someone purposely inflict pain upon her, to have to close her eyes as the officer questioned her before hitting her with another long shock, was a horror beyond anything she could have ever been ready for. And yet she knew that electroshock was only the beginning, and that much worse was likely to come.

Now, four long hours after she had walked from her cell with her shoulders held high in defiance, Mandy was dragged back, her limp body supported by two mechanical monstrosities. Her face showed the pain she still felt throughout her body, her eyes shut, gritting her teeth weakly despite the serum having long since worn off.

The robotic guards dragged her the last few feet to the door of her cell, where she desperately hoped Billy would be there to hold her.

Billy had been waiting on edge for her to return ever since they took her, and every moment she wasn't with him was a moment she was with them. God only knew what terrible things they were probably doing to her right now. He could barely sit still with the thoughts of what kind of pains they might inflict on her running through his head. Before it had been easy to reassure both Mandy and himself that they would be safe from harm, but now that he wasn't there with her, to be sure that she was safe and alright, he found it impossible to think of anything but the worst case scenario.

He was immediately jolted from his thoughts, looking up at the sound of the door opening. In an instant the dread he had been experiencing was realised in full as the two machines shoved Mandy's limp form into the cell, her face a burnt-out visage of suffering and exhaustion

"Mandy!"

Moving towards the door he managed to catch her in his arms as she fell, holding the exhausted girl close. Their eyes met together as she gazed back at him, all the pain and distress that had been inflicted upon her openly displayed to him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her cheek to his shoulder protectively as the guards regarded him.

"_Boy, your turn will come soon."_ They closed the door to the cell, leaving him and his hurt friend alone again. He didn't care that he would soon be taken by them, all he cared about was the girl slumped in his arms.

Billy looked down to Mandy's face as he cradled her in his arms. Her skin was pail, an almost ghostly white, and her hair was dishevelled. Her hands were covered in dry blood, each with a small hole in the palm coming out the back of her hands. Her lips held blood on them from being hit in the face several times, and her breathing came in short shallow gasps. Clearly she was still in a great deal of pain.

Carefully he lifted her slightly so he could shuffle his way to the left corner of the cell, propping himself up against the wall and the bench. There he held her gently, trying to ease the pain as much as possible, laying her head against his shoulder to comfort the girl.

Slowly Mandy opened her eyes again to gaze up at the one person who she wanted to be there for her more than anything or anyone. She relished in the care he gave her now that she was the weak one. Before now she had been a strong, harsh young woman who took charge by nature, wise and confident beyond her years. Now though she had been reduced to nothing but a scared, weak little girl who could barely hold her eyelids open through the haze of pain and exhaustion. Right now, for the first time in her life, she needed someone else to be strong for her, and that person was Billy, now that he was the only one capable of supporting both himself and her.

"_Billy..."_ Her strained little voice came as little more than a whisper.

"Don't worry, I've got you. Everything's okay now." He smiled caringly down to her like a parent and gently ran his fingers through her hair, making her close her eyes and snuggle in closer to him with the last of her strength. Mandy remembered long ago how her mother had ran her nais through her hair just like he was, and it finally put her at ease. Seeing her so vulnerable, and yet so at peace now that she was safe in his warm embrace, Billy's eyes welled up with tears. Leaning in he gave her a soft kiss on her forehead and continued to gently run his fingers through her hair.

He held her for as long as he could, thankful that for now at least she was safely within his arms. Though she said nothing Mandy felt the same, her usually cold and merciless demeanour all but forgotten in the comfort of Billy's embrace, and all her screams of agony and distress gone with it. It was a funny and absurd thing to her, that the attachment and weakness she was willingly surrendering to could actually ease her pain and discomfort lingering in her bloody hands and tired body to almost nothing. But with nothing more than her friend's warmth and comfort to gain from the situation she was all too happy to just lie snuggled into his protective embrace.

He held her for the next few minutes as she dozed, until the sound of a number of heavy boot steps on the concrete outside grew.

"_Oh no…"_ Mandy whimpered from Billy's arms at the familiar sound. Looking up to the door fearfully the two watched as it opened once more, the same group of nightmarish machines now looking down on the couple huddled together within. Mandy pressed herself hard into her partner's chest, placing her injured hands against his shoulders as if to try desperately to keep them from taking him to what they both knew was about to happen, to keep him there with her lest they bestow the same anguish upon him as they did to her.

"_Boy, you w-"_

_"BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!"_

The entire compound shook as a powerful detonation occurred nearby, making the lights overhead flicker and a blast of air and pulverised concrete dust to rush through.

Immediately the guards forgot about the two prisoners, closing the door to investigate. Mandy kept her head pressed into her friend's body as they listened to the sound of hurried footfalls outside. Billy helped her to sit up in his arms as several more explosions rang out nearby, and the sound of laser fire began to echo throughout the facility.

"What the hell? What's going on?" Thinking warily about what was causing the destruction Billy shuffled to position himself between the door and Mandy, in case whoever was shooting came in here and decided to get rid of them, that way at least Mandy would have a reasonable chance of survival should worst come to worst and they tried to prevent their escape by killing them. She stayed pressed up to him as they listened to the sounds of the fighting as it got closer to their cell block. Outside they heard the shouts and screams of pain of the wounded and dead, and the heavy thud of the machines hitting the ground.

They waited as the blasts came and went from the corridor, Mandy slipping her injured hand into Billy's comforting grasp as they awaited who or whatever was outside.

Out of the hanging atmosphere of fear between the two came a ray of hope, the door opening to reveal a strongly built man in his mid thirties, brandishing a scythe.

"Grim!" Billy turned around again so he and Mandy could face their saviour as he came in to check on the two.

"Are you guys alright?" He asked with concern. Immediately he noticed how pail and dishevelled Mandy was, add to the fact Billy was actually comforting her and the serious wounds to her hands.

"They tortured Mandy." Billy told him as he knelt down to the girl, as she stared up at him wide eyed. This was so far from what he had ever seen before in her that he almost didn't know what to do. Billy picked up on this, taking charge again as he looked up to Grim with Mandy still nestled comfortably in his embrace.

"Will you please tell us what the hell is going on?" He spoke gestured as a number of people ran to and fro outside, weapons at the ready.

"It's the resistance. I found them and told them you were here." They kept looking to where the sound of distant fire fights could be heard. "They've come to get you guys out." Indeed they could see what looked like a great number of liberated prisoners running down the corridor towards the direction of the blasts earlier.

Mandy tried to sit up, only to gasp as a wave of pain and nausea hit her, forcing her back down. _"Ugh…_ Grim, help me up." She spoke up at last, wincing from her aching muscles. Bending down he carefully slipt his arms around Mandy's back and thighs, lifting her up bridal style while she positioned her head upright against his shoulder, the movement making her feel faint.

Billy rose to his feet as Grim made his way out the door to where a steady flow of people rushed back and forth. Grim managed to hold onto his scythe while supporting Mandy. They noticed the trouble he was going to despite it currently being rendered useless by the field generated somewhere within this place.

"Put that away. We've already tried Mandy's scythe and it didn't work. They have a field that suppresses all that supernatural stuff."

"I know. Don't worry about it, the others have it covered. The field should be coming down any moment now." Not a second later came the spoke the sound of another explosion in the distance, feeling the scythe hum to life in his hand as the generator responsible for the suppressor field was destroyed.

"Billy, take it!" He extended his hand slightly, Billy reaching out and taking hold of the now unrestrained weapon. Brandishing it in his hands he ran out to the front with Grim and Mandy a few paces behind him.

At the end of the cell block, where it joined on with the centre hub of the complex, the crowd of liberated prisoners and rebels took cover at the corner of another hall. A large hole had been blown in the concrete wall down the right side of the curving circular corridor, serving as their escape route.

Before they could move to reach it three of the robotic guards rounded on them from the left side of the hallway and opened fire. The powerful bolts of energy flashed through the air, striking and killing two rebels and an escapee foolish enough to venture out from the cover of the wall, blowing deep burning holes through their bodies.

The others of the group hunkered back down as they struggled to deal with the enemy machines. The three rebels remaining fired from the corner of the walls with a pair of compact railguns, riddling the armoured machines with metal slugs. They staggered slightly as the armour piercing flechettes left deep craters in the frontal armour, while one had an arm damaged by a rebel wielding a stolen plasma rifle.

They tried to destroy the rebels but the hardened core ballistic rounds and blasts of million degree gas perforated their bodies, shattering and vaporising vital components. Two of the machines keeled over dead, while the third managed to survive the hail of fire, aiming at the group once more with its menacing weapon.

The survivors took cover again as the machine fired on them once more. The plasma blew holes across the surface of the concrete, sending particles of burning rock flying from the wall they were hiding behind. Neither of them were able to shoot back as the hail of suppressive fire forced them to remain behind cover, while another four machines joined in on the action.

Billy managed to sneak a glimpse of their attackers, seeing them closing the distance as they fired, covering their slow advance under the spray of fire. In the back stood an officer, commanding the machines while shooting with a handheld fletcher.

Billy looked down to the scythe within his hands. He tightened his grip, raising the energy within ready to attack.

'_Heh, now it's the idiot's time to shine.'_

When the machines were only a few metres away he jumped out from the cover of the wall, ignoring the horrified cries of protest from the others, out beyond the field of fire. Before they could react he aimed the scythe at the group, forcing a blast of white hot energy to tear out from the tip of the staff. The blast caught the damaged one in the shoulder, blowing an arm off, and leaving a gaping hole once occupied by electronics. The blast continued, striking the one behind it in the chest, blasting a hole through its body. Both machines fell over dead, knocked over on their backs by the power of the blast.

The officer recoiled as he and the group of machines watched the boy, one mere boy, take down two of theirs with such ease. Turning back to the offending young redhead with his scythe charged for another attack, he pointed in his direction with his face twisted in anger.

"Kill hi-AAURGH!"

He was cut off as Billy swung the scythe at them, a surge of electrical energy blasting from the blade to sear him and the group of bulky machines with hundreds of volts. The central processors of the guards sparked and disintegrated under the massive current. They spasmed uncontrollably as the hydraulic rams within them pushed and heaved against each other at the same time, eventually tearing themselves apart from the inside, their limbs breaking and falling off as the remaining three dropped to the ground in a haze of smoke. The officer got a much weaker shock being further away, but it was enough for him to try to scream in agony, finding his lungs wouldn't respond, before blacking out from the pain. He keeled over landing against the wall, sliding down to the floor where he slumped unconscious.

Billy lowered the scythe, on the lookout for any other possible threats. The resistance fighters stared at him from their position crouched on the ground, stunned at his heroism and the power he had shown. He just looked back at them dispassionately, annoyed by the awkward silence in the middle of a battle with people dying.

"Hello? Where's the exit?" He demanded with authority. The rebels watching shook themselves from their little daze to get back to their feet.

"This way! Get to the transports outside!" One beckoned the group to follow him as they made their way past Billy down the right of the corridor, leaving the blasted remains of the guards behind them. He grabbed one of the scruffy fighters by the arm. "Get the officer, we'll take him back with us."

He nodded and turned back to pick up the unconscious man in the black coat. Billy went out in front again as he made his way along the left curving hallway past dead and wounded towards the breech in the wall, scythe raised to deflect any fire. There he stood guard as the other inmates passed through the gaping hole in the wall. Watching as Grim and Mandy passed followed by the resistance soldier with the officer slung over his shoulder, Billy followed them from the rear, wary of any stragglers as he made his way to the hole, jumping out to the barren courtyard outside.

Stepping out into the open air he looked up to the corrupted sky overhead, its permanent cover of thick black clouds of acrid pollution bathing the dead world below in darkness, though it appeared slightly less dense out here away from the city. Over towards the horizon though, where the broken perimeter wall cut into his view, he could see the orange-red light of the sun shining through in places, leading him to believe it was sometime in the late afternoon.

Continuing on he ran up next to Grim and Mandy as he carried her towards the huge exterior wall around the perimeter. A number of open body transports awaited them in the courtyard beneath the devastated guard towers rising from the cratered exterior wall. They crossed the ground between the buildings and the transports, on the lookout for any guards who may have escaped destruction. Mandy saw one of the guards blown in half lying on the ground reaching for its weapon a few feet away.

"Look out, it's still alive!" She shouted as loudly as she could in her weakened state, pointing to the shattered hulk.

The resistance members rounded on it too late as it reached its weapon, raising it to fire into the crowd, settling on the man holding the little girl who had shouted out. Aiming the weapon at the target in his arms it was about to fire on its young target, when it noticed a figure running at it, a long bladed weapon raised ready to strike. It turned to aim at the approaching boy too late as the scythe cut the arm off, before following up by bringing the scythe blade down into its armoured torso, taking it offline. Billy snarled and brutally wrenched the scythe from the wreck as several of the crowd cheered him. He dismissed their congratulations and calls of encouragement as he returned to Mandy's side. She looked to him with an awe that she had never had for anyone, and felt a sense of admiration swell within her for the moment.

'_He just saved my life. Billy just saved me.'_ She watched him as he surveyed the scene with a calm and controlled zeal, the scythe grasped in his hands as if he was born with it. From behind a concrete wall twenty metres away another four of the heavy mechanical drones trudged around and took aim at the group. Billy was in motion immediately, raising a static field to protect the group against their fire which burst harmlessly across its transparent surface. His eyes ablaze with battle fury he was in motion again, swinging the scythe around and forming a giant glowing green lash that burned a line in the ground as it streaked towards and across the soldiers, smashing them. He followed with another blistering lash that destroyed what was left, bringing down part of the wall they had emerged from behind. He scowled, a slight smirk appearing at having smashed something as yet more people cheered him on, keeping by their side as they continued on. Mandy gazed on in awe. _'Billy, when did you become so responsible?'_

Without any further delay the group began piling into the helicopter-like transports, the trio making their way into a beige coloured one, two powerful weapons mounted on posts where the doors were supposed to be. They secured a spot at the back amongst the fighters and other liberated prisoners. Billy sat on Grim's right side next to Mandy, who was still propped up in his arms. Carefully she eased herself out of Grim's grasp and manoeuvred herself across to sit herself down on Billy's lap, resting her head against his chest. Billy smiled lovingly at the girl, wrapping his arms gently around her waist as the transport gave a loud hum and began to rise into the air once more.

They watched from the open gap out the side of the transport as they rose higher above the base. They could see the ruined facility below, billowing smoke in several areas, holes blasted into its hardened surface in places. They watched the remaining transports on the ground take off, striving for altitude in a hurry. Once they were all safely away from the ruined prison someone somewhere pressed a button, detonating a large explosive device in the heart of the complex. Everything within a hundred metres of the explosion disintegrated, an enormous ball of flame and white hot dust now forming from its ashes. A chorus of cheers broke out throughout the trail of transports as the entire facility was pulverised by the massive explosion. Mandy watched from the comfort of Billy's arms as the mushroom cloud rose in the distance, slowly fading away as they flew off back to the hidden base hundreds of kilometres away.

A moment later one of the rebel fighters came over to kneel down before Mandy, opening up a first aid kit.

"Don't worry sweetheart. We'll have you patched up soon." Carefully he took her left hand, examining the wound going right through with all the care not to cause her any pain. He grimaced at the fact that those people hadn't even hesitated to do this to a child, without any sense of remorse or hesitation. Reaching into the kit he retrieved a small plastic bottle, squeezing a small amount of some clear gel onto his finger. Mandy readied herself for the stinging pain that was likely to come, Billy wrapping his arms tighter around her to comfort her. When the medic applied it to her bloody palm it had the most wonderful tingling, cooling sensation like mint inside the wound that took away all the pain in a moment. He began to apply it to the other side of her hand after a few moments, wrapping her hand in a bandage, when the day's trials began to catch up with her.

The coolness of the gel and the bandage on her injured hand. The warmth of Billy's arms holding her close, safe in his loving embrace. The cold, dry wind rushing by outside as they sped through the polluted evening sky. The fatigue that made her eyes heavy. She snuggled into Billy's arms as her exhaustion took her. However just before she gave into the softness of sleep, a final gritty thought crossed her mind. _'I am not a sweetheart.'_

* * *

Gradually the alien red sun set on their first hellish day in this new world of ruin. Grim and Billy remained awake as the transports came to rest hours later in the secluded patch of desert that Grim had first discovered them. The range of hills the underground base was set into was near the border of where Mexico used to be. The transports touched down in the hangars carved into the side of the hill, their passengers disembarking into the far more welcoming and hospitable arms of the resistance. Grim carried Mandy to the infirmary with Billy in tow, led there by a man wearing some form of militant revolutionary garb, supposedly of some leadership position.

After checking Mandy over the medics found nothing more serious than the painful holes in her hands and her severe exhaustion. Despite the fact that the girl had been unconscious at the time, and themselves being strictly professional, Billy had absolutely refused to let them undress her to get a more thorough examination or change her clothes. He didn't care if it was their duty, no one was going to see her undressed and vulnerable, and he kept it that way. The doctors relented, warned off not only by his threats of violence, but also the threat of what he told them would happen once she woke up and found herself to have been stripped in her sleep. They quickly bandaged her hands again, giving her a bed in her own room. Though Mandy was unconscious and therefore had no knowledge of it, the person who had led them in had apparently pushed that they each be given priority treatment and be made comfortable. Billy thought strange of it considering to the resistance they should have appeared as being no different to any of the other prisoners they had liberated though he knew of no reason why. He would bring it up with Grim and Mandy in private once she was awake.

They left the girl there for the night to focus on the other patients from the attack. Grim and Billy were given a room to share out of the huge network of concrete hallways. Billy however hadn't so much as moved from his spot at Mandy's side; he sat in a metal chair next to her bed, willing himself to stay awake in case his friend needed him. Billy though, strong willed as he was in his own right, he wasn't quite as strong as Mandy, and eventually succumbed to his fatigue after another few hours, though even then his mind remained active in the background, awakening whenever Mandy let out a soft groan or sigh in her sleep.

'_When did she get so beautiful? She's so cute when she's asleep.'_ Billy watched her with barely open eyes as she nuzzled the pillow in her sleep, contemplating on just how beautiful his long time companion had become. Though she was a cold and vengeful mistress, unfeeling, dark and relentless in her quest for control, he couldn't help but feel…

He just had to say it. Not so she could hear him, but just to hear himself say it out loud after holding and suppressing the powerful feelings he held inside of him for so long. He had to let it out. He had to hear himself say it. Leaning in towards the sleeping dark angel he whispered softly into her ear.

"I… _adore_ you Mandy."

Somewhere within Mandy's subconscious she heard the sound, vaguely recognising the words, recognising the sound of Billy's voice, and the feelings. Though she wouldn't consciously remember it when she awoke, somewhere in the depths of her mind the sound became ingrained inside her. She emitted a soft sigh of content and snuggled further into the bed in her sleep.

* * *

The next day.

Mandy's consciousness returned sometime in the morning, or at least she assumed it was morning. It was hard to tell as they were underground and the lights had been on all night waiting for her to wake.

'_I feel… comfortable. I'm warm, and there's something soft underneath me. My head feels like it's propped up on something soft. I think I'm lying in a bed. Where am I?'_ She remembered Grim and their knights in battered and improvised armour coming to rescue them from the clutches of her future self. _'It was lucky they came when they did. Another few minutes and it would be Billy who was…'_ She inwardly shuddered at the memory her thoughts dragged up; so much pain, screaming, like being burnt on a flame all over for hours on end. How many times had she cried out for her father to comfort her?

Billy stirred in his seat at the sound of Mandy's groan, and noticed her facial features knot together as she gritted her teeth, willing her mind off such a horrible experience back to her present situation.

Without opening her eyes she scanned over herself, seeing what she could feel of the general state of her body, searching for any injuries she hadn't noticed before. _'Let's see, my hands feel kind of tight and stiff, and they still hurt a bit. They don't seem to be too bad though, they're probably bandaged up.'_ Moving on she searched throughout every limb and corner of her body. _'Looks like I'm alright. Now where am I?'_

Gradually she forced her eyes to open, slowly letting them adjust to the glaring white light overhead. Billy instantly sat upright as he saw her eyes open.

"Mandy?" He called to her softly.

She heard her name spoken nearby, and from a familiar, very welcome voice, the sound drawing her further out of unconsciousness. As she struggled to focus her eyes from the blur that greeted her she noticed his dark shadow against the light from the ceiling. Gradually he came into view, the same caring, concerned face that she longed to see. And the face she would inevitably have to never see again at some point.

"Mandy? Can you here me okay?" He asked her as she turned her head to face him. She gradually ceased squinting as she adapted to the lights of the room.

"Yeah I hear you." Her voice was soft and strained from her ordeal, but she looked and felt a lot better than she had been when she was dumped back in the cell. Where once she was as white as Grim's bones she now looked like her normal self, even if that was itself still fair in comparison to her friend looking down upon her.

"How do you feel?" Billy moved some strands of her blonde hair away from her face with his hand. Mandy closed her eyes, letting him run his hand through her hair for a moment before she returned to her normal cold and emotionally distant self. Billy relished in each second of being able to trace his fingertips across her silky soft skin and hair before pulling his hand away again at her impersonal demeanour, in stark contrast to her more affectionate side she had developed over time.

"I'm fine. All I needed was a night's sleep." She pulled her hands up to her sides and propped herself up on her elbows. Steadily she rose up to sit upright in the bed with the sheets at her hips, finding to her gratitude she was still dressed in her pink dress and black shorts. "I just need to get to my feet, then I'll be… "

She went to swing her legs out from under the covers when a sudden flood of light-headedness rapidly took hold. She closed her eyes and gasped for breath, Billy leaning forward ready to help her upon seeing her go white again. She fell back to the soft support of the pillow, breathing hard, her nerves tingling like every corner of her body had been starved of blood.

"Mandy!" Billy cried as he rushed to make sure she wasn't hurt. "Just stay down for now alright. You're too weak to go walking around right now."

As she fought to stay conscious while her lips turned from a warm pink to a much more pail shade, she thought back to her earlier self diagnosis. _'Guess I'm not in such a good shape after all.'_

Mandy rode out the feeling of light-headedness and tingling that was almost beginning to hurt, feeling the blood beginning to circulate more like it had been earlier after a few minutes. Opening her eyes now that the uncomfortable mix of sensations had passed she looked over to where Billy was still positioned at her side with concern etched in his features. Despite the lingering light-headedness she felt a funny warmth momentarily in her face. "Don't worry, I'll be okay."

"You should stay in bed for at least the rest of the day. You need to recover." Billy sat down at her side again. Behind them Grim opened the door to check on them, his blue human eyes resting on Mandy's now conscious form as they looked to him. He closed the door behind him as he walked in to greet the battered girl. As he neared he noticed she appeared slightly more pail now than when he had checked half an hour ago. She looked at him with her fearful scowl as per usual, but right now she looked more looked an angry bunny slumped back in her soft bed, her face nestled into the pillow with Billy there by her side to provide emotional support.

"Hey Mandy, how're you feeling?" She just growled at him in response, drawing strength from her insulted pride.

"Stop asking how I am! Everyone's so concerned over poor defenceless Mandy." She barked and sat up to glare at him, empowered by her rage at his insolence. A slight smirk tugged at the corner of Billy's mouth. "Well I'm just…"

Again the colour drained from her face, leaving her to flop back into the bed like a ragdoll. An irate and very light-headed ragdoll suffering from exhaustion.

"… not so good." She groaned from her position lying down as her lips went white once more. "Does anyone have any freezing cold water?"

Billy nodded. "Just a sec…" He ran from the bedside, disappearing out the door to the base beyond.

Mandy looked around at the room. It looked relatively new, even if it was still improvised. She could see the white concrete walls had been painted too thin in places most likely from lack of paint. The fluorescent lights overhead weren't wired up inside the ceiling; rather they were bolted up there with the wires trailing off along the roof through a hole in the wall where Billy had just left. The entire room smelt like… She couldn't quite put her finger on the mixture of scents, of humans scurrying about hurriedly, of ozone from sub-standard electronics, and the general stale quality of the air in this harsh future.

Grim dragged the chair Billy was sitting on to the foot of the bed, seating himself down backwards on the chair. The two stared back and forth for a moment.

"Billy told me what happened to you. You're a very brave girl Mandy, to endure something like that." Grim spoke, careful on his choice of words. "You're parents would be very proud."

Mandy remained silent, thinking over what her parents would feel if they were here. _'They would be proud I suppose, if they weren't so afraid of me. Maybe they would be regardless. Maybe they always were.'_ She cast her gaze down at the memory of her deceased parents. _'I don't know if they were proud of me or not. Maybe they hated me. Maybe they were ashamed of me. I guess I'll never know now.'_

Grim guessed what she was feeling seeing her downcast face. "I'm sorry."

Mandy's face shot up again to glare at him with intense venom. "Don't be. Don't ever be sorry for me Grim." Her words carried a great deal of weight before them, as she was speaking them from deep within her. "Don't feel pity for me, because I don't for anyone else. I don't have the luxury of being pitiable. It's an emotion that comes from the weak, and goes to the weak, and only serves to makes us weaker. I can't allow it. Maybe you can for others but not for me!" She spat the words out from her position on the bed, her temporary weakness not taking any of the hard edge out of her words.

"Funny, that wasn't the impression when I saw you with Billy just a moment ago." He pressured her, to which she scoffed and turned away angrily half ashamed.

"It was a mistake! Just a moment of weakness! Don't assume I don't know what I'm talking about servant!" She snapped.

"Alright, alright. Jeez gime a break she-devil." Grim waved her off while she snarled at his insolence. Inside they both knew she had lost the argument when she had bought up his slavery, only adding to her quiet shame. The two sat in strained silence for another moment, waiting for Billy to return. Grim stared off to the side of the bed absent-mindedly, looking to the spot Billy sat two minutes earlier. Mandy noticed his empty stare at the unoccupied space.

"What?" She spoke half-heartedly. Grim looked up to her again.

"You know, this is the first time Billy has left your side since you got here a good twelve hours ago. He hasn't left your side once ever since you arrived."

Mandy was somewhat thrown off guard at the small revelation, that Billy was devoted and cared enough about her to stay by her side throughout the entire night. She didn't quite know what this meant for her. How was she going to abandon him if he cared so much about her?

'_I can't get any further attached. I have to leave him as soon as all this is over, regardless of how much it hurts him.'_ She hated the tightness that arose in her chest at the thought of betraying him after all they had gone through together. _'He comforted me when I was in pain. He took care of me. And the worst part of it is I… I liked it, being in his arms felt good. I have to stop this, but it's just getting so hard.'_ She concentrated on what she needed to do to gain power as she spoke to answer Grim.

"It doesn't matter. I have little use for him now." She answered coldly.

Her guardian sighed disparagingly. He wasn't going to argue against her, it was already out of his hands. She had made the decisions and was going to stick by them as she always does, and would have to deal with whatever consequences she suffered from it alone.

"Now then, where am I?" Mandy finally asked the main question that had been concerning her since she realised she wasn't in the cell. Considering their rescue by the resistance she had a fairly good idea.

"The resistance bought us to their main base. It's out in the desert to the south of the city where they won't find us, built into the side of a mountain." Grim explained, gesturing around him to the room. "From the looks of things they're actually pretty well equipped, and more than able to hold their own, so I guess we're safe from the hordes of machines that are supposed to be serving you." He turned the chair around so he could lean back in his seat against the backrest. "This is your room. The base is pretty full but they were willing to give you your own. Billy and I have our own room just down the hall."

As Grim was finishing explaining their surroundings Billy returned through the door with an old and tarnished steel pitcher of water and a glass in his hands. "Sorry there's no ice, but it should be cold enough." He poured the glass to the brim with the cool life giving liquid, handing it to Mandy's outstretched hand. She had regained some of her strength since her last dizzy spell, enough to lift the glass at least, but her face was still pail. She quickly drank down half the contents of the glass, feeling the cold water washing down her throat. She hadn't quite realised how thirsty she was, and was glad Billy had bought a pitcher with him. She paused to breathe after gulping down half of its contents, before raising the glass over her head and purposely dumping the remaining water onto her face. Her sense of touch returned to her as she could feel the rivers of water trailing down the side of her face, through her hair and down the back of her neck, easing the discomfort of the numbness and tingling that had been plaguing her.

"Refill?" Billy asked to which Mandy nodded. He filled the glass again, setting the pitcher down on the small bedside table nearby. He leaned back to take a seat, surprised that he didn't feel any chair coming up to greet his posterior. He flopped down on the ground, flailing around like a stunned fish before he got to his feet again. "What happened to my chair?" He staggered from the shock of the disappearing furniture. Grim and Mandy simply remained calm and quiet, waiting for him to figure it out. After all, he wasn't quite as stupid as he used to be, but exactly how stupid and random could he still be when given the chance?

His gaze fluttered about the room hurriedly, resting on Grim after skimming over his seated form several times. Narrowing his eyes he dimly recognised the shape of his chair supporting Grim's fleshy hind quarters.

"Oh. Te hee!" He realised his blunder, giggling to himself, before attempting to sit back down in his chair. Again he fell flat on his back, tumbling backwards in a ball of bundled up limbs until he hit the wall. Bouncing up again he began looking around for the source of the unexpected manner of support, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth.

It appeared he could still be just as stupid as he used to be when he wanted to.

So how did he relate to the stern young man who had smirked when he smashed several enemy robots?

Turning back towards Mandy, Grim spoke in a slightly hushed tone. "One thing you might want to remember, these people are fighting against the future version of you. That makes them your enemy. If they find out about you then they will do everything they can to kill you in the hope of preventing this from ever happening." He looked across to Billy, who had regained his composure. "Billy and I haven't told them anything about you yet, and that goes for your name as well. It would be good for you to make up a fake name so they won't associate you with… well, you."

Mandy thought about it, about what an appropriate name would be. Oddly enough one particular, somewhat unsuitable name stood out, evoking a sense of power, darkness and domination in the one bestowed the title.

Her thoughts were shaken by a knock on the door.

"Come in." She called. A tall man in his mid forties opened the door. He greeted them all with a smile as he walked through the open doorway.

"Good morning. I see you're awake at last." His tone was relatively upbeat, unfitting with the conditions of his life and the world he lived in.

"You're very perceptive." Mandy replied sarcastically. "Or were you blind before?"

The man just laughed, drawing a great wide grin across his face. His brown hair was short and spiked up across his head, continuing down into a short beard, while his skin was of a more southern European shade. He stood at six feet tall and with an imposing stance despite his jolly disposition. He wore an old dark green army uniform with a red four sided star on the right arm, matching slacks and boots, with an old light brown shirt underneath. From first impression he seemed to live a rough lifestyle and didn't seem to mind getting dirty, as was evident in what looked like dirt and grease smeared in places on his face and clothes. His breath smelled of tobacco smoke or something similar, the tobacco plant likely being almost certainly extinct. All up he appeared to be modelled after the countless left wing radicals that had come before him.

"Spirit! Defiance! We could use a few more like you." He looked across to where Billy was standing next to her. "Along with a few more of him!" Mandy raised an eyebrow at this while Billy sniggered.

"Billy? What's so special about him?" At this the man's ear to ear grin threatened to tear his facial muscles apart.

"Little girl, your friend here is a revolutionary hero! According to reports he took down several machines on his own back at the prison, and in doing so saving the lives of many of my men. He stepped out into the line of fir, and put his own life on the line to crush our enemies and protect his comrades." He rested a hand on the boy's shoulder. "And the weapon he used! I've never seen or heard of someone causing that much metal damage before. Reports say he smashed them like they were toys!" Billy remained silent throughout his excessive gushing.

"I'll admit he did cause more damage than the rest of the group put together, but he's always been a force of destruction. He's practically a living natural disaster." Mandy explained to him while the group reminisced on the madness Billy had bestowed upon Endsville and the world over time.

"He was too much for the goddess of chaos, so I have a feeling he'll be too much for you." Grim added as Billy leapt up to grab hold of one of the glowing fluorescent tubes overhead, tearing it out of its spot in the wall with the wires still attached.

"Hey check it out! I found me a lightsaber!" Billy laughed as he swung the shining white tube around. Before five seconds had passed he had long since gotten bored with it.

'_What should I do with my giant glow stick now?'_ Racking his currently deactivated brain he brightened as a brilliant idea came over him. An idea so brilliant in fact one could have almost called it _smashing_.

'_I've got it!'_ Standing at attention he swung the brittle tube down onto his head, shattering it over his skull, spreading white powder over his face. He wiped up some of the powder with his finger, sticking it in his mouth to taste the dangerous powder.

"Mmmm, toxic!" He started cleaning up his face, eating up the fine white powder. The strange bearded man watching him in morbid curiosity. He also eyed the others, failing to understand their seeming indifference before shrugging it off for his own mental well being.

"Full of the wholesome goodness of Mercu-ACHO!" In an instant the dangerous metal was ejected in a heap out his nose, splattering against the wall and floor.

"Now then," Mandy began, bringing the newcomers attention back to them, "why don't you tell us what's going on around here. Who are you?"

The man straightened himself up, straining to his full height for an introduction. "My name is Mac. I am the head general and leader of the resistance movement." He saluted them lazily with two fingers. "This is the headquarters and primary base of operations for the entire organisation. It's located south of the capital. We perform guerrilla attacks from here against the outlying areas of the metropolitan zone to the north, as well as strategic attacks against key installations." The three listened and nodded.

"Why did you bring us here?" Mandy continued as she sat up slightly, careful to avoid another dizzy spell. "Before this we had no contact with you, so what use are we to you?"

The general stepped back to lean against the door frame. "We conduct many different activities with the aim of freeing the people from the regime's tyranny. Among the different guerrilla attacks we engage in one of the most important is the liberation of prisoners from labour camps and prison complexes similar to the one we broke you two out of. Those who we liberate are by default recruited into our ranks to grow our numbers. In addition we engage in the usual border raids, assassinations, bombings, spreading misinformation and propaganda, and sabotage. We also conduct cyberwarfare operations, infecting the capital mainframe and networks with viruses. It was just by luck that you happened to be there when we came." He looked around, flicking his eyes between the three of them. Mandy studied him acutely, though he simply continued to grin confidently.

"I suppose this is a stupid question," Mandy began, "but what exactly are you fighting against?" Mac looked questioningly at her from his position against the door. "And what exactly is… well… the general status of the world?"

The general cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. "Why are you asking this? Shouldn't you already know this from ordinary life?"

They looked across to each other uncertainly. "We'll tell you later." Grim responded. "Just tell us about everything that's going on. How did the world end up the way it is now?"

Mac continued to look at the man strangely before he continued, preparing to tell the story of the downfall of the world. "Okay. For starters, we are the resistance against the oppressive rule of the Night Empire, which is a dictatorship ruled by a woman going by the name Mandy of the Night." The three remained silent as he spoke the name Mandy would one day take.

And had in fact already taken. Mandy thought back to the talk between Grim and her. _'I am the night.'_

Mac let them take in this bit of information before continuing. "Empress Mandy is the immortal ruler of the world. She oppresses everyone living under her shadow. Because of her humanity has been forced to essentially give up the concept of being human. People now spend their lives struggling to survive. Most have to fight against each other for life's basic necessities in addition to trying to raise their standard of living. Everyone lives in fear of her. Right from the very beginning they are taught to obey or else. Other people don't matter to her, and because of her other people don't matter to anyone else either. That's probably the worst thing she's done, she's stopped people from caring about each other. It's because of her that humanity has lost its humanity."

The three remained silent. They could each sense where Mandy's beliefs and ambitions had come true, as well as some which were in fact wholly untrue. Billy and Mandy both knew it wasn't her who had drilled people into becoming sociopaths, she had intended to do the exact opposite. They had been that way before they had left. But when she had seen what happened to the body in the streets, at what the local children had been reduced to, she had to wonder. How could it have gotten as bad as she had seen it? If her entire civilisation was to control people and keep them from degenerating into savages, then why had so much depravity been allowed to go unpunished?

"She rules from a fortress in the mountains above the city. She never leaves. No one's seen her in decades. We don't even know what she looks like."

Realisation occurred to her at this. It explained why the empire had been left to rot, and why neither her own forces nor those of her enemy recognised her younger form. Without her there to take the reigns actual management of the imperium would have gone to the officers, who were all focussed on advancing their own positions as opposed to keeping order, hence why her civilisation had fallen into such disrepair.

Billy took a seat at the foot of Mandy's bed, careful not to disturb her lest he aggravate her weakened state and incur her divine wrath in the aftermath. "So how does she take over? I mean the world's a pretty big place after all. If Hitler failed, and Napoleon failed, and Caesar failed, how did she succeed?" Again the general was surprised by the boy, first for his bravery and strength, second for his overwhelming idiocy, and now for his intelligence in the matter of ancient history. Billy, it seemed, was a very strange and somewhat mysterious boy, and difficult to fully understand and predict, something that would work against him.

Mandy and Grim also felt this way about him from time to time; that they didn't really understand this growing enigma of contradictions before them. Through the strange concoction of traits that made up his being they had yet to see what it was that was driving him from within. This was particularly true for Mandy, who still hoped to come to understand him before she abandoned him for power.

Mac thought back to the various bits and pieces of history he had cobbled together over time, forming a fuzzy picture of the events that transpired in the evolution of the world as it once was, to the world as it was now, a dead wasteland of endless deserts, towers of concrete and steel and unfathomable misery.

"It started a short time after the turn of the twenty first century. Mandy was only young then, but she was just as evil then as she is now, and just as ambitious. She had a friend, some scientist, construct an army of robots. According to the information we have she produced them in another dimension if you can believe it, hundreds of factories churned them out in the millions. As her army was being built she had her scientist work out a way for her to become immortal, which would deactivate the genetic ageing mechanism and freeze her age at some time in her early twenties when she was in her prime. Looks like he succeeded, and gave it to her so she would never grow old and die. But it goes further than that. From what a number of defectors have told us she can also heal her body using some kind of occult power similar to what we saw your friend use. Even if she was ripped to pieces she would inevitably heal and continue like she was before. We don't know how to counter it. Once she had gained her immortality, she attacked with her hordes of machines."

Throughout the lecture Mandy lay still, listening in absolute rapt concentration at how she was going to do it, Billy and Grim listening with her.

"It started with Endsville, the ancient ruins on the other side of the range. She destroyed half the city with some kind of superweapon while her machines took over the remains, then expanding out across the continent. All the armies of all the countries knew they couldn't defend against the millions of machines advancing across the globe. Eventually they had no choice; they fired their nuclear weapons on North America, which was at the time the extent of her rule. The bombs destroyed every major city and military installation in the areas occupied by her armies, and combined with the retaliatory strikes from the country's remaining submarines and missiles badly irradiated the surface of the earth and caused a nuclear winter, which resulted in massive cooling, famine, population decline and anarchy."

"That's why there's nothing left alive outside of the urban areas." Billy spoke up. "With all the radiation and the dust blocking out the sun all the plants and animals would have died, and without them the soil turned to dust." He reasoned as the general went on.

"But even that failed to stop her. In retaliation for wiping out most of the population of the continent she used her superweapon to gradually destroy each city her armies came across as they swept over the world. Nothing could stop them, and eventually every nation fell to her, leaving her ruler of the world. Near the ruins of her old home town she built her capital, and she still rules from there now." He relaxed back in his place by the door as the story brightened.

"After the clouds of dust from the war had thinned out and the radiation had subsided her new civilisation began to emerge. The remaining people were organised and put to work. Giant cities were built all across the world, and the new world progressed past the point it had been before the war. After a few hundred years the empire's population had risen to twelve billion, and colonies were being built on other planets, the moon, Mars, Europa and Titan. She ruled her empire with an iron fist, and kept everyone in line through constant surveillance and fear. But despite this, all the fear and misery and the selfish nature she drilled into people, humanity as a whole grew to its peak under her rule."

The general thought back to days long passed, of towering skyscrapers, of light and sound, and most of all, human activity. In the first few hundred years after Mandy had taken over, her near divine rule in controlling every aspect of the people's lives bought the world to its ultimate 'Golden Age'. Yet as we all know, when you're at the very top, the only way to go is down.

"It didn't last though. Eventually the civilisation began to die from within, from the destruction of the remaining fertile land, the destruction of the sky from the endless pollution, exhaustion of resources, and humanity just began to destroy itself. The main reason though was because of the Empress herself. For reasons unknown to us she began to stop paying attention to the empire, and just let it wither. People started to starve, social order started to break down, and the Empire of the Night began to die. First the off world colonies were abandoned, then as time went on and the population continued to decline, one by one they left the cities. Now the worlds remaining population are struggling to survive in the capital. It's the last place humans are found alive." Mac sighed, as weary as the world he lived in. "At the rate the world is going now, in another hundred years Mandy will be the only person left in the world."

'_The extinction of the human race. Total decay and collapse of civilisation. How could I let this happen?'_ She could scarcely believe what she was hearing. Mac had told her with all sincerity that she had, or was going to, essentially abandon her life's work to just let it collapse on its own. _'How could I become so apathetic to my own power that I would just let my empire collapse around me and not do a thing?'_

Mac smirked, moving away from his position against the door to stand upright. "There is a silver lining to all this though. Because the empire's dying in the ass, they no longer have the resources to produce the massive numbers of machines they once did. Most of the robots at that prison were, I dunno, twenty years old. And the gunships and tanks are all falling to pieces for lack of maintenance and fuel. Her army is just as much a shell of itself as is her empire. Before now, back when her empire was at its peak, the resistance simply couldn't hope to get off the ground. People tried to fight back, but because of just how much control she had over every aspect of society, numbers were incredibly low. Add to that they were outnumbered a hundred thousand to one, and there wasn't really any reason to bother trying. People just obeyed like obedient little dogs."

Billy could see where he was going with this. "So now that society has collapsed and her armies are not far from scrap, you guys can finally take the fight to them."

The man nodded. "As she lost interest and her empire began to collapse from corruption, she began to loose control. As the cities were abandoned, the resistance began to grow up in the ruins. We began to swell in numbers, and as her armies grew weaker we grew stronger. Now that her civilisation has been reduced to one remaining city which is practically on the verge of anarchy, it's now us who have the upper hand."

They listened as his increasingly irritating smile grew a notch. "The attack on the prison, in addition to all the other liberations for the past few years, was to free as many prisoners as possible so they would join us in preparation for our final move. Not many people know yet but soon we will bring an end to more than a thousand years of tyranny and oppression. In a few days time we are going to attack the city, freeing the population, and then storm the fortress, where we will put an end to the woman responsible for all this!"

Grim and Billy were silently shocked at the revelation, but nowhere near as shocked as Mandy. _'I failed. I had it all, everything I ever wanted to achieve was mine, and I just let it…'_ She turned away from the general as her features tightened into an immensely frustrated scowl. _'WHY? WHERE DID I GO WRONG?'_

Mac looked questioningly at the girl's odd behaviour but said nothing. "Now it's your turn. Your friend here never told us who you two were when he found us, so fill us in."

The three strangers in question looked back and forth between each other. Finally the girl lying semi immobile in her bed answered. "On the left," pointing towards the adult at the foot of the bed, "is the Grim Reaper, our friend, guardian, and slave."

Mac raised an eyebrow and looked casually over to the strongly built man before him, hardly the shocking reaction they were expecting. "We've already met. He explained who he was when he came to us. He revealed his true form to me and a small group." He answered flatly. As such the aforementioned man opened his hand for his scythe to materialise in his grip. Concentrating his will on the fake human flesh surrounding him he mentally ordered it to disband. Mac watched on with interest now as once again the man's flesh seemingly dissolved into a green aurora around his being, leaving a menacing skeleton cloaked in an onyx robe in its wake. He stared in silence at the manifestation of death, still finding it hard to fully believe despite having seen it before.

"We've come across supernatural entities before. The Night Empire has for as long as it's been around dealt with different occult powers and creatures. The facility we broke you out of was originally designed to hold different supernatural creatures for testing and development for use as weapons. But we've never encountered anything like this." He admitted.

"Get used to de fact dat the world is far greater than you humans will ever know mon. Dere are so many worlds in de universe, an' so many universes in existence." Grim told him, letting his thick, almost Jamaican accent flow, freed of its human vessel.

They let the general slowly gaze over him in wonder before returning his attention to the kids again. "To Grim's right is my friend Billy; my closest companion and living natural disaster." Billy grinned again at him.

"And you are?" He asked turning towards the girl in bed.

She had already chosen the name she would go by, and although it didn't quite suit her, she found it easy enough to make it fit. The reasons behind her choice though went far back.

"Maxine. My name is Maxine." She said in a cool, even voice. Her two companions instantly caught on her choice, remembering what they presumed was the source of her alias.

"Well Maxine, Billy, Grim, why are you asking about topics most people already know? Or have you all been living under a rock your entire lives?"

Maxine took a deep breath, before calmly explaining their story. "We came here from approximately one thousand, one hundred years in the past, before all this happened, using technology owned by a friend of mine. The reason as to why we are here is because someone or something came from this time back to ours to try to kill us. We couldn't stop it ourselves and were forced to go into hiding for a time. When we found out it had come from here we came to try and find any information available on it. We want to find out why it is trying to kill us, and how to stop it."

She relaxed back in bed, seeing the man was taking this in quite calmly. She didn't know if it had been wise to tell him so much; it occurred to her that the killer could've been sent by the resistance, but figured it was wiser not to hold back, particularly if they were to become their new allies and providers. "We didn't quite expect this when we arrived."

Instead of disbelief they were met with a quiet sort of musing as the leader contemplated what they had told him. "Normally I wouldn't believe such a far-fetched story, but after…" He gestured towards the skeletal Grim, "… I guess I could make an exception." He held out his arms with a big smile. "Welcome to the future! We hope you survive your stay." With that he turned around, opening the door to leave them in peace. "Maxine." She turned to face him as he called her 'name'. "Can I get you anything? Some soup perhaps?"

Now that Mandy thought about it, she hadn't eaten since they had stopped at a diner on the side of the road for breakfast yesterday morning. She was probably suffering dizzy spells from lack of blood sugar in addition to the torture. "Sure, that'd be good."

Mac nodded and left them, closing the door behind him as he went to get one of the cooks to whip up something for their young patient. Continuing in his own thoughts he focussed on what they had told him, about their origins, and how he would have to brief some of his other comrades on their unique status. After all, though he didn't particularly intend for their new found friends to find out about it, their arrival on the scene had prompted a change in plans for their upcoming revolution.

Whereas before their previous trump cards had all been annihilated before they could be put to use, this time they would be fully able to participate. He already had their job planned out. They were his new trump card, if he could just sway them to their side before their final mission.

* * *

Back with the trio Grim raised his scythe to reapply his human flesh. After that Mandy noticed Billy and Grim looking at her with intrigue.

"Maxine?" Billy asked. "You mean like Max?"

Mandy thought for a moment. Against what he presumed she shook her head. "No. Though Max was definitely the name I was thinking of, it was long before our friend Max came along that I had thought about it. It's Latin. It stands for greatness, for rising up and dominating all beneath you." Mandy leaned back in her bed as she thought about what lay ahead for her. "There will come a day when all the world will bow before me, when I am sole master of all that exists. I will be judge, jury and executioner for those who spread their depravity throughout my world. I will be feared and revered. One day, I will be the greatest of all. I always thought Max would be a more appropriate name, even if it were for a boy."

She thought back to her friend back in Endsville. Max, the polite, calm, almost charmingly mysterious youth; he had become almost a role model to her since he entered her life. He was the voice of reason that taught her to remain strong, to fight her weaker sentiments of love and compassion and attachment. _'If only he were here now. I'm going to need him to break Billy's hold on me.'_

"You know," She mused off-handedly, "if I was born a boy, I would want to be called Max. And if I ever had a son," She continued quietly," not that I probably ever will, I'd name him Max."

After another few minutes a bowl of hot soup was delivered in an old bowl. Grim and Billy left her to eat while they returned to their room. Mandy ate and drank it down as quickly as she could after her first taste, finding her hunger taking over. After her ravenous eating she sat the empty bowl by the side of the bed, before she sank back down under the covers to sleep away the effects of yesterday's trauma.

As she lay on her side, waiting for sleep to relieve her of the boredom of lying here with nothing to do, her thoughts returned to General Mac's ominous tale of the future fall of her empire. The more she thought about it, the more she went over and over the cause for her apparent lack of hunger in maintaining her control. And the more she thought about it, the more she began to suspect the reason why she had become so weak during her reign was something she already knew all too well.

'_Billy. I've become attached to him, and haven't let him go. I must have dragged him along when I took power. He's probably sapped my strength from within, undermining my resolve, turning me soft with time.'_ She snarled furiously at the thought, trying to refrain from clenching her injured hands into fists.

"Billy, you've ruined me. I should never have become you friend in the first place!"

* * *

**Notice how we see the range of the character's personalities displayed here, and the wide swings between the original and custom? I guess it kinda throws a spanner in the works of any kind of progressive change.**

**By the way did anyone ever watch The Boondocks? I based Mac's appearance off him, except for being white and all. His jolly personality though is sort of like Frank from Scarface, too bright and positive for someone in his position. He was actually difficult to wright for seeing as the personality just doesn't fit.**

**Oh well, hope you enjoyed, tell me what you think.**


	27. Billy and Mandy's First Drink

**HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!**

**...**

**AAAHHHHHHH! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIEEE... eventually.**

**Anyway I hope you all had a great Yuletide. I think it's great that that so many cultures and religions around the world have their main celebrations around now, it helps foster community and such. Lots of history there too, good to read about the origins of it all.**

**Okay son to the story. Here we have another little Adam Sandler type filler, although as fillers go this one takes the cake. It just oozes feeling and lots and lots of fluff. I made little squeaky noises while writing the end part. As you can tell through the title this is all pretty light as far as things go, so I hope you enjoy it heaps.**

**A bit of trivia. In Endsville Christmas is always a very nasty time for most people there. Nobody cares about anyone else, so nobody buys or makes any decent gifts, or goes out of their way to do something good for somebody else, all the while expecting everyone else to cough up everything they want like spoilt children. When nobody gets anything good they all blame each other for their selfishness, and the entire season is marked by bitterness and ever greater narcissism. Hell is supposed to be kinda like this. If everybody thought more in terms of 'we' instead of 'I' then the world would be a much nicer place, but it all starts with the induvidual to choose to think like that. Just something for us to consider. Enjoy.**

* * *

**Billy and Mandy's First Drink.**

Grim and Billy spent the rest of their first day with the resistance simply walking around aimlessly, taking in as much as they could about the improvised base built into the hillside. Every piece of technology, and every person moving to and fro going about their business captivated their interest. They had known their rooms were fairly Spartan, not surprising given the state the world economy was in, however as they were introduced to many of the personnel who lived there they began to realise they actually had it fairly good in comparison to the rest of the base. Their bedrooms were the post apocalyptic pinnacle of luxury, with many people simply sleeping in the hallways, most confined to tightly packed bunks carved into the rock and concrete.

Apparently they and the other survivors liberated from the prison were given more privileges than those who served in the resistance prior, officially to show respect for those who had likely gone through treatment similar to what Mandy had gone through. Generally once a person was freed from the fear and pain of the Night Empire's grip, either by fleeing one of the outlying areas or by being liberated from a prison camp, they joined the resistance due to there being no other place to go, and to repay them for saving them from hours of agony and certain death. This, Billy and Grim suspected, was the true reason for the extra privileges to newcomers, to make joining the resistance appear as appealing as possible, though wether it was common knowledge or not they didn't know.

The base itself was a grimy old network of halls and makeshift auditoriums left over from some earlier time and modified by the resistance to suit their needs. From how far they had walked they guessed it must have been over a kilometre in diameter across under the mountain above. Somewhere near one end of the base a kind of chamber had been built with hundreds of rows of seats along the floor, with more seats atop several metal gantries lining the walls like a stadium. They all faced towards the podium at the end of the auditorium, and behind that was a giant computer screen for displaying maps and schematics. They had been told this was where the resistance leaders spoke to their loyal followers and briefed them on their activities. It had also been used for celebrations in the wake of successful attacks, and memorial services in honour of the countless numbers of friends and family they had lost in their fight for freedom. In essence it was the heart of the base.

Elsewhere there was the brain, the command and control centre. It was a dome shaped room lined with computers and monitors, most of it looking old and more than somewhat improvised. They gazed around at the numerous piles of technology ranging from desktop computers, laptops, supercomputers and masses of wiring, all cobbled together in order for the resistance leaders to keep track of and wage war against their massive enemy. From here they watched raids in progress, responding to any change in seconds. And from here they monitored everything that came within one hundred kilometres of the base, ever wary of attack from the armies of their enemy. It was also the launch pad for their cyberwarfare operations to harass the empire's various control systems and networks and degrade their already loosening control over the populace.

"_Squad five report. Patrol complete. Returning to base, over."_

"Roger squad five, you are clear to return, over."

"_Squad eighteen, scavenging report. Enemy gunships near target area. Will have to delay scavenging run, over."_

"Copy that squad eighteen, take your time."

The two stood watching the activity from the sidelines. The base's commanders were present in the room, including the jolly general in the makeshift uniform who had spoken to them a few hours ago. Grim noticed some of the operators stationed at the computer terminals occasionally glance in his direction in interest. Though he was in his human form at that time, they still recognised the face they had seen earlier. It was also easy to remember them due to their relatively new, mostly clean clothes.

"Hey um, buddy." One of the tech specialists spoke from his spot before a grimy old monitor.

Grim turned to face the young man in a tattered brown shirt. "Yeah?"

The man looked uneasily at him, speaking in a strained tone as if he were asking something personal. "Is it true what we've heard? Are you really… the Grim Reaper?" Grim and Billy looked around the room, seeing that everyone else was now looking at them in silence, the general casting a reserved glance in their direction.

Grim remained quiet for a moment, deciding on how best to answer them without raising a panic and having them chased off the base with plasma rifles. "Well that depends."

"On what?" The young man asked.

"On wether or not you scream like little girls afterwards." He answered flatly. Billy's face took on a troubled frown at this, lowering his gaze away slightly.

Looking around the room, seeing as the occupants hadn't become overwhelmed by terror, just a slight sense of apprehension, Grim continued. "Alright. Yes, I am." He summoned his scythe to his hands once more, though not dropping his human disguise. He didn't want to overwhelm the mortals. Quietly he smirked at their reactions as they looked in awe at the immensely powerful artefact he held in his hands. He never got tired of that.

"Hey, I think I remember…" One of the technicians said. "Your friend, Billy right?" Billy nodded though still reserved. "Yeah, he used it to take out a whole load of heavies. He saved a bunch of our guys." The group all began to stare reverently at the youth. Billy though didn't appear to care as he turned away towards the exit. Grim watched him leave, noticing his suddenly troubled state ever since he mentioned that one particular line, and made to follow him out when a hand caught his shoulder. Looking to the source he saw Mac facing him with a slightly unsettling hollow smile.

"I take it our arrangement is still in order?" He spoke in a soft, persuasive tone. Grim's insides clenched. He did not like dealing with this man, nor would the kids like it when he explained their agreement to them, but what other choice did he have?

"It is general, don't worry." The other man smiled and nodded, letting him go to catch up with the boy as they each returned to their own business.

Billy's distressed state continued to deteriorate as Grim caught up with him. As soon as Grim had mentioned those words his memory had been jogged of what had transpired before they had been bought here. He remembered what his partner had been through, a pit developing inside at the thought of what she must have felt through every second of that… _nightmare._ He imagined the sound of her screaming, the blood dripping from her hands, and the feeling in her body that had bought her to the stage she was when they returned her to him. What had they put his Mandy through that she would come back such a wreck? His feelings and affection for the girl, and knowing that she had been hurt, it bought on a kind of heartache and anguish he had never experienced before.

"You want to go back?" Grim spoke. "You could use some sleep, after all you were up most of last night." Billy nodded, feeling the fatigue he had been forcing to the back of his mind come to the forefront.

Grim led the tired boy back to their room. He noticed Billy, instead of getting over his momentary anguish, seemed to be getting more and more down as they made their way back. Grim opened the door to their dull, drab little room, leading him over to his bed at the back of the square room. He pulled back the sheets to burry himself fully clothed within. It wasn't a particularly comfortable place to sleep, but it was better than the bench in their cell. He settled his head wearily on the pillow as Grim stood by his bed concerned over his more and more depressed state.

"You alright?" The older custodian asked his charge. Billy looked glumly into the pillow.

"I was… thinking, about her. About… what happened to her." He sat up in his bed as Grim sat down next to him.

"You know you weren't responsible for that. Besides, Mandy's a tough girl, she'll be alright as long as you are with her."

"But I couldn't do anything!" Grim's living heart clenched at the sound of Billy's voice. It was laden with a sense of hurt pleading, as if he was desperate to undo what had happened. He looked at him with despair and anguish plain in his face.

"I couldn't help her. I… I couldn't do anything for her. All I did was wait in that cell until they dropped her back." He spoke in such a soft voice it was little more than a whisper. Grim sighed inwardly, he couldn't begin to imagine what he must be feeling, and for someone so young to feel it was even worse, especially considering how close he was to her. He shared his pain, Mandy had become almost like a granddaughter in their time in hiding, and the thought of what she must have felt and experienced at their hands made him feel tight inside. He placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, bringing his face up to look him in the eyes and see his kind and compassionate face.

"It's okay Billy, I understand. There was nothing you could have done to save her. Even I couldn't do anything. You're not to blame for what happened to her." Billy just looked down again as yet more pain came to the surface.

"Grim, you weren't there." His voice was breaking up from the hurt inside. "When they took her, I could see. She was so brave but… she was so scared. I've never seen her afraid before." Grim listened in silence to the boy's painful confession, never taking his hand away from his shoulder the entire time. "And when she came back…" Billy broke at this point, bringing his hand up to hold over his face as tears formed in the corners of his eyes. "They hurt her. And I couldn't do anything to protect her."

Grim put both his hands on the boy's shoulders, bringing his tear filled eyes up to look at him. "Billy, I saw you two when I got there. You were there for her, right when she needed you more than ever. You were protecting her. I saw you comforting her, shielding her when we came to get you. It must have helped her so much, having you there after all she had been through. Don't you see? You did help her. You did so much for her when she was too weak to help herself." He spoke to the boy softly, and could feel his words taking effect as the boy relaxed his tensed up face and body. Billy wiped away the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand as Grim continued to reassure his charge.

'_He really has come a long way from that idiot that enslaved me. I should have gotten him his own scythe when I gave Mandy hers.'_ Grim pushed the memory of his promise to the back of his head as Billy came around. He pulled out of his grip to sit up and take a number of deep breathes, calming himself and bringing his emotions back under the control of the logical side of his distorted personality.

"Just remember Billy, you've been a good friend to her for so long now, even when she was cold and distant to you. She's very lucky to have someone like you with her." He ran a hand through his short rust red hair and rose from the bed as Billy sank back down between the covers. Walking back towards the door he continued to speak. "Billy I know she's been trying to push you away, she's afraid of what it might mean to be close to you, but behind all that she really needs you there for her, far more than she realises."

He turned around once he reached the door, only to find Billy had already fallen asleep from his exhaustion. He turned out the light so the boy could sleep away the previous day's trials.

"And she's going to need you a lot more in the future." He spoke quietly to the sleeping boy, closing the door behind him.

* * *

The next day.

Mandy awoke sometime during the early morning, or possibly afternoon, it was difficult to tell underground, it could've been midnight for all she knew. Checking herself over mentally she could feel that her body had recovered greatly in the hours since she had last been awake, despite having just regained consciousness.

'_My hands don't hurt anymore.'_ She flexed them slightly, finding that save for some slight tightness they were in more or less perfect order. _'How did they heal so quickly? Oh well, it is the future after all.'_

She opened her eyes to find her bare concrete room covered up by total darkness, with the exception of the line of light coming from under the door. Sitting up in the bed she waited to see if she was going to suffer any fainting spells like yesterday. She sat still in the darkness of her old run down room, waiting for a minute, before figuring she had recovered.

Gradually she slid her bare feet out from under the sheets to set them on the cold and hard ground. Leaning forward she set her weight onto her legs, careful that they weren't going to buckle beneath her. Finally she stood up on her feet, out of the bed for the first time in days. She could feel that she was still relatively weak, despite having recovered. _'Lack of food, that's all. I haven't eaten since… What day is it?'_

She stumbled her way over to where she knew the door was from the light underneath. Reaching its metal surface she remembered the light switch was to her right. Gradually she worked her hands across to the side of the door, across something soft, like fabric, hanging from the doorhandle. _'New clothes I guess.'_ Across further she searched the flat wall for any projection. She found it quickly enough, flicking the switch down. The room stayed dark for a moment, before the remaining fluorescent light flickered and stayed on, lighting up the room with its piercing glare. Again Mandy had to shield her eyes for a moment before they adjusted. Once more she was greeted by the grim decay of a world left to rot, though this particular room was in good order in comparison to other areas of the base, and of the decaying world beyond.

Her onyx eyes returned to the set of clothes she had brushed her hand across. There was a coat hanger suspended on the metal door handle. Suspended on it was a faded olive green tank top, a pair of worn out grey jeans, panties and a bra, all around her size. At the base of the door was also the same pair of rugged looking boots she had bought with her, along with her socks. To the right of them sat her black nylon backpack, which she had forgotten handing over to Grim in the events of the past few days.

Moving on she quickly checked to see if anyone was around. Finding the room empty she stripped down, tossing aside the dirty clothes of two days use she had on, and bit by bit donned her new, tough and decidedly militaristic outfit. Examining her socks she almost gagged at the smell, tossing them onto the pile as she slipped the boots on without them.

Taking a moment she methodically checked herself over. She remembered that she'd always wanted to try wearing something like this, something that spoke of strength and hardiness instead of the sweet pink dress and athletic shorts she usually wore. On first inspection she liked what she saw. The sleeveless green tank top ended halfway down her waist, revealing a slight hint of her underlying figure, and her worn jeans had the look of having gone through hell and back, and that the wearer was now able to dish it out as well as take it. She would have smirked at the 'don't screw with me' aura she felt with them. But it wasn't quite perfect yet.

'_Something's missing. What is it? What did I leave out… Oh!'_ Turning to her bedside table she seized her curved black headband and set it into place, a small flicker of pride and power blossoming inside her. _'Perfect. Okay, now where's the bathroom?'_

Gingerly she opened the door to find a long hallway of grey concrete and old metal pipes overhead. Against the sides of the walls there were other doors leading to rooms presumably like hers. Cautiously stepping out into the foreign territory she closed the heavy door behind her.

Looking up and down the rows of doors she could see other people, men, women and a few children milling about, dressed in a range of attire from militaristic outfits like hers, to what wasn't far from rags. To the right she could see them coming and going from an intersection of sorts, with another hallway cutting across the path of this one. Past the junction she could see the hall extended into the distance, with yet more doors on the other side. Making her way out into the relatively thin crowd of people she searched around for any bearing on where she was. She pulled up one soldier. "Where's the bathroom?"

He pointed to her left down the other end of the hallway and continued on. She started towards the other side of the hall. At the end she found it veered off in a T-section, with doors at each end, which the right appeared to be the ladies. Making her way in she picked up one of the clean towels off the towel rack and passed into one of the shower stalls. She stripped down from her new clothes and got to work cleaning herself down, washing away two hellish days worth of dirt, sweat, blood, and a strange powdered grey dust that had somehow worked its way into the crevasses of her skin.

As she stood under the lukewarm water spouting from the rusty shower head she looked down to the now soggy bandages around he hands. She flexed them into fists and out flat again and again, getting a feel for the state of the hand beneath. She couldn't really feel anything wrong with either as she continued to work them.

Using her right hand she lifted up the edge of the bandage over her left and began to unravel it carefully. She could feel the pressure on her hands alleviating as she removed the outer layers of the bandage. She had removed most of the linen strip around her hand before she came upon the remains of dried blood soaked into the fabric. Unravelling the last few layers she beheld the nearly flawless hand beneath.

She could see where the metal skewer had pierced through her palm, and turning it over she could also see where the exit wound had been. They only showed up as a reddish sort of blemish on the skin's surface. Running her hand under the water she could feel that the two raw spots were slightly more sensitive at the moment, yet it caused her no real pain.

Unravelling her right hand she found it was much the same story, with the wound completely healed, and only two raw patches of skin to show the painful trauma she had experienced there not quite two days ago. _'The miracles of post-modern medicine.'_ She thought to herself as she clenched and unclenched her mostly healed hands, feeling no particular loss of strength or tightness now the bandages were off. _'What was that stuff they put on the wounds?'_ She recalled back to the cooling gel in the transport, right before she had passed out.

After another few minutes under the water she turned it off and began to towel herself down with the old badly worn out rectangle of thick fabric. Hanging it over the door she once more donned her new clothes and headed back out, feeling much more alive than she had when she came in. Upon returning to the hallway out front she made her way through the crowd of people coming and going, on towards the intersection up ahead.

'_I wonder where Billy and Grim are.'_ She continued scanning the crowd for any sign of her friends. Upon making her way to the crossway in the halls she turned left, following the corridor down towards what she figured was the main street of the base where people conducted their business. The hallway here was packed with scruffy people, voices and movement. There was an air of rush and an underlying enthusiasm. Lined up along the walls were markets and small stores, people selling food and clothes, even restaurants and cafes. It was like a self-contained town built entirely within the confines of the existing concrete tunnels. Half mesmerized by her surroundings she continued to wander the marketplace in the hope of finding her two companions in the mass of enemy fighters and businessmen.

"Hey Maxine!" She twirled around to find Billy waving in her direction from across the bustling hallway, Grim standing behind him. Mandy and he quickly made their way through the crowd with Grim striding along behind, an imposing figure amongst the rabble around them.

"So, you managed to remember my name. Good." She nodded as they met. "Let's hope no one has a slip of the tongue."

"I'm glad to see you're okay. You're looking lots better now." Billy spoke with a happy note. He then trailed his eyes down over her new clothes and his smile grew slightly. "You know, that outfit really suits you. It looks good on you."

Mandy's eyes widened as her insides started to feel fluttery, and a familiar unwelcome warmth came to her face. She then took note of both of their clothes, which appeared to be along vaguely similar lines as hers. Billy now wore a dark grey shirt which was torn in places at the hem, a pair of old dark jeans similar to hers, along with a badly worn black jacket with a broken zipper. Grim, still in his human form, was wearing a grey shirt and black leather trousers, covered by a large brown trench coat that cast a heavy figure across his wide shoulders. The three of them seemed to be dressed along the lines of a rough and tough post apocalyptic dystopia, something they were each surprisingly suited to.

"Thanks. You guys don't look so bad yourselves."

Grim noticed her scanning over the clothes they were wearing. "Well, I guess we fit in just fine now." He said with a shrug as he led the two kids further in through the centre of the base.

Billy and Mandy kept looking around at the mixture of futuristic and improvised technology, powerful weapons and decaying infrastructure that surrounded them. He sniggered to himself as they passed into another main corridor with other's leading off from it, one of the hubs of the base.

"What's so funny?" Mandy demanded.

"Does all this post apocalyptic, fighting against future robot army stuff seem a little familiar to you?" He looked at them eagerly while Grim and Mandy just gazed back and forth between each other. Looking to a weapons rack against a wall Billy stepped over and grabbed one of the plasma rifles sitting in its cradle with its peers, balancing the hefty weapon in his arms with a big grin. "This is just like Terminator!"

The two stopped in their tracks, surprised at the link he had made. "Now that I think about it, I can't believe I never saw it before." Mandy stated.

"Yeah! It's like Blade Runner meets Terminator meets Mad Max or something!" Billy spoke and continued to gaze over the hefty weapon in his hands. It had a shiny metal surface, but like everything else in the resistance, had shown signs of its age through dirt and grime, dents, scratches and carbon scoring. It appeared to be perhaps twenty plus years old, and had probably been through many hands in its lifetime, including robotic.

"Billy, put that back before you vaporise someone you shouldn't." Grim spoke as the boy looked up at him.

"You mean some_thing_ I shouldn't." He corrected.

"I know what I mean."

With that Billy returned the beaten and weathered weapon to its place on the gun rack against the wall. Grim turned to look over Mandy, seeing as she was now up and about. "So how do you feel?"

Mandy looked from him to her healing hands. She could've sworn they were slightly redder when she was in the shower, as if they were healing almost before her eyes. "I feel hungry. Where can we get some food?"

"There's a tavern not far from here. It's popular with the locals. That's where everyone goes for breakfast so we'll fit in just fine." Grim said, directing them down the underground street. At the end the street split up in two directions, with the bar nestled into the end wall. Approaching and entering they found it was a large room filled with a motley crew of rebels, the type of person one would find riding Harley Davidson's in a gang, drinking and laughing amongst themselves in a jolly drunken chorus. The air smelled of bacon and eggs frying in the background and made their mouths water at the thought of it.

"FOOOOOD!" Billy roared and dove headfirst into the crowd, knocking over several of the ever jolly patrons who just laughed at the ravenous blur. Mandy and Grim made their way into the burly crowd as the other patrons made way for the two newcomers to the stuffy, run down bar.

They found Billy sitting on a bar stool at a long wooden table that had definitely seen more than its fair share of parties, fights, drunken singing and spilt beers. They took their seats next to him as Billy salivated as a grizzled but spunky lady around forty, with a heavy muscular build under a white tank top served a guy a few stools down. They were surprised that rather than being served some kind of slop, he was served a good portion of bacon, eggs and rice, with a pint of beer off to the side. Whatever depression had permeated the existence of the world they lived in clearly wasn't to be found in here. Even Mandy, the queen of darkness and gloom herself, couldn't help but feel uplifted somewhat by the lively nature of the group surrounding them.

"Hey! Hey, it's Billy!" Said redheaded boy turned to his left where he heard his name called. The three noticed a group of people looking at him intently, followed by more people around them.

"Billy!"

"Hey Billy!"

"Billayyy!" They all began shouting for him in celebration of his legendary heroic acts on the battlefield, earning him the honourable and famous title of…

"BILLYYY WHOOOOO!" The crowd erupted in applause and shouts of praise for the young revolutionary hero.

Billy tried to ignore the cheering while trying to hail the lady serving breakfast, only to find she was distracted in the maelstrom of semi-drunken applause and raising of glasses.

"SHUT UP!" He barked out sharply, forcing the crowd into total silence. "Now gimme some food!"

"AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" The crowd roared in laughter as the lady handed him a plate of food.

"Hey kid, just for being a hero and saving us all from a horrible death an' all that shit, ave an extra egg." She slipped a fried egg onto his pile of greasy food, earning another roar of…

"AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!"

She moved on, handing a plate of hot food to Grim, then to Mandy. "Now sweetheart, cause you're recovering from whatever those muhfukkas did to ya, ave an extra egg too." She bought the pan over to dump the egg on the girl's plate, but was cut off by Mandy's menacing glare.

"Hey, let's get one thing straight lady. I don't need your pity. I'm just fine. I'm not recovering from anything that pathetic worm did to me. And I'm not anyone's sweetheart. I am not sweet!" She snapped at the offending waitress. The crowd stared at her in silence as she glared icily at the nervous woman holding the pan and spatula.

Leaning back she took on a reserved look. "I'll have that extra egg though." She added quietly.

"!" The crowd screamed and bellowed in joy around her. Grim was hunched over the bench with a grin while Billy writhed in his seat, both shaking with howls of mad laughter as they were carried away with the crowd. Though Mandy managed to maintain her mask of detached calm, she did allow herself a certain sneer of satisfaction to show on her features at what she'd accomplished through a few choice words. A little part of her wanted to howl with glee with Billy beside her.

Funny that.

The lady slipped her the extra egg and went to pour a few large glasses of strong cold beer for someone. A mass of fighters had surrounded them, all largely focussed on Billy. They were talking in a haze of how awesome he was, how many enemy machines he had destroyed, how much power he used, and how loud they could shout his name.

"Hey Billy, what was that blade stick thing you used to fry tinman back there? It was like… BOOM! BWAAACH!" He made an exploding gesture with his hands, smacking several people in the face and spilling beer here and there. They simply laughed it off, giving him a similar whack in the face.

"Okay. Grim, scythe!" He held out his hand. Grim summoned it in his own, handing it to him a moment later. He clambered on up onto the bench top, the crowd looking to him eagerly.

"Behold, the Grim Reaper's scythe!" Billy roared, holding the scythe in his hands over his head, charging it so it glowed with a powerful and demonic green aura, sending out snaking tendrils of glowing green supernatural energy. The crowd looked up to him in silent wonder of the powerful artefact. Grim just smirked while Mandy rolled her eyes.

"With this at my side I can summons all the horrors and madness of the underworld. I can make gravity disappear and turn the world on its head! I can control the elements to do my bidding, and call upon all manner of supernatural monsters to wreak havoc upon my enemies! With this I can tear out the ground from under your feet, and create waves and storms and plagues of flying rodents, and… you know… blow shit up!"

The crowd laughed, clapped and cheered as he aimed the scythe out front and blasted a bolt of green energy that blew apart a collection of lights overhead. "Oh, and Ma… xine has an even more powerful one that's better at blowing stuff up and… generally…" Billy looked down at Mandy. She sighed and joined him atop the bench.

"Hello, I'm Maxine. This is my friend Billy, and…"

"BILLY WHOOOOO!" Some of the drunken crowd interrupted the young dictator girl. Mandy simply waited for them to cease their shouting before she continued.

"Yes, yes okay… This," She pointed to their large chiselled guardian, "is our friend, property and servant the Grim Reaper."

"Hey." He groaned to the crowd, deadpanned over having been reminded of his lowly stature.

"This," She pointed to the scythe with a thin trail of smoke rising from the tip, "is the Grim Reaper's scythe." She took it from his hands to hold it by her side as if it were no more than an ordinary staff. "It is primarily designed for the task of reaping the souls of the dead, and sending them to the underworld where they belong. Besides that it is also designed as a powerful weapon, capable of creating blasts of energy and generating shields. It can also do many of the things my friend here just told you about. It is also capable of creating portals in space to other places and dimensions. It has balanced capabilities in all areas, and is an extremely powerful ancient artefact. Billy." She handed the scythe back to him.

The crowd looked back to her as she held out her hand again, and were surprised to find a red and black shaft of energy manifest in her grip. It soon hardened, revealing a cold, onyx shaft, with a razor sharp, angular blade sticking out the top, surrounded by a pulsating aura of demonic red power. They remained affixed in silence to the new artefact that had presented itself, seeing the way the light highlighted the ruby red undertone of the inky black shaft. It was a beautiful weapon, yet they could feel the malevolent nature deep within, like a monster locked in a cage, bellowing savagely at the outside world. This felt distinctively different to the previous, filling the air with a deep, primal fear.

"This is my scythe, Judgement. It was created by the same people who created Grim's, but is much newer. This is designed primarily as a weapon, created to destroy anything from a fly to a city. It has the same general abilities as Grim's, shoot energy blasts, powerful strikes and blows, and the ability to create energy shields for defence and all that. The only difference from Grim's is mine's capable of far greater destruction. It can also reap souls, summon demons and create portals, but they really aren't its strong points in comparison to Grim's. Billy was using Grim's scythe when he destroyed those machines back in the prison."

Standing just outside the pub General Mac leaned against the concrete wall, listening in on the girl's monologue. _'Interesting. Looks like those two will be far more of a trump card than those other four freaks from last time. I just need to get them on side, to agree willingly to follow along is all.'_ He was no fool, he knew Grim was no particular fan or follower of his particular ideals, and neither were the kids. That vexed him, he needed uniformity in both action and in thought, any rogue sentiments could undermine his entire operation. He didn't take control of the resistance simply to turn it back over to the will of its members. It wasn't adequate that the three follow his direction simply out of having to do so; he required wilful compliance and conformity.

'_I just need my men to do as they're told and follow the plan.'_

"Though it's more powerful than any other weapon in existence, to my knowledge at least, I prefer to keep it in reserve. Instead I've been learning how to use other weapons as an alternative. That way I can limit the chance of its power being traced by an enemy, and also limit the chance an enemy could take it from me, which would be nothing less than a disaster for all involved. We wouldn't stand a chance if that ever happened." At this she willed her malevolent weapon into oblivion until next called upon, Billy doing the same with Grim's.

"Now then," Mandy summed up, "any questions?"

"Are you guy's gonna help us in the final attack?" One of the crowd called out.

The three froze for a moment at the thought, while every eye in the pub became fixed on them with an intensity far greater than before. Outside Mac held his breath in anticipation, stepping into view to see and gauge their reaction.

Mandy straightened up as she thought to herself. _'An attack on my own empire… Well it appears to be dying on its own because of me, I guess at this stage it doesn't matter either way. If we go we'd be destroying everything that I once worked and fought my entire life to create, but it's already sick and corrupt beyond repair. And we still need to find out about this thing that's hunting us, if the information is anywhere it'll be within the heart of the regime. On top of that I have to find out why I failed in the end. What do I have to loose?'_

The three looked back and forth between each other, nodding silently after a moment. Mandy returned her eyes to the anxiously awaiting crowd below her.

"Alright."

The entire bar erupted in cheers as Billy and Mandy made their way back down to their seats to begin their meal. As the pub's inhabitants clapped and cheered the general outside smirked, walking away to continue finalising his plans. _'Perfect.'_

At her seat Mandy caught a glimpse of the particular militant leader from the corner of her eye. She turned to look out front, only to find him already gone, Billy and Grim following her gaze. She narrowed her eyes, suspiciously, but for now she dismissed it to return her attention to the plate of food before her. Luckily it was still hot and greasy by the time they dug into it. As she began to eat Mandy noticed that at some point during her lecture someone had placed a large cold pint glass of lager in front of her. Likewise Grim and Billy had also been served a glass.

"Uh hey." She hailed the bar lady who came over to her. "Whose is this?"

"It's yours honey. Everyone gets a beer with their meal here. Refills are on the house, permanently, and so's more food." She answered before going back to the stove at the other side.

Mandy turned to see Billy and Grim watching from beside her with wide eyes. Mandy turned back to the woman serving. "What? Wait, don't you think we're a little…"

"Since when have laws ever stopped you before?" Grim replied flatly as he took a long sip from his, seemingly indifferent towards the two. Billy and Mandy looked to each other awkwardly.

"… underage?" She deadpanned and rolled her eyes skywards. Billy took a shaky breath and turned his gaze towards the pint, wrapping his fingers around the handle.

"Well, it's only one glass right? That can't be too bad can't it?"

"I-I guess not."

Looking hesitantly at the frosty glass she gingerly took hold of it in her petit hand, lifting it up off the table to hold it in front of her. Pausing she looked across to her companion, seeing him match her nervous gaze as they held their mugs near their faces. Sitting to the left of them both Grim flicked his eyes across to them while he sipped his drink casually, pretending not to pay them any attention. Raising his other hand he covertly flicked his fingers at their drinks and lowered it again, a tiny little smirk pulling at the corner of his lips as he looked away again, without Billy or Mandy ever noticing.

"Well… Bottoms up!" Billy spoke nervously. She grizzled, turning back to hers. It was all so stupid. She was learning to shoot guns and fighting for her life, yet she was too young to have a drink.

"Oh why do I care?" Mandy groaned to herself as she and Billy both bought their glasses to their lips, and rapidly drank down several mouthfuls of the bitter amber fluid.

Thus did Billy and Mandy both have their very first alcoholic drink.

Followed by their second.

And third…

* * *

"Thiss… is why… I care." Mandy said, or rather groaned to herself as Grim carried her and Billy back to their room, both well and truly, stone motherless drunk.

"You didn't seem to mind when you two little juvenile delinquents drank down your fifth glasses in a hurry." Grim retorted with a smirk as he balanced her on his right arm with her head leaning against his shoulder, with Billy suspended semi-conscious atop his left, a relaxed smile on his face as he leaned against him the same way. Both their faces were flushed red and warm. Anyone who looked would have thought it incredibly cute, with Mandy's best attempt to look dark and menacing while currently snuggled into her protector's grip only adding further to the sight. Many of those working in the streets couldn't help but look and smile at the sight.

"No yooouu shuut up." Mandy spat, or at least tried to spit, instead slurring the words slightly as her face relaxed and she gave out against his chest.

While Grim was a fully grown adult more than capable of handling the alcohol content of the beer, Billy and Mandy were still young, and had neither experience, the body mass to absorb it, or a hope. Thus perhaps an hour after they had arrived Grim had the responsibility of carrying the two thoroughly wasted kids back to bed. He was desperately trying not to laugh, desperately trying to suppress the huge smile that still somehow got to the surface. Neither of them knew of his deception.

Billy sniggered on and off for seemingly no reason. "Mandy, ah feel funny. Heheheheh… Heheh… Is we drunk?"

"Uuhhh, I think me wight be, or somefing." She stammered lazily. "Uh, it's… it's not so bad really."

Heh… Heheh. Hey I jus has a great idea. You know what we should do? We should… we should go shwimming together in our undies again, tee hee hee!" Billy continued to giggle, not quite entirely perceptive to the fact he'd promised Mandy he'd never speak of it. Mandy wasn't quite aware of it either.

"Billy… Billy stop talking. You're emas… embasa…ems… em-ba-ra-sing me..." She commanded him from her position against Grim's shoulder. Billy's laughter kicked up a notch.

"Haha! Ehehe!" He smirked devilishly and moved his face close to hers. "You didn't seem so embarrassed when you were giving me a striptease." Grim gagged and snorted, barely able to stop a laugh.

"That's… That's not what I-That wasn't... No _yooouu_ shut up." Instead of protesting further she settled her forehead against his. Billy's smile softened as he returned the gesture.

"You were very cute though. You's very beautiful. I always thought…" He gave it away at that point, their noses touching each other as Mandy placed her hands up on his shoulders while he settled his arm across her waist and the other on her shoulder, where they both began to doze off together.

Grim's smile now threatened to make him tear up. Of all the beautiful and magical things he had ever seen, nothing could ever top this one little moment between his two young charges. This was the one moment he would remember back to for the rest of his life. _'I wish I had a camera.'_

"Come on you two, time for bed."

He carefully stepped his way through the busy crowd around the central alley of the underground base, quickly moving past the cries of…

"BILLY!"

… emanating here and there, careful not to drop or wake the two kids he had taken guardianship of. He made his way back towards Billy and his room, opening the heavy door with the arm supporting Mandy. He then waltzed in, closing the door behind him, and set them both down on Billy's bed. Billy was soon calmly asleep on his side with Mandy snuggled comfortably into his collar, his warm arms wrapped around her body, while Grim stood watching over them happily.

Her face still buried in Billy's chest Mandy opened her eyes and glared up at Grim with all the anger she could summon in her drunken, and now sleepy state, her face still a warm red. "Grim, I want you to know… if you so much as breathe of us getting drunk, or anything that happened since that first drink to anyone, I'll… I'll… Well you know what I'm like. Hmm, me sleepy. Me go sleep now."

"Don't worry. I promise, if anyone ever asks I'll tell them you never had a single drop of alcohol." Grim's human lips smiled, all the while suppressing an ear to ear grin. It was true what he'd said. What Billy and Mandy hadn't known throughout the entire time they were busy getting wasted was that he had used his powers to remove every single drop of alcohol in their drinks. They hadn't had so much as a molecule of alcohol. In other words they were wasted off themselves. He was dying to laugh.

Still smiling Grim nodded and turned away, leaving the two kids to sleep away the effects of their first non-alcoholic bender. Closing the door on the two he finally sputtered and laughed, then when he'd recovered a few moments later left to find out more about the organisation they were a part of. Hopefully he could find out a bit more about this 'final attack' they had entered themselves into. _'How exactly did we get ourselves into all this?'_ He then thought back to the kids now sleeping in the same bed together, and couldn't help but smile. _'Maybe there's hope for those two yet. Make good choices Mandy. The decisions you make now will determine the rest of your life.'_

* * *

At that moment Billy and Mandy were mostly asleep in their bed, neither quite able to fully comprehend the meaning of being so close. They both somehow had a dim understanding that they were close, and both liked being able to feel the warmth of each other. Then again, they were asleep and 'drunk', and people can act out of character in such circumstances, relying more on simple emotions without the need for thought, or long standing inhibitions and personal rules.

Billy heaved a sigh in his sleep, nuzzling Mandy's platinum hair with his nose and chin, causing her to sigh and wrap her arms further around his shoulders and snuggle into him further. He slipped his arm to gently brush her waist and moved in closer to her face.

Mandy was more than content to simply leave his hand there around her, but soon the feel of his breath on the side of her neck and face and the growing heat of their bodies beginning to make her hot started to irritate her. With a soft groan and a frown she grasped him by his shirt, and in one move rolled him over the top of her, to dump him unceremoniously on the floor. Billy groaned and struggled slightly with his face planted into the cold concrete, before he started snoozing away again.

Comfortable in his bed again Mandy settled down and remained still in her state of semi-sleep, before the corners of her lips curved upwards in a soft smile.

It was the first time in her life she had ever had a real happy smile.

* * *

**Wasn't that beautiful? I'm feeling a little emotional right now.**

**Hope you enjoyed that brief little ray of sunshine because from here on out it starts to get serious as everything starts falling into place.**

**Next chapter, darkness consumes all, the real face of the resistance and its leader is revealed, long established beliefs begin to be questioned, and deep and powerful feelings long kept locked away inside are finally confessed. The clock will begin winding down as we begin to reach the end of the story.**

**Next chapter, the identity of the killer is revealed.**


	28. Calm Before the Storm

**This is a momentous chapter in the story. From here on out everything starts to move towards the end and climax. As such as I outlined in the preview last chapter many background issues will be coming to the fore, two very important ones in particular. But do not be fooled, the tension they are all under does not ease in the slightest, instead it only grows. Overall it's not light bedtime reading, the story takes another turn for the darker from here, and that's pretty much how it's gonna be from here so there will be no more soft chapters.**

**And that I'm told is what makes a story good. I hope you'll agree. Good luck!**

* * *

**Calm Before the Storm.**

Early afternoon.

Billy was the first to regain consciousness a few hours later, perturbed as to why his mattress was so hard. He sat up in his bed, only to realise his bed had been replaced with the concrete floor sometime during his sleep.

'_What happened?'_ Soon the events of that morning played back in perfect order, the new clothes, finding Mandy, breakfast and the crowd at the bar, their first drink and getting very drunk. Then they had been bought back here, left to sleep it all away together. He remembered their conversation on the way back, his drunken drawl of laughter, and teasing Mandy over what had occurred in private between them at the river. _'Damn, I guess I broke my promise.'_

Another thought occurred to him._ 'I wonder why I'm not sick with a hangover. How am I remembering all this anyway?'_

He didn't think much more of it though as he rose to his feet, stretched back earning a number of satisfying cracks and pops, before he looked down to the young girl still asleep on the bed.

Mandy was curled up with her face nestled in the soft pillow, with a look of blissful content that neither Billy, or anyone else, had ever seen before. He felt his heart constrict in his chest at the sight. _'Oh god, she's so beautiful. More beautiful than the most beautiful gem, or sunset, or… What would she think if she knew how I feel?'_

Once more he sighed to himself at the most logical outcome, considering her cold and distant nature, and though it dragged his heart down like a weight he admitted the reality nonetheless. _'She would drop me like a deadweight if she ever found out. If I want to go on being with her, then I can never tell her. She must never know how much I love her. At least that way I'll still get to be her friend. Maybe though… maybe one day it would be alright to tell her, if ever the time comes.'_

He smiled sadly as her chest continued to rise and fall softly as she slept. Just once, if he could just touch her, if he could just show a little of how he felt into her. He couldn't help himself. He reached out with his hand and with all the tenderness he possessed gently stroked her hair along the side of her face. Mandy sighed softly in response as Billy pulled away. Leaving her there he turned from the sleeping girl to leave, intent on finding Grim again.

Once she could hear him walking away Mandy opened her dark eyes to stare at his retreating form, having been awake the entire time. _'Billy, you make it so hard to be strong. I wish I could… No, I can't give in. I mustn't give in or I'll loose everything.'_ Mandy gritted her teeth behind her lips as she continued to stare at the door as he left. She fought for control and order against the wish that had bought her nothing short of total ruin in the future she had found herself in, but this time found little energy left to do so. Sitting up she swung her legs over the side of the bed and began to think.

'_This is so wrong. I know it's necessary, I know I have to do it, but this isn't natural.'_ Her mind began to test new waters long since forbidden. _'What… What if I didn't go through with this anymore? What if I just gave in and tried to continue on with Billy still by my side? Would that really be so bad?'_

Then of course she remembered the ruined state her society had been left in. _'If I did that then I'd fail and everything would come apart like it has now. But what if the collapse wasn't because I didn't let go? What if it was something else that caused it all to go wrong? But what else could it be besides that? Maybe it's because I didn't do enough to get rid of him that he's dragged me down. I have to sever the bonds before it's too late! Should I?'_

Exhausted mentally she set her forehead down in her hands, focussing on the here and now to clear her thoughts of the insane back and forth argument between the different sides of herself. Not for the first time did she momentarily wonder if she was loosing her mind, and if so was it because of being around Billy, which of course bought her straight back to where she started.

'_I don't need this now. Right now I have to focus on what's at hand. Once I find out for certain why everything's falling apart then I can plan on how to avert it. Until then, I have other work to do.'_

With that in mind she rose from the bed and hurried on outside to catch up to him, adjusting her green tank top and hair on her way out. After walking in silence through the various concrete corridors of the ratty base they found Grim in one of the hallways near the command centre speaking to the general they had been introduced to earlier. The two turned to see them approach.

"I see you two are once again able to walk on your own two feet." Grim remarked sarcastically, ignoring the harsh glares Mandy aimed at him.

"Grim, what was it I said earlier?"

"That was only for people back in Endsville." Grim smiled at her as she bought herself under control. She couldn't have herself doing something demonic to Grim while there were important witnesses like Mac standing there.

"So Maxine, good to see you up and around again." Mac said to the girl in question.

Not particularly listening Mandy absently looked down to her hands. She hadn't realised that since the shower, breakfast, getting drunk,and passing out with Billy, her hands had now completely healed. There wasn't a trace of the painful wounds inflicted there, and there wasn't even any scarring. Just smooth porcelain skin.

"How did I recover so quickly? I mean, it was only a day or so ago when I was…" She paused as her mind became bombarded with traumatic experiences. She quickly forced the painful thoughts from her mind. "… Well you know. And here I am now walking around without any problems. How did my hands heal so quickly?"

Mac thought for a moment. "Do you remember anyone applying a gel to your hands? It has a cooling sensation. Ring any bells?" He asked openly.

Mandy remembered the ride back from the prison, when the medic used some of it. "Yeah I remember."

The general nodded. "It was a solution based on vat grown stem cells. They take the place of any destroyed cells, healing injuries by replacing the damaged flesh. It revolutionised medicine when it was invented in the early imperial days. Too bad it's in such short supply, the majority of the populace can't get a hold of anything like that."

Billy frowned. "How did you get it then?"

"We procure large amounts of the stuff in raids against the laboratories where it's created." All three could easily read between the lines, they were taking it from those who were most in need of it. Wisely though nobody bought it up.

Mandy shrugged. Billy turned his attention on Grim. "What were you two talking about?"

Mac looked back to Grim before he spoke. "I was telling Grim the plan for tomorrow evening."

"Tomorrow evening?" The two asked together.

"The final attack we agreed to help with." Grim answered.

Mac began to explain to them the plan they had been brewing for years. "Basically the entire revolution is based around starting a chain reaction in the population living in and around the city. The bulk of our forces will attack around the eastern perimeter of the urban area, driving inwards as quickly as possible. The empire's forces still outnumber us, but if we can sweep in as far as we can early on, then we can get the locals to rise up and revolt with us. Then, with the added population around the outer suburbs in revolt we will move progressively further inwards, stirring up even more people. This will cause an unstoppable wave that will sweep through the city from east to west, and totally overwhelm the machines and security forces, surrounding them and annihilating them."

"Yeah okay, but what about us? Are we supposed to be part of this wave or what?" Billy asked. Mac shook his head.

"No. You have a different role in this. You three will be responsible for attacking the Empress' fortress from the west, coming out of the ruins on the other side of the range. You three have the honour of storming the palace, and killing the Empress, bringing an end to over a thousand years of tyranny and domination, so don't screw up."

The two kids stood there in silence. _'I have to kill myself? They want me to… Wait, I'm not part of this organisation. I'm not the one who wants myself dead. All I need is to confront her personally. She'll know why all this has happened. And the records of who it is that's after us would surely be kept there. She'll tell me everything I need to know, and if she gets any bad ideas in that corrupted head of hers, then I'll dispose of her myself and go to the computers for answers. Besides, considering I've become a mockery of everything that I stand for, perhaps it's for the best, I won't allow her to further degrade my reputation.'_ She began to think again on their important role in this event. _'Hang on, why would they…'_

"But if the Empress' armies are falling to pieces and her society has collapsed," Mandy asked the general, "why do you need us for this? Why not just send in a squad of your own in there to take her down? I mean why are we so special?"

Mac looked thoughtful for a moment before giving a sigh. "You know you really don't miss a thing do you Maxine?" He looked down to the girl who had figured him out. "Alright listen. The truth is the revolution was originally supposed to take place a few years ago. Mandy had sent four infiltrators out to destroy us from within. They were her ultimate weapons, biologically engineered people who could use underworld powers. They were only children when they came to us. But instead of destroying us like they were supposed to, they for whatever reason chose to join us, and the four became our trump card. Empress Mandy is immortal. She cannot be killed by any means except through the use of supernatural powers. The four were the only ones who could do it, so the idea was that they would attack the fortress and kill her, while we took care of the city."

"So why didn't it happen?" Mandy asked, now becoming more intrigued.

At this the general's face seemed to darken at the memory. "There was a fifth, different to the others. It was loyal to the Empress and, if what little we know was right, was created from her own genetics." He scowled in a haunting hatred. "It infiltrated us right before we were about to attack. It found the four rogues, killed them, wiped out half of the base, and disappeared, without anyone ever scoring so much as a glancing hit. We only think it was created from the Empress herself because of a transmission we intercepted from her to it. Other than that we know nothing. Because of that… _monster,_ we had to abort the revolution, and wait for another time. Because we couldn't find anything else capable of killing the Empress, we essentially just planned to go ahead with the revolution and forget all about her. When we found you three all that changed. You three essentially became our new trump card."

Billy and Mandy again stood in silence. "So I suppose that's why we were given better service than everyone else?"

"And why I caught you watching us outside the bar after we agreed to fight for you."

The general nodded, though his eyes and hands fidgeted momentarily. "I'm sorry you three, but this is war." He remained downcast in a fake show of guilt, though from their lack of reaction he couldn't tell if they were buying into it or not. "The fact is you three are crucial to the success of everything we have fought and suffered for our whole lives. I hope that you will see reason and agree to participate of your own free will, after all we did save you from torture and death, and take you in, shelter you, feed you, and clothe you."

Looking at them he saw Maxine beginning to look at him with a hard stare. "You and your organisation aren't as noble as you make yourselves out are you?"

"You guys don't rescue people out of wanting to help them." Grim stated. "You do it because those people are of value to you, because they can serve you in your war against the regime, don't you?"

"Did you really think we were a charity organisation?" The suddenly very cold and unsympathetic general asked. "Now if you two don't mind, Maxine and I have some _personal_ business to attend to." Billy and Grim glanced at each other while Mandy raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" She asked with growing suspicion.

"We have something you may be interested in." He answered cryptically while looking to her with a light gaze, though strangely impersonal now that the less than humanitarian manner of his philosophy was beginning to be revealed.

"I have to speak with my companions first, in private." She stated firmly, a hidden threat evident for whoever was unlucky enough to be caught spying on them. The general relented.

"Alright. Meet me outside the detention centre in fifteen minutes." He then left them there alone amongst the hallways. Mandy led them through the base towards a more secluded area in an alley outside the markets. There she paused in thought.

"I don't trust that guy." She spoke with a thoughtful scowl. "He's keeping things from us and I know it. There's too many question's left unanswered. How was it that they just so happen to mount their attack on the prison right when we were there? We still don't know anything about these people or him."

"He's constantly got that little smile on his face, but it just looks forced." Billy interjected. "He seems fake."

They both looked to Grim, noticing him standing in silence with a barely perceptible feeling of tension. Mandy gazed at him intensely. "You know something that we don't know."

The heavy set man sighed. "When I first found the resistance I knew that they weren't going to mount an attack like that just to save two children. I needed something of value to them, something that would make it worth their while. So I gave them you. I told them about our powers and that we would be very useful in their campaign. I told them that we would help them in their operations if they broke you out, they agreed."

"You sold us out." Mandy spoke in shock.

"It was my only choice. There was nothing else I could do that would have gotten you out."

"But then why are they trying so hard to get us on side?" Billy asked.

"Mac wants complete control over the organisation. He won't want any kind of dissent to threaten that. He wants us to obey voluntarily so we'll be that much more effective for him and his own goals." Mandy summed up.

"We won't be with these people for much longer though. Whatever way they do things doesn't matter to us." Grim replied reassuringly. Billy and Mandy relaxed at that, as soon as they had what they were looking for they were out of here.

Content with their new found understanding Mandy began on her way back, Billy and Grim leaving her to go back towards the bar for more food and drink. Mandy made her way through the network of tunnels gradually making her way back to where they'd spoken with the leader, then delving deeper into a more secluded section of the base. After a few minutes searching she found Mac standing at the entrance to a long hallway flanked by two armed guards. He looked impersonally down towards his unknown enemy as she gazed up at him with an equally flat stare. "Follow me."

Mac led the girl through the entrance down into a previously unknown, restricted area. "On the way out of the prison we came across someone you may be interested in, something that may make you think twice before you turn down fully joining us in our struggle." She listened intently as he explained. "We captured the officer in charge of that hellhole. He's currently imprisoned here."

Mandy's heart skipped a beat as she began to brew over the thought of who this man was. _'Could it be the one who tortured me? Surely there were other officers in that place. Maybe it's someone else.'_ She found herself growing anxious as the general led her past one after another of the cold steel doors lining the dank corridor they had entered into.

'_And what if it is? What am I supposed to do with him?'_

Finally they stopped before the door at the end of the corridor on the right hand side. Mac looked sternly upon the door as he grasped the circular handle, twisting it around, before the door swung open.

"You..." Mandy spoke almost in a trance as she gazed upon the bound man sitting on his knees in the cell. The very man who had sneered at her as she screamed in pain just days ago.

He looked up at her with terror in his eyes. He struggled against the cuffs that held his hands and feet secure together behind his back. He was rough in appearance, and with his black leather greatcoat gone he appeared very spindly and feeble. Mandy simply stood in the doorway, gazing down at the man as memories of his face rose in her mind, memories tainted by so much searing pain and hours of screaming. She felt sick inside at the sight of him and all the bureaucratic corruption and lies he stood for, and the fact he had been the one to inflict such agony upon her suddenly felt like the greatest insult of her life.

Deep within her an incredible surge of rage welled up as she stepped through the doorway, Mac closing it behind them. He cowered in fear as she loomed over him, gazing up in terror as her face darkened with an unholy wrath.

Mac reached around to his side, procuring the pistol Grim had bought to him from the girl's bag on his request. He handed the weighty 1911 to Mandy. "Do what you will." The officer's face once again shook with fear and panic as Mandy reached out and took the weapon, drawing back the slide, and letting it snap forward with a loud…

"_Click!"_

"NO! OH PLEASE GOD NO! Have mercy, please! Please don't! Don't! O-ho no!" Mandy ignore his wails and begging for forgiveness as she levelled the gun at his head. The once conceited and arrogant officer closed his eyes, whimpering in terror as he awaited the bullet that would destroy his brain before he could realise it. The sight bought a feeling of satisfaction to the heartless girl, until his bottom lip started shaking, tears running out his eyes down his pitiful, wretched face.

_"No please, d-don't kill me, please no don't kill me please…"_ He whimpered while trying to curl up at her feet and make himself as small and as pathetic as possible. In all the shallow and depraved and spineless things he had done in his life, this, shedding all veils of human dignity and decency in a desperate attempt to cling to his wretched life, took the cake.

Mandy, though cold-hearted, merciless and vengeful as she was, the satisfaction at having broken him down to such a shameful level of worthlessness soon fell away, replaced by a sense of complete and utter contempt and ultimately deep disgust. What she saw now bought no dark satisfaction to her at all. She simply could not withstand the derision she felt of seeing this nauseating excuse of a human being snivelling and grovelling at her feet, shaking her head in absolute dismay. _'Ugh. I swore I would never be arrogant again after the MND, I swore I would never make decisions based on ego, but even I'm too good for this.'_

She lowered the gun, seeing the man slowly look up and his terror slowly subside.

"Worthless scum like you are beneath me." She spoke with venomous scorn driven by the pit of revulsion in her stomach. "You're not even worthy of my time."

Without a word she deposited the weapon behind the back of her jeans and turned to leave the cell. Though she couldn't see the officer, she knew he was looking at her back gasping for breath in shocked relief.

And though she had her back turned to the officer, she could still feel his face curve into a vile, mocking grin.

"Heheheh…"

Mandy's eyes grew wide, and her fury returning in a wave so powerful the other two occupants of the room felt it. She held out her hand and summoned Judgement. Whirling back towards the vile man and bringing all her strength to bear she swung it.

A blood curdling roar of hateful demonic energy echoed throughout the base, as her weapon did what it was created to do.

The general recovered from the sudden shockwave of terrifying primal power to look down upon the man below. Mandy's scythe hadn't even touched him; she had swung it through the air in front of him. "You missed."

Mandy didn't move. Her face was set in a mask of cold detachment, single-minded and merciless in her purpose of carrying out her revenge. Mac's gaze wondered from her to the man in front of her, and realised exactly what she had done. His face was twisted and gnarled as if to scream in the worst agony imaginable. His eyes had curled up in their sockets, a thin stream of blood running down from behind each eye. He was set that way without movement, dead.

Mandy returned her scythe to her side, willing it back to the netherworld before she turned and walked away. Exiting out through the long corridor into the base her face remained in the scowl she had cultivated and grown for years, only now it was complete.

Mandy had killed someone in cold-blood, had sent their soul to the depths of hell as eternal punishment for their crimes, and felt neither guilt, nor pity, nor remorse. As she made her way back the crowd parted ways in front of her, warded off by the feeling of absolute darkness and terrifying malevolence that radiated from the green tank top clad girl.

She had taken a life. Today she had become one with the darkness.

* * *

As the mass of people froze at the feel of the malevolent entity, turning to stare at the girl as she passed them by, off to the side a boy in a worn black jacket with his back turned remained unaffected. Once he had sensed she had passed he turned his head around to look at her retreating form, the general following shortly after.

'_She's different now. She feels powerful, like some part of her's complete.'_ He thought of the waves of malevolence that rolled off in her wake. He hadn't felt anything like it ever before, the closest being on the day she had explained the reason for her vengeful ways to him, the day he had changed.

Looking to the hallway they had emerged from Billy quickly made his way through the now quiet crowd, slipping quickly down into the corridor without anyone noticing or the guards nearby saying anything. At the end of the row of doors one remained open. Working his way quickly down to it he peered into the cell.

Billy immediately gaped in stunned silence at the body of the man, the blood draining from behind his eyes. _'He was the guy I knocked out when we left. He also looks just like the guy we met in the street.'_ Leaning in he touched the body with his boot, causing it to keel over onto its side, causing blood to leak out of his nose, mouth and ears in thin rivers onto the floor. His brain worked, quickly coming to a conclusion. _'He was the one who tortured Mandy.'_

Seeing now that his face was still twisted in an endless scream, his shocked features changed as a new sensation took over. A cruel smile pulled upwards on his lips, moving onward to form a ferrel, sadistic grin.

"Heh heh heh heh… AHAHAHAHAAHAAA!"

Moments later, as Billy followed after his friend in heading back to their rooms, the crowd froze once more as a second pulse of ominous intent flashed throughout their midst, only this time it was savage, murderous, a barely restrained frenzy of killing fury. Turning to where they thought it had originated they found only a young boy walking down the busy hallway, smiling quietly to himself.

An instant later, as quickly as it had begun, the horrifying demonic presence was already gone.

* * *

Late afternoon.

Following a call for the entire base's population to assemble, Grim, Billy and Mandy had gathered at the front of the auditorium chamber. They stood off to the side of the stage as General Mac addressed several thousand troops gathered below and in the grandstands, while the rest of the commanders stood around the trio. Mandy stood watching cynically with her arms crossed in front of her, Billy watching next to her. She looked to him as he stepped a little closer, and could see the tension in his eyes. Against her better judgement she herself moved just a little closer as well until their arms were touching. Though she didn't want to admit it she was nervous. As had happened too many times since they'd left Endsville nearly two months ago, once again the gravity of the situation reminded them both of just how young they really were. The general was currently explaining the exact contours of their mission, which was to take place in exactly twenty four hours time.

"Groups A, B, C and D will make a rapid attack from the north-east to the south-east, beginning at 19:00 hours." He indicated with a laser pointer towards a large map of the city hanging above the stage directly behind him. On it was marked the positions each group would take, and the direction they would attack in, spreading throughout the city.

You are to take as much area as possible before the tanks and gunships arrive. Once they arrive you are to concentrate on destroying them. Let the liberated masses continue ahead to take more ground. Group A and D will skirt around the outside to the north and south respectively, whilst groups B and C will spearhead through the middle. This is why groups B and C comprise the bulk of our forces as you are expected to sustain the heaviest opposition." The mass of fighters listened in silence.

Mac took a moment to glance across to the trio watching from the sidelines. "I have already explained this to you previously. What I haven't explained to you is the plan of another squad attacking the fortress itself has now been re-established." Though no murmur could be heard they all saw the crowd sit up expectantly. Mac gestured with his hand towards the three fighters off to the side. "Some of you would be familiar with our friends Grim, Bil…"

"BILLY WOOOOO!" He waited out the chorus of cheers that emanated from the crowd. Their self-control was only voluntary, and they were expected to act out here and there. In time he intended to change that, but for now he simply let them cheer to their hearts content until the room fell silent again.

"… and Maxine. These three have the power of the underworld at their disposal. They are our trump card in this entire operation. They will be leading Group E from the west. After being dropped off at the foot of the mountains you will advance up and storm the fortress while the guards are tied up in the city below. We will bomb the exterior leading up to your attack. Our bombers will knock out the cannon turrets and open up entrance points in the square perimeter wall. You are to begin your attack at 22:00 hours, when most of the city would have been taken. Any guards around the facility should have by that time gone to fight the bulk of the forces in the city, so once you're through the walls you should face only minimal resistance. You are to advance up through the structure until you find the Empress. Billy, Grim and Maxine are the ones who will take care of her. The rest are to wait a safe distance away in the lower levels of the structure."

Mac paused and took a deep breath, looking across the sea of faces gathered before him. His next words were spoken with quiet but genuine emotion, the full impact of what was taking place playing on him despite his loose moral disposition. "My comrades, I want to tell you all now, that it has been an honour fighting beside you in our struggle. I want you all to take a good look at this place, because once we leave tomorrow evening, most of us will never be coming back. This is the end of the resistance comrades, wether we succeed or not. After this there will be either a beautiful new world order of freedom and prosperity for all to welcome us, or we will all be dead. Until then I want to congratulate you all. You have all done the people of the world proud." The crowd sat silent as he stilled his agitated nerves and wiped away some lingering tears and sweat, some of those in the crowd doing the same.

Mandy stared at him in her ever present scowl, Billy and Grim also largely indifferent to the proceedings. "I wonder how many of the people here joined out of their own free will?"

"I've been talking to people, and from what I've heard, not many." Grim responded so only they could hear. "When they say join, you join. If you say no, they shoot you in front of everyone." Billy and Mandy took the facts easily. No act of depravity by these so-called freedom fighters came as a surprise to them anymore.

Straightening up General Mac concluded the briefing. "We move out at 17:00 hours tomorrow evening. Does anyone have any questions? Are you all clear on what you have to do?" They waited in silence as the crowd sat unmoving and unspeaking.

Mac took one last look across to Grim, Billy and Mandy. "Alright. We have twenty four hours so let's get to work."

* * *

Evening.

Grim, Billy and Mandy stood in silence at the top of the dusty red hill, staring at the sunset in the distance beyond the vast lifeless desert that had destroyed every forest and place of natural beauty in this world. Below them the crowds worked feverishly to prepare for their final undertaking. The operators of the equipment that directed the troops wouldn't be sitting back in their seats staring at monitors. This time the entire base would be emptied of every living person as they all took part in the end of their struggle. Out of all this orderly mayhem the three had soon tired of the rush of people and made their way to the surface once more, leaving the perimeters of the base to climb the hill it was built into, simply to take a moment out to gaze out over what remained of the bleak world around them. From there they stood in silence together and watched as the sun set over the ruined horizon.

Here, away from the earth's sole remaining city, the sky was not darkened with pollution, but the effects of the last thousand years had left their mark. It was blood red in colour from the combined destruction wrought by the long gone war and industry, and the low angle of the sun, the darkness slowly creeping in from the east behind them. Higher up in the depleted ozone layer a thin layer of fine clouds of dust and ice reflected the remaining sunlight from the horizon in a brilliant glow or reds and yellows in the west, and streaks of light purple overhead. To the left of the setting sun in the distance they could make out the beginning of the heavy clouds blanketing the city in the distance, the evening sun lighting it in an ethereal green.

Billy frowned slightly. "It doesn't seem right, that something so terrible could look so beautiful?"

Grim shrugged, never taking his now eyes off the distant orb of the sun. "I guess dat would depend on yer definition of beautiful." He had reverted back to his natural skeletal form, free of having to hide behind the mask of humanity now that he was alone with his masters.

Billy closed his eyes and huffed out a smirk. "Hm. What kind of screwed up people does that make us?"

Grim didn't bother answering, but let out a slight chuckle in response.

Billy looked across to see Mandy staring blankly, as if she were in a kind of brooding withdrawn trance. Grim followed his eyes, noticing Mandy seemed to be beginning to slip into one of the voids that were beginning to become a problem for her. "Mandy, after all you have seen here do you still want to rule de world?"

Mandy turned her head slowly and gave him a vacant look, all her brooding and underlying anger still present, though strangely there wasn't the same burning pyre of energy there once was. It was like she was trying to appear as threatening as she was previously, but there wasn't as much of the dark passion and drive behind it as there used to be.

"Grim, Billy, I want you both to understand now that no matter how much you may wish it, I will never abandon my ambitions, and I will never allow myself to become soft and weak. Some day I will come to dominate every living being in the world, and nothing you can say can change my mind. The entire concept of friendship, respect and love is a luxury only for the weak. I do not have that luxury. Why should I choose weakness over strength when there are seven billion people either abusing each other or being abused?" She returned her gaze to the horizon in lingering frustration, Billy and Grim following suite. It was obvious to both that whereas before when she had said such things she had meant it from the depths of her ice cold heart, now the will and dedication behind those words was clearly not as strong as previous. Without another word said they continued to gaze solemnly out into the solemn sunset.

Minutes passed, and the sun dipped further over the horizon, with the colours changing and fading as darkness came in from the other side of the ruined sky. As time crawled on Billy began to think about Mandy and him, and what the future was going to inevitably bring for them. "Mandy, what's going to happen to us?" Mandy returned her gaze to him coldly.

"What?"

"What's going to happen to us, you, me, and Grim? How do we fit into your future?" He asked growing serious.

Mandy returned her gaze to the sunset. This was the time to begin to explain it all to him. "Once I have achieved power and immortality, I will have no use for Grim. I will set him free so he can go back to the way he lived before we came along." She looked up to the reaper who had been listening in. "You hear that Grim, you'll be free to go about your life. You'll never have to see me again."

Grim nodded quietly to himself. Billy remained silent for a moment, thinking. "What about me?"

Mandy took a deep breath and let it out slowly in a deep heaving sigh. "You have served me well over the years Billy, and I thank you for your years of loyal service. But once I am in power, I will have no use for your friendship. You would have become a burden, and in the future I will have no choice but to leave you to go on alone."

Billy's eyes flickered momentarily. He continued to stare at her while she kept her eyes locked on the retreating sun. Once more it was obvious the will behind her words was failing, but he had sensed that she still fully intended what she had said. Over time he had come to suspect as much on some small level. With a soft but heavy sigh he returned his gaze to the glowing orb once more. "Okay."

"Mandy, keeping order and being respected and feared isn't the same as being accepted by someone who genuinely cares about you." Grim spoke to the girl who never shifted her gaze from the fading twilight. "Don't you get it girl? No one will love you Mandy. It's no way to live."

"I know this Grim. I'm no fool. I don't need friendship or love in my life. Such attachments will only hold me back. They will drag me down in the end. I am breaking my attachments so that I can live, free to do what is needed as I see fit. I don't need love from anyone Grim, and no one should expect it from me."

Grim regarded the girl solemnly. "So be it. Just remember Mandy, you will have to live with your choices for de rest of yer life, and that's going to be a very long, lonely life." He summoned his scythe to reapply his human covering, before they all made their way down in the fading twilight.

As Grim and Mandy led the way back, Billy watched the young woman descend the dry ground ahead of them both. In the last of the days light her outline stood out as a beacon of darkness, a shape of indomitable power and strength. As she turned back to face him the violet dusk light caught on her face, lighting her features up in an aurora of brilliance. It reflected off her deep onyx eyes as she looked back to him, and it caused his breath to stop in this throat.

"_Mandy…"_ He spoke in a whisper.

He found himself frozen in awe as she regarded him. In one moment his thoughts became awash with the deeply held desire to run to her, to wrap his arms around her waste, and kiss her on her lips. More than anything else he simply wanted the dark winged angel he saw before him to be in his life. At that the thought of being apart from her made his heart tighten. He knew that no kind of hell could ever be worse than a life without her.

It was obvious to him now why he felt this way. He was completely in love with her. And she was going to leave him.

"_I can't do this anymore."_

"Billy, are you coming?" He heard her say, breaking him from his trance back to reality.

"Yeah." Without another word Billy continued on down the hill, the full moon coming out in the destroyed sky high above. As he and the others headed back he began to reconsider what he had decided on earlier. He couldn't go on keeping how he felt to himself. He had to keep her in his life, no matter how much it cost him in the end. Perhaps the time to tell her wasn't as far off as he had originally thought it to be.

* * *

Late that night.

Reaching down to a gun rack Billy took hold of one of the powerful plasma rifles the resistance had captured from the enemy. It was bulky and heavy, not ideally suited to the human body as it was designed for use by the Empress' mechanised infantry.

"Billy, seeing as you don't have a scythe of your own you might want to use that tomorrow." Grim nodded in the direction of the shiny weapon in his arms. "In fact you might want to consider keeping it for when we go back. It's more powerful than most of the other weapons we have, apart from the rocket launcher and the scythes."

Billy nodded while Mandy checked over the ones still held on the rack, all obviously too heavy for her. "Hey Grim, do you still have that trunk of weapons on you?"

Grim reached into the inside of his trench coat before he procured the tiny metal case. Placing it carefully on the ground he expanded it to its full size, allowing Mandy to move in and open it. She scanned through the mobile armoury, setting her eyes on the M4 with the red dot sight where the carry handle once sat, the weapon she had devoted her time training with. She proceeded to lift the small but powerful weapon out of its case, holding it between her small hands. After training with it almost exclusively she knew the weapon like the back of her hand. Other than her pistol and her scythe she would be using nothing else when she went into battle tomorrow evening.

Grim reached in and procured several magazines, holding out his hand for her to take them. "These are armour piercing incendiary rounds. They offer the best chance of punching through the armour those machines have on them and destroying their innards."

Mandy took the magazines, reaching in to retrieve another few clips for her pistol. She almost shook her head at her actions. Two months ago she didn't even know how to use a handgun, and still remembered timidly taking hold of it from Grim and firing her first shots. Oddly from where they were now it seemed an entire lifetime away. Now she was handling high powered military arms and powerful armour piercing rounds as if it was no different to packing her books for school. She took the rifle, her pistol and the ammunition back to her room to get them all ready for what lay ahead. Billy watched her go silently.

'_I have to talk to her. Either I do it now or I'll loose her forever.'_ He carefully placed the futuristic weapon in the case, before he set off after the girl.

He found Mandy sitting on her bed, her room lit by her bedside lamp, checking her pistol with as much finesse as a relatively untrained girl could. After all, she was still more used to using her scythe. These were just backups, and though she had taken to using them far more than her usual weapon she had still not been shown how to strip and maintain either of them. She raised her head when she heard the door open, seeing Billy walk in with a strange sort of determination in his eyes.

"Yes?" She demanded coolly, being sure to take charge of the situation.

Billy set his eyes firmly on hers, closing the door and leaning against its surface. "Did you really mean what you said before? That you would have no more use for me, and that I would just be deadweight?" She could sense his pleading that it wasn't so, despite his mask of self-control.

She lowered her head to her weapon once more, loading each of the magazines with seven new forty-five calibre rounds. "Billy, you know I've never said anything I didn't mean. This is no different. If you want someone to follow then by all means follow me. But don't expect friendship from me in the future Billy; that is one thing I will not be able to give. Like I said, you've done well, and for that you have my eternal gratitude, but soon you will begin to hold me back. You and I both know it's inevitable, and was going to happen someday from the very beginning. And when that moment comes I will leave you behind and go on alone. You can't stop it, just accept it and move on." She spoke unfeelingly to the boy as she finished loading the last magazine, setting it down on the table beside her bed. Underneath though the sound of her words was starting to eat away at her. Billy scowled at her.

"You don't mean that Mandy. I know you don't. I know you don't really want to leave me." Billy declared. "I can see it and hear it in how you talk. I heard it earlier, you mean what you say, but you don't want it."

Mandy though simply shook her head and looked away. "Four years ago when we first met Grim you were an idiot, and nothing more than a useless naïve burden, but you were loyal, and that was all that I ever asked for. Since then you have gone from someone incapable of thought, to someone who can stand on their own two feet. You've grown up Billy, there's no denying that. And yet, despite all the growing up you've done, I see the truth, underneath you're still the same naïve idiot you always were. Even after all this time you still don't understand. I will never change from the course I have decided on Billy, and I will never allow anything to threaten that course, not even you. The bonds I have with you have weighed me down, and for some time I've been trying to break it off. That time we went to the mall together, I was about to tell you that it was over when we were attacked. But in the time we've shared together since then I've realised that just saying its over isn't going to be enough."

Mandy spelled out the facts as they had been for months. She avoided looking to him, but even then she could sense his shock and the rising heartache in his wide desperate eyes. Steeling her nerves and will she tried to remain calm as everything that had caused her so much trouble and angst was bit by bit laid bare. But instead of feeling like a weight was lifted from her shoulders, she felt her chest begin to constrict, her instincts fighting what she was doing all the way, like pulling out barbed wire. Her breathing became laboured as she started to want to just stop there. But she wasn't through yet. Forcing herself to turn towards him she set her hard gaze on him, his worried gape pleading her to stop, to say it wasn't true. Her heart constricted painfully, but against all she willed herself on to finish it.

"Billy I've decided, once this is all over, I'm not going back to Endsville with you. We will never see each other again. That way the bonds that I have to you can finally be broken, and I can continue working towards realising my plans unimpeded, and none of the decay that's occurred in this future will ever happen." Mandy finished and let out a long shaky breath as she turned away again. In a flash she realised she had finally said what her reason told her needed to be said, and she felt like she had been hit in the chest.

Billy continued to stare in silence as the sudden realisation that he was going to lose her sank in. He honestly didn't care what her reaction would be now. He had nothing to loose.

"I love you."

Billy said it at last in a soft even voice. "I love you Mandy. To be honest I've loved you for so long I'm not really sure I remember a time when I didn't. And no matter what happens I always will."

Mandy closed her eyes. For her it was the worst possible thing he could have said at the worst possible time. All of a sudden the strength of will that had kept her going straight on her path despite all the pain it had caused her gave in. She slumped her shoulders in defeat with her features to the ground. There she sat in stillness as she slowly processed what she had been told. It was strange, despite the mountain of heartache that was crushing her she found it very easy to understand what he was saying, as if she herself had an idea as to what it was he was feeling for her. How did she know what it was he was feeling? But regardless of that she had to deal with it properly.

"Billy… I don't understand. Why are you telling me this? What good could it possibly do now?"

Billy smiled and shrugged. "I don't know. Originally I was going to keep it to myself cause I didn't want to risk loosing you, that way I could at least continue to be with you as your friend, but then you said you were gonna leave me. Like you said I'm an idiot, with nothing to loose anymore. I can't lose you, not like this. And even if I do, I guess I just wanted you to know how I felt about you, before you're gone. I deserve that at least."

Mandy's face hardened into a tired grimace as she faced her best friend once more. "I don't need love Billy. Like I told Irwin, give it up. I know that what you feel for me isn't like what Irwin felt, but nonetheless, you should forget about me. Find someone else to love, someone who can return your feelings, for your sake and mine. But do not expect them from me. Love, friendship, attachment to others, these are weaknesses that I cannot afford to have. They will destroy me if I let them. So I'm putting a stop to it here. I can't keep you around anymore Billy, if I don't leave you behind as soon as this is over, then the weakness the attachment brings will ultimately lead to failure and this future, where I have become weak and my power has been lost." She explained as sternly as she could. Billy looked at her with disbelief and a strain of scandal and contempt entered him.

"That's it? You're leaving everything we have together because you're scared it'll make you weak?"

"Romance is for the weak minded."

"That's pathetic." He remarked harshly. "All these years I thought you were wiser than to believe such crap. I thought you had more strength than that. When did you decide that you were gonna let yourself be controlled by fear?"

"Then what d you want me to do?" She shot back heatedly. "You want me to just throw away everything I've lived my entire life for just so you can continue to have your relationship? You want me to stand back and watch as the entire human race eat each other alive just for you?" She turned away and bowed her head again. "There's more at stake here than your own personal feelings."

Billy's own anger faded away. As much as he had contempt for her views on relationships with other people, he had to admit that the consequences of failure were heavy. In that sense there was a genuine reason to be fearful, if not to this extent. He let out a constricted breath and began towards her as she sat on the bed facing away from him.

"Look, I understand where you're coming from. It's just… I wouldn't feel so bad about this if I knew you didn't feel the same at least some way."

"What do you know about how I feel?" She replied sombrely while turning further away from him, wrapping her hands around her elbows.

"Come on. You can't tell me that you didn't feel something all those times we shared back at the cabin." For the first time Billy smiled fondly at the memories as he moved up behind her, placing his hands softly on her shoulder as she continued to slump despondently. "Do you remember that time we were fishing, and our hands only just touched, how we both froze?" He chucked happily. "Remember when you undressed in front of me? I don't recall you ever asking me to close my eyes or turn away." He smiled softly again and moved his hands along her shoulders closer to her neck. "Do you remember when we were watching that movie, and I held you, and you held me back?"

"Billy stop." She spoke, a noticeable pain in her voice. "Please, don't do this to me. Please."

His smile faded. Saddened he let go of her shoulders. "You're a human being Mandy. You need other people in your life just like you need air. Just someone to talk to, anyone, even if it's not me." He pleaded her, but despite this she remained silent.

Billy sighed, turning and moving away from her. "Okay, so what's your plan? You just gonna move away and not see me again, and assume that in a few years time you'll just forget about the only person you had who genuinely wanted to be with you?"

"Basically that's it." She admitted.

"Mandy if you move away, you'll still know I'm out there somewhere. You'll still remember me, and I know you'll want to have me back if not for just the company. Even if you move away from me, you'll still need me Mandy. Even you can't live completely alone. If you think you can just sever your bonds and it'll all go away then you're the idiot." Billy had known what she herself knew from the beginning. Even if she did leave, that wouldn't free her. "How exactly do you suppose you're gonna get rid of the bonds you have with me when you can't even stay away from me for three days without collapsing in on yourself?

The solemn girl remained quiet as she looked back to him, her onyx eyes turning cold once more. "I will do whatever it takes. No price is too great for order." She spoke to him without emotion, a hard scowl once more upon her features. "Whatever it takes."

Billy took one last look at her, before he made his way back and opened the door to leave, having come to admit defeat. Halfway through the door he paused. As he milled over what his partner had said to him, combining it with the knowledge of her ways, he came to understand just what she had meant, even before she herself knew. _'Whatever it takes.'_

He turned back to his best friend with a sad smile.

"You're gonna kill me one day aren't you?"

Mandy just continued to study the weapon in her hands as she sat on her bed, without responding in any way. She neither confirmed it nor denied it, she just continued on as if he had never said a thing. For Billy it was all the confirmation he needed on how it was to end. He smiled and nodded.

"I'll be waiting." He stepped out and closed the door behind him, leaving Mandy alone in her room once more. She looked up, trouble and uncertainty now clear in her manner.

'_Kill him? Is that what I really meant? I would never do that. Surely it would never come to that. I'd never get that desperate anyway… But what if I did? What if I can't shed the bond I have with him? What if it really does come to that? No, I could never do that. I wouldn't… would I?'_

Mandy sat in silence as her mind reeled over what had just transpired. Groaning she set her weapons down beside her bed, running her hand through her hair in dismay. _'Billy loves me, and I have to leave him soon. Tomorrow I have to fight my way through my own fortress and destroy what remains of my empire, and confront my future self. And what if it's like Billy says and I can't break away from him? What am I going to do?'_ She sat on her bed, holding the bridge of her nose. Somewhere along the line she knew that something, if not everything, had gone terribly wrong.

Her life had become filled with so much uncertainty over the past few days. Why for example did she know how Billy was feeling for her? The time not long ago when she had been in his arms watching the movie, and the time he had comforted her after her painful ordeal, had felt as if every little part of her existence was just perfect. During those times she had been nestled into his embrace there was nothing that could take away the total sense of comfort she had felt. It had felt right. But how? Why?

Such things were made clear to her now that Billy had come forth and explained it to her. _'Oh god, I'm in love with him. I've fallen in love with Billy.'_

As much shock and dismay as her own realisation had bought her, to know that she had sunk so low as to fall in love with anyone herself, it was not the only issue on her mind. As much of a weakness as love and attachment were for her, what she had seen and heard, of how in this future she had sat back and let her power slip away like sand in the wind, in the back of her mind it was beginning to seem more than something a simple emotional attachment could cause. For though she knew sentiments of attachment would chain her down in the long run, the more she thought about it the more she began to wonder if such a fall from grace could really be caused by simple attachment. And as she began to plant seeds of doubt in her original hypothesis, the more she began to wonder if there was something else to blame, something worse what she had not yet noticed.

Frustrated and exhausted by her inability to quell the storm of uncertainty and doubt inside her head she slid off her boots and drew back the covers, getting into bed to try and put it out of her mind for now as she had done time and time again. All the issues she was facing would soon be bought to a head, and all her questions would be answered exactly twenty four hours from now. Turning off the bedside lamp she shut her eyes and let the cool welcoming darkness of the bare room engulf her senses, easing her troubles away.

And yet, as she lay there waiting for the storm to subside and sleep to take her, a new feeling began to make itself known in the very depths of her mind. It was a feeling she hadn't felt for some time now, welling up from some corner of her consciousness she was only vaguely aware of, a faintly ominous feeling, that somewhere there was something that shouldn't be.

Her eyes flicked open. She could sense them; invisible clouds brewing just beyond the horizon. She had only felt the subtle sense of intuition once before, during the months and weeks leading up to the day they were attacked.

Somehow Mandy knew deep within, something was very wrong. Out there beyond the endless desert something was happening.

* * *

The full moon shone its piercing blue-white light down on the vast deserted forest, lighting up the mountains, valleys and trees in its sharp, ice cold relief.

The last remaining portions of the cabin still flickered with flame in the deep blue of night. The wide clearing around the charred and broken ruins of the small hideout had become cloaked in a dense haze of ash, dust and smoke from the smouldering remains. The flickering orange light of the dwindling flames and embers barely touched the surrounding trees, before it was swallowed whole by the moonlight, while the warmth of the glowing heap barely radiated out at all in the piercing cold night air.

Somewhere in the darkness and cold beyond the end of the fire's glow a shadow stirred. Concealed in darkness and smoke the figure slowly approached the burnt out ruins of the cabin, the ghostly light of the full moon shining from behind masking the small figure in perfect shadow. The cloak it had worn previously had long since been discarded when it had left Endsville. No one would recognise it out here.

Except his prey.

The figure cast in deep shadow stepped calmly up to the flickering fire with a calm purposeful stride, as if he had all the time in the world. Approaching the glowing embers the all encompassing black silhouette around him slowly gave way, the phantom beginning to form the shape of a mere youth around twelve years old. As he made the last few calm steps, stopping before the burnt out wreckage at his black boots, the flames shone their faint orange glow out, revealing a cold, emotionless face drawn into a deathly scow, the flames reflecting off his cold onyx eyes.

Max stared down at the remains in absolute silence, the fire lighting up the face of Billy and Mandy's friend, and relentless hunter.

Below him the ashes of what was the front porch continued to burn, the flames reflected in his eyes as if to reveal to the world the inhuman creature lying just beneath the surface. From the outside he was an ordinary pre-teen youth. Underneath though, beyond the human skin he was nothing more than a living bastion of darkness, nothing less than the heartless killer spawned from the very blackest pit of hell.

Max was born completely devoid of compassion, love, or any form of care or concern for other people whatsoever, formed with the entire concept of darkness at heart. He had been created by Empress Mandy in the far future, a living weapon with which to destroy all those who threatened her society and her reign, and sent back to aid her in her original takeover as a child. She had trusted Max with this most important of tasks because he had remained loyal to her when sent out on assignment where the other four had betrayed her for their own self-interest. However she realised her mistake in doing so the moment before he had left, when he looked her in the eyes, and she could see just what it was she had created.

Max was ultimately too much like her, exceeding and surpassing her in a dangerous way. Everything she had ever wanted herself to be, perfectly stoic in her control, completely detached from normal human emotional needs, he had fully embraced and lived by. Immediately upon being freed from his mother and master he too had gone rogue, working solely for his own personal plans of power and mastery. His plan was simple, to befriend Mandy as a child, and over time grow close to her. Once he had gained her trust he would destroy the founders of the resistance, including Irwin and his family, so as not to prove a threat at any stage in the future. Then he would take his place at Mandy's side as her right hand, serving her will as she took power, eliminating each and every threat to her control. And finally, once she was in power with the world bowed beneath her feet, he would kill her, taking her place as sole ruler. He would create the perfect orderly society she had envisaged on his own, without her there to corrupt it through the weakness of her own underlying humanity.

But something had gone wrong. Though he had managed to get close to her and gain her trust through four years of fighting alongside her and pretending to be her friend, Mandy hadn't allowed him to become his second in command as he expected her to, having turned down his offer of a pact back at the Doolin Mansion. This had led to the collapse of his entire plan. Following that he had to recalculate everything, trying to figure out a backup strategy to reach his goal. He ultimately came to the conclusion that Mandy herself, with the power of the underworld and of her own scythe Judgement at her disposal, was the ultimate threat to his plans, along with her friends Grim and Billy. Even with his own abilities he knew he would not be able to compete with her for control. She was therefore his most important target, and had set out to kill them on a Friday afternoon in the parking lot of the Endsville mall.

Again he had made a mistake in his plan. The untapped power of Mandy's scythe, combined with that of Grim's scythe and Billy's cunning, had caught him off guard, forcing him to retreat. After he failed again to kill her and her friends when he waited at her house, he began relentlessly seeking any information possible on their whereabouts, and when that turned up with nothing he left Endsville to begin methodically searching the country, going over every contact he could find for both families.

As he calmly cruised across the country from state to state for months on end in search of his quarry, he began to revise his plan once more based on what he had learnt of their original encounter. Mandy's scythe was the world's most powerful weapon, he had felt its nigh on godlike power first hand. With it she had fought him off and, according to the history of his mother's takeover, had planned to use it when she took power, using it to crush her enemy's forces with one almighty wave of destruction after another. His powers were far greater than that of the Grim Reaper and his scythe, and had enough power on his own to take on entire armies. However he was by far weaker than her scythe, and knew he would not survive being attacked with it if Mandy learned how to unleash Judgement's full force.

If however he were to take possession of Mandy's scythe, combining both its and his own monumental power, he would be completely unstoppable. In an instant he would become equal to and above the gods, and in a day's time the world would be at its knees before him. So his target changed from killing Mandy, Billy and Grim, to killing them and taking the scythe.

The only problem was that for the past two months it had been completely unsuccessful in finding them, having searched each and every contact it had recovered from both families and finding nothing. Furthermore though he had managed to pick up several low level energy bursts from Grim's scythe, they were each too faint to be able to trace. Following that failure it had turned to searching back through each of their major purchases for the past few years in the hope of finding some lead there.

It did. Max had noticed in one of the documents taken from Mandy's house was that her now deceased parents had made a number of large purchases, all directed on an isolated patch of forest in a far north corner of Washington. It had followed them there, and now stared down objectively on the remains of what looked to be a large forest cabin.

He didn't move a muscle as he took in the sight. _'The fire was not lit very long ago, it is still burning. It was most likely lit only a few days ago.'_ He concentrated of the feeling he had picked up on months ago, of the Grim Reaper's scythe being used. _'There is a large amount of residual energy from the scythe here. The three were here for most of the last two months. They left only two or three days ago, and must have burned it down deliberately so I could not follow them. In another few days it would be difficult to tell if the cabin had been destroyed days ago or for a lot longer, and would give the appearance they were never here.'_

From his spot before the smouldering ruin he stepped across the bed of flames before him, the heat doing nothing to him as he stepped into where the front room once was. His black shoes made crunching noises against the ash and debris strewn across the floor from when the roof and upper level had collapsed. He continued to scan the rubble for any evidence at all as to where they were currently. _'They must have left with the intent of not returning here. What would be the most likely reason for them to emerge from hiding?'_

He gently traced his fingers across the wreckage as he moved throughout the ruin, sensing the ethereal energy left behind in the ash. He could smell the remains of the petrol they had used to burn the cabin down, giving no doubt that it had been deliberately set ablaze. He thought of their situation, living in fear of attack, trying to find out anything they could about their enemy, who they were, how to stop him, hoping he could determine their last move.

'_They know it is too dangerous to attack me directly, therefore they would likely try to find any information on me so as to find a weaknesses they could exploit. The only place information on me is available is in the fortress, so for them to leave suggests they know I am from the future. In order for them to access the information they would have to travel to the future. How would they travel there?'_

He stepped his way slowly through the house, thinking in silence on everything he knew on time travel. He stopped, freezing in midstep as a thought came to him. _'Mandark was the one responsible for the technology behind her machines. His design was employed in the machine used to send me here four years ago. He created a prototype long before it was ever created, before Mandy came to power. It is the most probable way they will have used. They have left here to go to Mandark, and from there have gone on to the future.'_

Max remembered the address for Mandark's Chicago laboratory from Mandy's contact list off her computer. _'I will go to him, and he will lead me to them.'_

Without uttering a word he turned around and walked back across the charred embers towards the clearing, to the powerful dark blue Camaro he had stolen from the woman he killed on the night of his departure. As he moved through the remains of the cabin he stepped on a small, charred and warped metal lunchbox, crushing it mercilessly into the ash beneath his feet.

This small act of uncontrolled aggression symbolised something that was taking place within Max. It was evidence of a growing change deep inside him that he had been steadily trying to suppress. Max had been created as a cold and unfeeling creature not just to ensure he would think clearly and objectively, but because of the monumental amount of power that had been stored in him. He and his creator had known of the corrupting effects of the demonic energy he had been gifted with. In order to stay uncorrupted and retain his human form he had to maintain absolute control over himself, to remain stoic and detached at all times. Were he to ever loose control of the titanic energy in his cells the effects would be a rapid degeneration into madness, and destruction and mutation of his human body.

Because of the need for complete control Max had never felt anything above a mere fleeting moment of annoyance. Even the show of great disgust and revulsion from what Billy had said about Nergal and his wife months earlier had all been staged. He hadn't felt a thing.

However lately something was beginning to change. From the beginning since his creation he had continuously feigned loyalty to his mother, in order to bide his time in search of an opportunity to take power for himself. After leaving her behind Max had been at work constantly on his task of befriending, deceiving and ultimately overthrowing Mandy since he had arrived in Endsville four years ago. Since then he had suffered setback after setback, and what should have been a relatively simple task had degraded into four years worth of wasted time and effort, all for no gain. Over the past few weeks a lingering sense of frustration had begun to develop deep within at the years of setbacks, and though he suppressed the unwanted emotions, they refused to go away.

With each and every setback the stabbing frustration grew stronger. And as the frustration grew and his control slipped, he could feel within him the deep reservoir of power growing unstable, beginning to churn and billow as he tried to calm the brewing storm.

'_I'm getting tired of this.'_ Max thought to himself for the first time as he opened the door to the car, setting himself in the drivers seat, closed the door and starting the engine. He turned the car around in the clearing, heading back the way he had come, intent on following the road the three fugitives had taken bound for Chicago, the future, and themselves.

He was catching up.

* * *

**Okay, so now that's settled, there's one thing I've been wondering for a long time, and be honest. Who saw that one coming?**

**I based Max's character almost entirely off my all time favourite bad guy the T1000 from Terminator 2, with a bit of Uchiha Itachi and Roy Batty thrown in for good measure. He's like a mini version of him, genetically engineered and with demonic underworld powers. In fact looking back you may be able to spot a number of scenes which I based largely on scenes out of the Terminator movies. The one just then was one of them, though I'll let you figure it out if you want.**

**Next time Grim, Billy and Mandy depart from the base as they head out to begin their own battle. It's going to be the final time they're able to stop for breath before the end. Also our newly unmasked cold, stoic, relentless killer and agent of darkness Max pays a visit to our mad scientist friend Mandark, and we take one last look at the regretful future Mandy before the confrontation with the dark and vengeful present one that lies ahead.**

**Until then tell me what you think, although unfortunately as usual I probably won't get around to responding before the next chapter goes up. Thank you for your patience.**


	29. Blue Sunset

**Happy Straya Day! Lamb! Un-Australian! Get outta mah country!**

**Did you know ****they're calling people who fly the plastic Aussie flags out the side of their cars racist? That's right. Showing the Australian flag, a powerful symbol of tolerance and understanding, of people of all nations and creeds coming together to build a society, is now considered by many paid intilectuals as racist. How did political correctness get to the point where you couldn't even love one's country without being called a bigot, all the while gay and lesbian marriage is still considered an abomination? Some people need a nice hot cup of common sense splashed in their face!**

**So about the chapter. This begins the final day of their time on the run. From here on out everything comes to a close in the space of the last few hours. So prepare yourselves ladies and gentlemen, because we're counting down towards the climax.**

* * *

**Blue Sunset.**

Next morning.

'… _Where am I?'_

Mandy clenched her shut eyelids as she regained consciousness. Running a thorough scan of what she could feel of her surroundings in her heavily dazed state, she soon came to find herself lying on her side in her bed, her head pressed into her pillow. Therefore she had to have just awoken from a night's worth of restless sleep.

'_What… happened?'_

In her currently state of stupor she looked back into her last few memories before she blacked out. Oddly enough, she found it difficult to distinctly recognise where she had been, perhaps from having just awoken, or something else entirely. She recalled a haggard old future, a secret army base, hiding, Billy and Grim, all in some strange delusional daze which felt almost as if it had been part of some hallucination. As her consciousness continued to come to her she began to realise just what such a convoluted haze of memories meant.

Mandy realised to her immense relief that everything that had happened, the strange, impossible blur of disasters and hiding and the future, had all been a dream. Right now she realised she was lying in her old bed, in her old house, with her mother and father probably downstairs preparing breakfast for her. Her head swam and heart began to burn with the wonderful, joyous anguish of having been freed from that horrible reality. She gasped for air with a faint smile. Tears almost sprung up in her eyes as she reflected on everything she had lost, only for it to be all given back to her, having never been taken in the first place.

'_Oh thank god. Everything's okay. It was all a nightmare.'_ She smiled in the joyous moment she had awakened into. _'Mom and dad, they're alri… What is this?'_

Her smile vanished as she felt her bed beneath her. Why was it so hard she wondered to herself, feeling the crude old springs as they groaned under the weight of her petite form? Her clothes felt rougher than usual and foreign, and yet somehow distinctly familiar. What's more the air smelt stale and old, evoking bleak memories from a world she had escaped from. A horrid thought occurred to her, too horrid for her to face openly. She held her eyes shut as she continued to try to tell herself the truth, that she _was_ at home, with her loving mother and father, and that everything and everyone was alright.

She kept her eyes closed for several moments, unable to open them for fear of finding that place she had supposedly escaped there to greet her. Gritting her teeth she tried to force herself to believe, to _know_ that it had been a dream, even though the memories coming back to her became clear, all too realistic to be a delusion. Outside her bedroom, in what _was_ her house, she heard the sound of someone walking by, their shoes making rhythmic tapping sounds on the… concrete?

'_No, it can't be... No, I won't believe that! It can't be true! It's a lie! It's not…'_ She screwed her eyes shut even harder, begging everything to be alright, unable to bear the thought of finding her greatest fears to be realised. And yet the tension of not knowing was beyond agonising. Finally, unable to take the strain of not knowing wether her family were still with her or not, she forced herself to open her eyes.

"… Oh…"

Seeing the reality of the world again she uttered a slight gasp of despair. The dull concrete room confronted her, the remaining fluorescent light not destroyed by Billy still glowing away, casting out its white light and a faint hum. It was all real. She was in a future where she had collapsed in on herself, been tortured, and worst of all, her mother and father were dead.

"No!" Mandy shut her eyes and clamped her hands over her temples, her desperation for what she had lost taking hold. Turning over she pressed her head into the pillow as the anguish cut and stabbed away from within like a hundred blades. Her arms clamped across her heart in a feeble attempt to shield herself from the grief. "Noo…" She groaned pitifully as she opened her eyes again to the barren world she had awoken into, the world of all her worst fears come to life.

Mandy lay face down on the bed and waited as the pain and grief slowly ebbed away, leaving a deep hollow pit inside her somewhere she couldn't quite reach to fix. Sitting up lethargically she hung her feet over the side of the bed. She began to think; about her life, the path she had chosen, her beliefs of crushing the weak-minded and the corrupt, her dreams of power and control, and of Billy.

'_What am I doing? Why is this all so hard for me? Where did I go wrong?'_ Forcing herself to think logically she thought back to the reasons for what she was doing, and why it was affecting her. _'Okay, first thing's first. For as long as I've known I have wanted the power to dominate others around me, to keep them under control, and to make all the lowlifes of the world suffer for their crimes and cringe in fear of me. I try to stay detached from others so they don't weigh me down with weaknesses like compassion and love, so that way I am free to do as I wish towards my aim without having to deal with guilt and remorse for my enemies. Billy however has hung around me for so long that I've somehow become so tied up in him that… Oh god…'_

She could barely stand the sense of self-loathing that came over her at how low she had slid. _'Oh what's the point denying it, I do love him, as much as he loves me. I hate it so much, and I hate what I've become to allow it. I should have gotten rid of him years ago after getting my own scythe, but I didn't. Now look at me.'_ Mandy lowered her head and ran her fingers through her hair.

Regaining her composure with a deep breath she returned to her trail of reasonable thought. _'I cannot allow anything like this with Billy. If I continue to hold these feelings they will rot me from inside, and I'll end up throwing away everything I have built up for myself, like I have now. If I want to remain strong enough to dominate people, I have to break my attachment to him and leave him behind as soon as this is over.'_

Lifting her head to stare absently at the ceiling she continued her thoughts. _'But how am I supposed to do that? Breaking my bond with him has become so much harder in the time since we left than I thought it ever would be. It would have been easier if I'd dropped him back at the mall like I had planned, but now that we've been on the run for so long, and living together so close, it's just gotten… It's just so hard to go without him now that he's so close to me. If I don't free myself from him soon I'll never be able to get away from him. But being apart from him is so difficult that I don't think I could stand it long enough to break free anymore. I will have to leave Endsville, and Billy, once we get back. If I don't do something permanent, so that no matter how hard it gets I can't turn back, then I'll never break away from him. I just hope I can hold out, and not cave in like he said I would.'_

Her thoughts didn't stop there though. She remembered what was going to happen tonight, and she once more lowered her head, taking several deep breaths as the sheer enormity of the situation came down on her. This could potentially be one of, if not the defining climax of her life.

'_Add to that I'm currently being hunted by someone gifted with terrible dark power, which for some reason has travelled from this hellhole back across time and space to kill me, and has forced us into hiding following the murder of my family. And now we have come to the same distant future just a few years after it left, where my empire has collapsed due to neglect, to find out why it's after me and how to stop it. After that I have been tortured to near the point of death by one of my own officers, joined my enemies the resistance in attempting to destroy the remains of my own empire, I've taken the life of the guy who tortured me, and I've come to realise that I have fallen in love with Billy. And to top it all off tonight I will have to confront my future self, who will hopefully could tell me where I went wrong and who it is that's trying to kill me, after which we then have to leave the resistance and go back to face the guy that's been trying to kill us for the past two months.'_

'…'

'_At what point did my life become an institution for the criminally insane?'_

Mandy again concluded her thoughts. _'With the information on whoever it is that's after me we can return to Endsville, kill it, and then I can start a new life somewhere Billy won't be able to reach me. Once I get rid of Billy I can work more closely with Mandark on creating the army, finalising the plan of attack and fixing up every last detail prior to taking over. With Billy out of the way, and being able to work directly with Mandark, I could be able to take power and achieve immortality by the time I'm sixteen. I wonder how much of the world will be left by then?'_

Mandy looked towards the door, finding her old pink dress and bike shorts clean and hanging on the door handle. Grim had most likely placed them there earlier. She rose to her feet to get them, slipping on her boots and clean socks. Feeling the soft fabric of her dress in her fingertips she let her eyes close as she bought it to her face, the familiar feeling transporting her away to a time when everything was stable and comfortable, calming her. Her eyes opened again as a much more dire thought came to the forefront of her mind.

'_What if I can't get rid of Billy by staying away from him?_ This question had been at the back of her mind ever since she made her decision back at the cabin, only now they had taken a very grim turn. _'What if he's right and I can't help it, and I have to go back to him?'_ Once more Billy's chilling words from last night came to her. _'If that doesn't work, what else am I going to do? If separating myself from him simply isn't enough… could it come to a point where … Would it really ever come to the point where I have to kill him?'_ She felt a shiver rise up her back and her hairs stand on end. _'Could I do it if it ever comes to that?'_

Her mind reeled with the ominous task that could lie ahead. These thoughts changed towards something that questioned the entire purpose of her existence. _'Is this really the way I want to live my life? Could I really go ahead with all this if it means living my life alone? Or should I just abandon my ambitions and live the rest of my life a nobody with him? Why shouldn't I just sit back and let humanity be its own judge?'_ She reflected on her life so far, back to her glory day's, back when she had just taken control of Grim, and her power over those around her was growing in leaps and bounds every day. _'Survival of the Fittest once saw me through everything hell had to thrown at me. My constant desire for strength has given me the ability to rise up and dominate the people around me. It was my desire for power and control and my rejection of weakness that has given me the strength to endure through everything. But what about now? I'm not even doing this for my own greatness anymore. It's becoming more and more difficult to be strong, and it's wearing me down inside. I don't know if I could keep this up forever. I could certainly hold out for now and for years to come, but forever?'_

She continued her train of thought unabated. _'And what if I chose to be weak, would that be so bad? I could just give up on my dreams and go with Billy. We could grow up together, become a couple. And if everything goes well we could stay that way, while the bigots and liars of the world destroy the human race just to satisfy their fat egos!'_ She grimaced and clenched her fist in a flash of bright burning anger. _'If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have to face all this in the first place!'_

It was at this moment that a distant memory from her glory days returned to her, a faint glimpse of the infinite power and vengeful satisfaction she had longed for ever since.

The creature had come for her while she was asleep, dragging her down forcefully into hell, into which she fell a pit of searing liquid magma. Around the base of the fiery pit all the demons of hell coalesced, drawn in by the presence of the vengeful soul within. And from the deep core of this pit of destruction she rose once more, great and terrible, below which the beings below hailed in a fit of rage and passion, her fiery form looming over them, commanding them to her every whim. It was this strange hallucination, bought on by a bout of food poisoning of all things, that had shown her the true way, and she had forever been set on world domination ever since. One day she would rise above all the people of the world, and they would bow in fear of her power, obeying her will and her laws strictly and orderly, just like in that wonderful dream.

'_Can I really give that up? No, I simply cannot imagine a life of watching the vermin of the world butcher and rape the good left in humanity. There's just so much out there, so many short-sighted little insects with their petty worthless pride. I will not let them get away with what they've done.'_ Scowling she closed her eyes sombrely, her anger still burning bright. _'No matter how much I must sacrifice of myself and others, I will do whatever it takes. Even if I have to live alone in guilt and remorse, I will make them pay.'_

Settling herself at that Mandy returned her attention to her current state. She needed a quick shower and more greasy breakfast, but otherwise she was set. Eyeing her regular clothes the militant garb she was wearing now suddenly seemed like less of a novelty. It just wasn't her though. For now she left the clothes from yesterday on, figuring she would get as much out of them until the time came. She felt that for tonight, probably one of the pivotal moments of her life, she should perhaps dress the way she was accustomed to, in the sweet pink dress with the pretty flower hiding her dark nature, which had long since come to define her image. It wasn't formal, but it would suit her best for what was coming.

'_Well, tonight's the night.'_ She thought with a vein of tension as she headed out to get showered and ready for the day.

* * *

An hour later.

Billy and Grim sat at the bar. They had each sensed the change in the people even before they entered, having seen it in the marketplace outside and as they paced their way along the various halls within the base. There was no more bustling commerce of small goods, most of the stalls lying vacant. The air was thick with tension, and it pervaded the three as much as it did the soldiers around them. They did not speak or interact with each other, nor did they dawdle about at their usual relaxed leisurely pace. The tension was far more pronounced here in the bar, where the silent contemplation was in marked contrast to the jolly drunkenness from yesterday morning. From what Grim understood as he sat backwards on his stool surveying the crowd this was due to both the resistance's façade being dropped and the coming battle. For Billy though it was of no concern, he ate in subdued silence while his mind replayed over and over what he and Mandy had spoken about last night.

'_How is she gonna take the strain?'_ He milled it over in his head. After spending most of his life with her he liked to think he understood Mandy, and that he knew what motivated her, and how she felt at times. He knew enough to know that she was trapped by her fear of weakness and failure. _'By telling her how I felt I probably tightened it around her.'_

Sitting with his head propped up on one arm he continued to push around his breakfast, all the while his beer went warm. He hadn't even begun to deal with the offensive they were participating in tonight.

He and Grim brightened slightly as they spied Mandy making her way through the nervously motivated crowd, herself looking around at the change in nature of the once jolly people. Against his better judgement Billy again let his eyes roam across her figure, taking in her bare slender arms and the little bit of her waist that was revealed. He saw the way her tank top hugged her sides and bust, and soon the memories of his torturous dreams began to filter back into his mind, filling him with an intoxicating desire.

'_God she looks so good in that. I wonder what her breasts would feel like to hold?'_ But then he recalled the outcome of their talk last night. _'It'll never happen. It was just a dream.'_

Seeing her two companions she took one of the patchy bar seats beside him. The faint warmth in her cheeks and stomach told her instinctively that her partner had been looking her over with craving, though considering it was Billy she couldn't help but get a feeling of almost wanting him to continue, something she had since come to terms with. Besides that she quickly picked up on his less than bright state, so different to what he was usually like. It was a reminder that nothing really lived in this world. Even the few thousand in the base of which they were a part of, and the remaining population in the capital, for them existence was primarily a fight for the remaining food and water to keep themselves alive. Billy reminded her of this as he smiled at her, though not quite as joyous and alive as he usually was, the bitterness of this world slowly rubbing off on him.

"How're you feeling?" He asked her softly.

Mandy simply sat her head on her fist as a plate of food was placed before her. "Fine, I guess." She answered him without taking her bleary eyes off the greasy plate of food as she started picking away at it.

"This place is a bit different from yesterday isn't it?" Billy spoke while he scanned over the still crowd. "Do you think this is how it always is when they're not recruiting?"

"Probably, although I suppose we all are considering what's gonna happen tonight." Grim answered him, seeing as how both children were on edge. It was easy to see the slight smile on Billy's face was forced.

'Let's just get this over with. Once we have the information we need we can leave this place and finish it." Mandy spoke putting the matter to a close.

Neither of the three spoke much after that point, content to simply eat and drank away in silence, occasionally listening in on the soft chatter of the other denizens. Gradually they drank down their second and third glasses, Grim still eliminating all trace of alcohol from their drinks, not that they knew any different, and soon they were beginning to loosen up.

"Bitch, if you say anything about us drinking, I'll kill you myself." Mandy threatened Grim while pointing her finger at him. Billy sniggered.

"Heh heh heh! So what do you think these guys are gonna do once they're in control?"

"That all depends on what they let their superiors do. If they make the same mistake of not thinking enough as people always have, then it'll always be the same outcome." She answered, still philosophically enlightened despite them both slouching forward loosely. "Why are you all red?"

"I'm not all red, you are." He replied with a stupid smile, although he did feel funny. Mandy too came to notice a certain strange, warm fuzziness within herself too, like everything had become soft and squishy.

"I think we're drunk again." Mandy spoke as she and Billy began to sway in their seats. Grim smirked beside them.

"Whatever you say sweetheart. Whatever you say." He replied cryptically. Mandy turned to him with a partially serious glower.

"What did you say _biatch?"_ She returned to her breakfast to try and counter the effect of the beer, still oblivious to why Grim was smirking quietly to himself.

'_I still can't believe we're drinking at this age. My life is so weird.'_

* * *

Mandark sat at his desk, surveying charts from the latest tests of the new prototype energy cells. Though they were not yet ready for production, he knew it wouldn't take much more work before they were ready to go into the newer machines he had prepared. The ones that had been created so far had adequate technology for intelligence, survivability and great destructive potential when fielding one of the plasma weapons he had devised. However he knew all along that they would become obsolete even before the war began, with their inadequate batteries needing a new charge every few hours. The newer models that would soon be ready for production would be largely the same as the old, only with the new power cells incorporated, along with a new simple composite frontal armour he had devised. With the newer models taking over production of the obsolete prototypes, the existing machines would likely be either modified with the new technology grown into them, or otherwise confined to use as research bodies and museum pieces for history. It would be the new machines that were to be produced in the underworld, and would be the ones fielded in years to come when the time came to take over.

He continued analysing the results of the test and smiled. The prototypes had only minor work to be done before they were ready for use in the mechanised army. They would be complete by tomorrow, two days tops.

"_Mr Androminov sir."_ Came the sound of the receptionist over the intercom.

"Yes what is it?" He asked somewhat irritated at being interrupted while he was on a roll, though he made sure to keep it in check.

"_We have a visitor asking to see you sir."_

Mandark was surprised by this. No one was scheduled to stop by today. He had finalised the plans with Dexter to break him out late at night in two days time but neither had said anything about any of his subordinates paying him a visit. "Who is it?" He asked into the microphone.

A pause met him, presumably as the receptionist spoke with the visitor. _"He didn't say his name. He only said that he's a friend of Billy and Mandy, and wants to speak with you about them."_ Another pause as some more talk took place elsewhere in the building. _"He says he needs to speak with you sir, and that he is concerned for his friends safety."_

Mandark sat in silence, taken well off guard by this. _'Someone looking for them… They said they were hiding from someone who was trying to kill them. He wouldn't say his name, but says he's worried about them. What friend would travel halfway across the country to track them down?'_ He continued to deliberate in silence. _'Either a very good friend or not a friend at all. I'll go and speak with this guy and decide wether or not to tell him from there.'_

Pressing down on the intercom button he spoke into the small protrusion again. "Tell him I'll be up shortly."

"_Yes sir."_

He continued to sit at the seat for a moment. Only now did he realise that he was about to confront a possible murderer. His heart raced, his breathing coming hard and fast, and a very thin film of sweat began to exude itself from his skin. He forced himself to calm down for the mission ahead. _'Mandy needs me to keep a level head. I can't fail this. I have a job to do.'_

Rising from his seat he made his way across the floor of the laboratory to the elevator, swiping it with his key card to open it and step in. After a few moments ride it opened out at the back of the bottom floor, closing behind him. Making his way through the largely empty laboratory he attempted to calm himself so as to not give anything away. The laboratory was empty on Sundays except for the receptionist and the cleaning crew, who should be leaving at four in the afternoon. He would of course stay behind to continue working down below.

Pushing aside the glass doors he entered the foyer. Standing there next to the receptionist's desk was a lean striking boy around his age. He wore a dark blue long sleeve shirt and pants, with short blue-black hair in a short back and sides cut and black leather shoes. The youth turned to face him with a polite smile, and began to walk towards him.

Despite the kind looking face there was something about his deep dark eyes that instantly sent a shiver up his spine. He could feel that there was some kind of pressure underneath, and from the first glance he struck him as cold, a chilling element in the way he stared right through him. Yet he continued to walk forward to greet the visitor.

"Good afternoon. Can I help you?"

"Yes, I'm looking for some friends of mine, Billy and Mandy. They disappeared from Endsville after an attack about two months ago, and I've been trying to find them ever since. Have you seen or heard from them in any way?" The strange kid asked. His tone was of a polite request. From the way he spoke Mandark got the impression he could have stacked ice cubes on his head one after another and they wouldn't melt a drop.

Mandark remained silent for just a moment, pondering on what to tell him. "I'm sorry, but who exactly are you?"

The boy gave an amused grin at having forgotten to introduce himself. "Sorry. My name's Max. I'm a good friend of Mandy's from back in Endsville. I don't know if she ever said anything but we go a fair way back, her and I."

'_Max… Actually she did mention him. She said he was a lot like her, and had taught her a few things. I guess this is…'_ Mandark kept thinking in silence as Max waited patiently for his answer.

"Max… I don't know, maybe. We only met once years ago so it's been a while." Mandark said thoughtfully, keeping the information of their last visit a few days ago private.

The strange dark boy wasn't put off at all. For a moment he thought he saw his interest intensify at what he'd said, though a moment later it was gone. "Well I've been looking for them for awhile now. I've been all throughout the country trying to find them before anything happens to them. I figured they might have come by here for help."

Mandark felt this to be strange. How would a kid have the skills to track them down from all across the country? And why would a kid be so concerned with them anyway, even if they were his friends? After all if he was like Mandy he would more than likely simply give up on them and continue with his own life. What also struck him was the nature of the way he talked, every word was perfectly crafted and each sentence perfectly composed, as if he were reading from a well rehearsed script. And how many kids his age were so polite?

What he found most concerning though was his smile. He had consistently held his soft, reassuring smile since he had arrived. Even he could tell when a person was faking a smile, but what really gave it away was the ever intensifying stare from his onyx eyes.

'_This doesn't quite feel right. He's probably a friend who's concerned about them, but I should stay on the safe side anyway. After all, they can handle themselves just fine without this guys help.'_

Mandark shook his head. "Sorry, but I can't help you. I haven't seen Mandy, Billy or Grim in ages. But if they come by I'll be sure to call you, if you want." He answered Max's enquiry.

He watched Max milling over this piece of information. He began to feel more and more a sense that something was wrong. Max continued to stare at him, surveying every feature of his face, studying his expression like a biologist would study bacteria. Once more he felt a sense of fear growing within him, and his heart rate and breathing began to rise again. He broke out in a cold sweat as Max continued to study him acutely.

Finally the dark youth shrugged, keeping his gaze on him. "No, don't worry about calling. Thank you for your time. Goodbye." He smiled as they shook hands and then turned to leave, pushing past the doors out to the parking lot.

Mandark sighed in relief as he exited the front doors. From behind he watched him walk over and take a seat in a dark blue car with interest, and had an idea. Reaching a hand up to his glasses he touched a barely visible button on the side, activating the x-ray function in them. Immediately he looked back to the boy as he started the engine, seeing his bones and ribcage and the inside of the car light up in a blue visage, including the contents of an otherwise unassuming nylon backpack sitting in the passenger seat.

"Oh my…" He gaped as he saw what looked like a rifle and a submachine gun, along with several magazines stored inside the bag, with a pistol hidden on his very person. Deactivating the glasses he watched alarmed as the dark blue sports car exited the parking lot and drove off down the road. Turning towards the receptionist he motioned towards her.

"Miss Bellum, if he comes back here shoot him on sight. I'll give you an extra hundred, no two hundred if you stay here on guard for an extra hour this afternoon, just so long as you don't let him get inside this building. Alert me if he comes around anywhere near here again." His tone held desperation, with his heart still racing from his encounter.

"I'm sorry sir but I have family commitments to attend to tonight so I can't stay late." The woman answered with resignation. She knew her employer was a good guy, and paid her and everyone else more than twice the going rate. Still, family always came first. "But I will stop him if he comes back."

Mandark nodded, turning to head back to the lab as behind him the receptionist pulled a stubby black shotgun from under the desk and pumped it loaded. Upon coming up to the elevator door he felt for his key card, only to find…

'_Where is it?'_ He thought patting himself down only to find nothing._ 'I must've left it down in the lab. Oh well.'_ He typed in his access code and the door opened. He stepped in and the door closed.

Now that he was alone he could breathe a huge sigh of relief, collapsing with his back against the side of the car. _'No doubt about it, that was him, the one hunting Mandy. I just spoke with a murderer.'_

* * *

The group of rebels ate and drank silently in their atmosphere of tension. Some of them would die, others would live. Maybe their entire life's work would come to fruition, or it would all be destroyed. Either way they knew that this was going to be the last time they ever sat down to eat in their beloved little bar, regardless of whether or not the tyranny was destroyed. Billy, Mandy and Grim both knew this well enough too, having come to share a certain fondness for the old place, insulated from the dust and death of the world above them, although that may not have been the case as they had previously thought. The crowd in general lingered long after breakfast, but began to come and go more towards midday.

The three refugees still sat at their place at the bar, more or less for lack of anything better to do, eating and drinking at a rate that would allow the previous plate to digest as the next load came in. They became like an island, isolated and distant from the rest of the bars patrons and staff, secluded in their own quiet thoughts and perfectly indifferent to the activity of the ratty group of rebels around them. From around and outside the bar several patrons would periodically send glances their way, including the self-appointed leader who had made the three their guests of honour. It was obvious at this point to anyone who wondered that they would never be one of them, that they would never be the blindly loyal champions the general had wanted them to be in his organisation. When Mandy turned to stare back at him distantly he snarled to himself and left them be, Mandy ignoring the confrontation altogether as the crowd around them started to thin out.

They sat around late into the afternoon, until at some point, hours after they had first arrived, they abruptly realised that they were now completely alone. Everyone, including the spunky old lady and the other people serving behind the bar, had left to prepare for their final mission.

Grim stared around vacantly at the equally vacant room. None of the life that seemed to permeate this little utopian pad's existence was present. Even the quiet tension from earlier was now gone, with absolutely nothing left but themselves. He and the kids noticed that on top of the deserted bar, the main street outside was equally empty. Nothing stirred in the hollowness that had suddenly taken over the base as its inhabitants left their home to head up topside, to prepare for the assault that was to start in little more than two hours time. Sitting there, alone in their own collective presence, they each came to feel the true bitter emptiness of the dead world surrounding them. This world was a graveyard, and even now they could feel and sense everything around them slowly fading into the endless dust which it would eventually, inevitably, be reduced to.

"I think it's time to go." Grim spoke in a sombre tone. "We should head back and start packing up. Another half hour and they'll probably come for us. We'll head on up and join them soon so we can get ready to move out."

Billy and Mandy sighed and stood from their seats, feeling them give slightly as they shifted their weight because their legs were decaying, just like everything.

Heading back to their rooms through the empty corridors Mandy checked the backpack Grim had bought with them. It still had everything in it from when they left from Mandark's lab, including the money, her forty five handgun and spare magazines, as well as the special armour piercing incendiary rounds for tonight. Lifting her gaze from the pack she eyed the clothes hung on the door. Quietly she took one last look over herself, at her tough paramilitary outfit, but the time it bought her satisfaction was over. This wasn't hers, it belonged to the resistance, a relic from her time spent consorting with the people who were ultimately her enemies, now and forever. She stripped off her utilitarian clothes, donning the familiar soft pink skirt and black bike shorts she had always worn, leaving he old green tank top and charcoal jeans on the bed. It was more than likely that nobody would ever see them again.

Moving on to her weapons she checked her forty five, seeing the weapon was clean and the magazines and rounds all in good condition ready to go. The carbine she had selected long ago would hopefully be adequate against the armoured machines, though if worst came to worst and things didn't go to plan she intended for it to give way to her scythe. After so long of not unleashing their combined fury she felt a vein of anticipation at the chance to use it again, especially after her first kill just yesterday. Still she wanted to keep the scythe a bit of a mystery to the resistance, and somewhat wished she hadn't told them about it. After all her failed future self could have one similar, and it could give her identity away. As such she figured she would use the armour piercing rounds so long as they only had to deal with a few enemies, and would only break out the scythe if the attack didn't go to plan.

On the other side of the long hallway Grim entertained similar thoughts while he waited for Billy to finish changing back into his regular blue jeans, tossing aside the worn out black jeans and jacket behind him. Having returned to his usual dress he then directed his attention to the large bare metal weapon he had selected from the armoury, a bullpup plasma rifle showing only light use, with a reflex site, as well as an under barrel addition that looked much like the future equivalent of a grenade launcher, but with the bore of a shotgun. Billy made himself familiar with the foreign weapon, learning how to eject the gas canister housed in the rear behind the trigger and load another in its place. He toggled between the non-lethal, lethal, high-power and safe modes of the gun, and made sure it was fully charged to the best of his abilities as shown on the digital display on the back.

"Billy." Looking over he saw Grim take out a small cylinder from his coat. It looked much like a very large rifle round. "This is a shell for the grenade launcher. It has enough power to stop just about whatever it hits." He explained as he grasped the front of the weapon in his hands, drawing forward the barrel of the launcher and loading it up inside. "To fire it you have to select high power mode, then aim and pull the trigger like normal. But we only have this one so make it count."

Getting a feel for the weapon he raised it to aim through the sights. He pictured the man in the cell in his final moments, writhing, cringing, begging for mercy. Slowly his mind began to fog over again as he imagined settling the sights on the depraved officer's head, watching his eyes bulge in terror, and pulling the trigger, seeing the contents of his skull blow out across the wall behind him. Setting it down in his arms he relaxed into his intoxicated state, his eyes half closed as his head swam with destructive thoughts.

"Grim, you remember the deal we made a few months back. If by the time my arm healed I've shown that I can be trusted with a weapon you will get me a scythe of my own once this is over." He told the man beside him as he slung the strap of the weapon over his shoulder.

"We'll see Billy." Grim replied. "If we make it through this alive, then I will."

"Good, cause I've got a lot of time to make up for." He spoke in a soft note, and for a moment Grim halted as he felt a ghastly bloodthirsty presence around the boy. He raised an eyebrow at him, but before long the presence subsided, leaving Billy to return to the door and walk on through, Grim following after as he turned off the lights.

Mandy packed the pistol, the rifle and accompanying magazines back into her bag, seeing as she lacked a belt to carry them, sealing the magazines away in exterior pouches for easier access. Closing the top on the now full bag she hoisted it over her shoulder and moved towards the door. Opening it she took one last look around at her room, before she turned out the light and closed the door.

Walking slowly along the deserted corridor she saw Grim and Billy emerge from their room on the other side down the hall. She stopped at the small intersection leading towards the heart of the deserted base while they made their way up to her. They regarded each other silently from their positions, knowing that this was an important moment for them. For the past two months since the attack they had spent their time running and hiding. The time went by calmly and routinely, with plenty of time for them to simply relax and do as they pleased. After their shaky start in this new world they had come to settle down here, taking the resistance as their new home in the mater of a few hours. Perhaps it was the knowledge that outside their little abode there was something lurking in the shadows searching for them that made every dingy motel, luxurious cabin or worn out military base feel like home.

What mattered now was that after this their days of peace were at an end. From here on out there was no turning back. They would meet everything that had troubled them one after another in the next few hours. They all knew it, and they knew each other knew it. So they simply took a few moments to revel in their last moments of peace before they all confronted whatever end was awaiting them.

"So, we get inside the fortress, talk to myself and find out about this thing that's been trying to kill us and why my society's fallen apart, then we go back to the lab under Endsville and use the machine to go back. We then confront this thing and use everything we learned about it to hopefully destroy it." Mandy spoke with a serious quality.

The others simply nodded. She took a deep breath and sighed, their days of peace over.

"Well… Shall we?" Grim spoke.

They turned and headed on through the cold empty base, towards the old stairs leading up to the hangars where everyone was gathered ready for the attack. Not a single soul crossed their path as they walked in silence.

* * *

Shortly after the cleaners had vacated the premises, Sara Bellum had her handbag packed and was locking the glass door at the front of the complex, the muzzle of her Remington poking out slightly through the top of her bag. Bellum had come to Chicago from Townsville, escaping as the entire city imploded on itself. She thought back to her previously beloved home city often, and it pained her greatly to see it as it was now. Townsville had been a garden of human development and progress in its heyday, but its people were still human. When the nationalists began flooding the airwaves with their lies and delusions, it had taken only months before more than half the city's population was infected.

'_Perhaps if we'd elected a real mayor, someone who wasn't a total idiot who could inspire people to do the right thing, it'd still be a place that would count as liveable. God, I was practically running the joint more than he was.'_ Unlocking her mid naughties C-Class she took her seat behind the wheel.

Another sobering thought occurred to her. _'But if I was in charge more than him, then maybe it was more my fault that it had collapsed. Oh girls, I'm sorry I couldn't do any better.'_

With a sigh she closed the door and started the engine, urging herself to find a more optimistic outlook on her current situation. _'Mandark really is one of a kind. He's a good guy, and a good kid to. I can't believe he's accomplished all this at such a young age. Some day I just know he's going to do something great.'_ Her boss was a great guy. He voluntarily paid them so much more than what even they themselves felt they were worth. He treated them all with respect, and always encouraged them to take the spotlight. It was due to her generous boss that she was driving a Mercedes and lived in a nice house, so she owed him a lot.

'_He's a bit of a strange kid though.'_ She admitted to herself. _'He says we're all working towards the future, but he's never really spoken about any goals or visions he's working for. He's never said anything about this future. And he's always quietly brooding, thinking, waiting for something. I wonder what exactly it's all for.'_

Miss Bellum reversed out of her parking space, navigated her way towards the driveway, and drove off to the right down onto the sparse highway outside the city. She was so busy keeping her eyes on the road that she never noticed the dark blue Camaro lying in wait on the side of the road only a few hundred metres from the lab, or the two cold eyes watching her go by from within.

Max had known Mandark was lying, right from the moment he had denied seeing them for years. Not only could he easily sense his stress from the moment he came through the doors to greet him, but when he started to panic when he began to scrutinise him it had became clear that he wasn't telling him the truth. Then there was the amount of time between being told of his arrival on the intercom and his responding, a clear sign that he was struggling to think of what to do. And finally the fact that he had asked questions about how he knew Mandy rather than just telling him no from the beginning.

Max knew he would have to confront him later when they were alone, so he stole the key card for the lab from his belt as he withdrew his hand from the handshake goodbye. After that he had simply stopped outside a nearby concrete mill, waiting for the staff to leave.

Now that the receptionist had left he started the engine and drove out onto the highway again. Driving across the grass medium strip he came up onto the other side of the road heading back towards the lab.

He forced down the growing feeling of frustration at being lied to, urging himself to remain stoic and in control.

* * *

Mandark continued his work at the computer, trying to keep his mind off whoever it was he had spoken to. Wether or not it really was the same Max he had been told about or not didn't matter to him. He just knew that whoever it was, he was the one that had murdered Mandy's parents, and had been searching for them for the last two months.

'_I'll have to tell Mandy about him when she gets back. They've been gone long enough. Three days should have been enough time to find what they need and get back.'_

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of whirring machinery coming from the front of his lab. Looking around he noticed the elevator at the end of the hall had suddenly opened of its own accord. A shadowed figure emerged from within. He strode out to face the intruder.

"Who the hell? What are you doing down-" He froze upon seeing Max's hard features come into light. He stared back at him with a cold and lethal gaze, making Mandark feel fear beyond anything he had previously experienced.

"Where are they?" Max demanded in a low, dark tone, making his prey shiver as he backed away in fear.

"I… I don't know." He managed to stammer out, hoping against hope that this so called person didn't take it too much further.

His hopes failed immediately as Max reached around behind him, withdrawing a Glock from his pants, pointing it at his heart. He lowered his head, keeping his eyes set on Mandark's as he felt frustration rising within, fighting to keep it down. From within he felt it begin, a sudden tingling sensation coursing throughout his body. Mandark noticed his face and skin began to turn pale as he threatened Mandark with the gun, his human body beginning to react to the now growing inhuman power seeping to the surface from within.

"Where are they?" He demanded again, his voice still low and controlled, but the force behind it beginning to show through.

Mandark simply stood still, frozen in terror at the thought of being a hairs width from death. He became acutely aware of the Krinkov carbine waiting for him at the end of the desk directly behind him. Edging back defensively he whipped his hand around and took hold of it, levelling it at the intruder and firing a long blast from his hip.

Max dived to his right behind a large machine as Mandark continued to open up hell on him.

"Fuck you! You come here and threaten me? You try and fuck with me? Big mistake! Now you die fucker!"

Continuing to fire an almost random spray of bullets at his enemy's position Max emerged from cover to fire two, three rounds in his direction. Ducking back momentarily Mandark returned fire at him. But this time he was prepared. The bullets blew apart and deflected off an invisible force barrier around Max's front.

Eyes wide in alarm Mandark quickly loaded a new magazine as his opponent strode up to him with a deadly look in his flat features. Raising the gun again Mandark fired madly, but to no effect, right up until he knocked the gun aside with his hand. Shocked Mandark stood staring at the gun levelled at his heart, the cold face behind it showing nothing more than a momentary annoyance.

Max continued to regard him with his cold stare, until he noticed something behind Mandark, displayed on one of the screens of his work station. He studied the data presented plainly on the screen, the active status of the portal, the number of years the last jump was sent through, the coordinates to where it was to come out at, all still left in the computer terminals memory. _'As I thought. They have gone too far forward, but they will still be trying to find out anything they can to defeat me.'_

Mandark turned his face to follow his gaze, and saw what was displayed on the screen. Shocked he looked back to Max, who gave him a detached, chilling look. He was of no use to him anymore.

"_BANG!"_

Mandark's life came to an abrupt end as Max pulled the trigger without a second thought, collapsing to his knees and falling forward to the floor. He left the body slumped face down and made his way past the computer console to the room behind it. Stepping through the empty concrete doorway he scanned over the portal before him. It was an exact predecessor to the one that had sent him here in the first place.

Making his way over to the control panel he checked to make sure it was still set from last use. It was, and the plastic shroud around the activation button was still open. He pressed the button without hesitation, watching as the green vortex formed in the ring.

Pausing where he stood he took a moment to calm himself, calling his anger back down. The tingling and pail hue to his skin left as he returned to his normal state of cold, detached logic. With his emotions securely flattened Max walked slowly, quietly up to the shimmering energy field, stepping through it, back to the world he had come from, where his prey was to be found.

* * *

17:00 hours.

Grim, Billy and Mandy joined the thousands of rebels gathered around the hangers atop the base. Cut into the hill the enormous rooms opened out onto the vast alien desert, with the city somewhere in the distance ahead. Each of the hangars were filled with transports of varying make and background, all covered in chipped and flaking paint from their careers as civilian and military vehicles. Most were covered in resistance slogans, of which the 'F' word seemed to be a favourite, with some mounting light armour bolted on here and there, and weapons ranging from door mounted light guns, to medium cannons and guided missiles.

The time had come for takeoff, the tension and anticipation in the previous hours culminating right now. Scanning through the rush of fighters and crew preparing for the epic battle ahead, Billy located General Mac briefing some of the pilots. When he finished his speaking, they nodded and hurried off to their craft, leaving the commander free to brief them one last time.

They made their way towards each other, stopping a few feet away from one of the more heavily armed gunships the resistance used. He faced them without his trademark fake optimistic smile as he looked upon them once more.

"I see you've taken to your old clothing for this particular mission." He spoke coolly, but then scowled. "You three disappoint me. I had such high hopes for you, and yet after everything I gave to you, you have still decided to turn your backs on us. I guess our struggle just isn't worth your time. What will you tell people when they ask why you never really cared about fighting back against the imperialists?"

"Oh spare us your self-righteous crap." Mandy snapped back with loathing. "We all know you're doing this for your own power. Even if you won't admit it to yourself we know you do, how you and your comrades force people at gunpoint to join or die. How you steal vital supplies from those who are most in need of them. You know what, I'm curious. What happened to all the other generals who you used to share control with?"

"They opposed our struggle, spread disunity in our ranks. They got what was coming." He spoke with a brutal edge. "Now you will get inside that fortress and kill the immortal bitch, or you will share their fate."

"You're a very lucky man general." Billy spoke with a slightly off grin. "Be glad I don't have my own scythe, because if I did… Heh heh, _very lucky."_

Mandy didn't pay much mind to either, simply gazing over the scratched and weathered panels of the modified civilian machine. "Don't worry. We have our own reasons for wanting to get inside that citadel."

She watched absently as one of the fighters attached a small flask to the underside of the starboard door cannon, most likely containing the volatile gas used in plasma weapons in a liquid form. The fact that a relatively unprofessional rabble of fighters using recycled junk were about to take on her empire was humiliating, as if they had been silently mocking her entire existence from the moment they saved her life from her own hell.

"You like it? " "This one's responsible for air support, but will also be airlifting a squad in." He explained to them of the old war bird. "We got her and just about everything else from abandoned cities, in raids and just good fortune."

Mandy raised her gaze up to him incredulously. "So all this…" She gestured towards the weapons, the vehicles and the entire base in general, "This is all from scavenging and improvising?"

He nodded. "We found half of this place the way it is. The other half we excavated from the rock and jury rigged from whatever we found. We don't really make much ourselves because of the lack of supplies."

Grim scanned over the ex-civilian transport again. He couldn't imagine just what these people had put this poor machine through. So many battles, and so much damage patched up here and there.

"Is this the one we will be going in on?" He asked of the machine.

Mac shook his head. "No. This is going to provide you with bomber support to knock out the perimeter wall and its defences."

"Or at least you hope anyway." Mandy interjected in her usual sarcasm.

Mac wasn't fazed by her ever witty retort. He turned and led them back behind the rotorless tail fin of the gunship to introduce them to another transport. It was painted in chipped and faded dark green paint, with no apparent armour or improvised military equipment except the two door cannons.

"This is your hovercopter. It's a fairly new one, only around forty years old since we recruited her." He commented on the 'brand new' transport, at which the group behind him shared uneasy looks. "Some of the others are around eighty years old or more. This will be the one to take you and your squad into Endsville. From there it'll leave you to join the battle in the city." He briefed them.

"Now you know there's a chance this plan of yours might not go according to what you thought. The machines guarding the palace might not be drawn out into the city. What if we get there and there's still a good deal more guards surrounding the place than we expect? What are we supposed to do then?" Grim asked the military commander, knowing that Billy and Mandy, despite their experience with countless battles, had never actually been in a real war of this nature before.

"You should learn to not doubt so much." He responded. "My plan is foolproof. It will work." Grim looked at him warily.

"Don't you worry about it Grim." Billy answered enthusiastically. "We've faced off against hordes of monsters and demons before, so I don't see why we can't just scrap a few of these toys and get on with it. Besides, we've got the scythes!" He beamed a grin. "We'll turn the place into a junk yard!"

"Well I'm glad, because there's a lot riding on you pulling this off." Mak replied to Grim. "Now once the city's secure I'll come to you as soon as possible to see you off. Once the Empress is dead and you've got what you came for then we'll part ways, because as soon as this is over I want you gone."

"Oh I agree. We wouldn't want to outstay your hospitality." Mandy replied to which his face gnarled in rage.

"You three shouldn't think so much. Bad things happen to people who think too much." Mac spoke as a group of shabbily dressed soldiers armed with various weapons walked their way through the now lessening crowd to join them.

"Sir, Group E is ready for takeoff." The helmet clad pilot of the group spoke. When he saw the ugly look on their leader's face he took a step back but soon returned to attention under his glower. Around them they could see the crews and squads manning their machines.

'_Looks like this is it.'_ Each of the three thought to themselves.

Mac reached to his belt for a hand radio, drawing it up to his face. "All groups report. Are you ready for takeoff?"

"_Group B ready for takeoff."_

"_This is Group C, ready for takeoff."_

"_Group A ready for takeoff."_

"_Group D reporting. Ready for takeoff."_

General Mac stood there in silence. He looked with stern eyes across the faces gathered before him, all staring back with the same hardened determination. He looked upon the faces of the three travellers from a better time. "Billy. Maxine. Grim. Good luck."

With that the group filed their way into the transport, taking their seats as each of the crew manned their stations.

The general left the side of the transport to hop aboard his own. "All groups take off and proceed to your goal immediately." He spoke into the radio.

The entire base was soon filled with the roar of hundreds of advanced turbine engines, each of the transports rising from the concrete, taking off into the harsh afternoon air. The dark trios transport emerged from the vast hangar on the tail end of the huge swarm of revolutionaries. They rose in altitude over the next five minutes until the group was flying high over the dry cloudless air between them and the endless desert, with the looming grey shadow of the city far ahead to the north.

As Billy, Mandy and Grim rode out into the ruined orange skies with the rest of the hodge-podge band of rebels, the sun began to set on the horizon to the west, directly to port. Each of the crew of the long convoy looked out into the sunset as a rare sight greeted them. Rather than bathing the transports in a deep red and pink glow as it had done in millennia passed both before and after her takeover, this shone a very different light on the insignificant insects travelling the vast wasteland. The orange-red midday sky, so much like Earth's celestial sister Mars, had long since been tainted by death and destruction. Now, as the sun lowered down to the horizon, the sky became cast in a vast eerie blue halo, dimly lighting the way ahead for each of the little creatures flying across the corpse of the world.

Billy and Mandy held their arms close around their small bodies, watching out the starboard door of their transport as far above the dead world below them they shifted course. They watched the other transports to their right became smaller and smaller, until they were ultimately swallowed up in the slowly darkening blue and violet skies. Now they streaked through the vast ocean of bitterly cold air completely alone, the sun setting for the final time on the Empire of the Night, and on one broken, empty shell of a woman, long since numbed of any care whatsoever. The cold twilight bathed the desolate world of regrets in its mournful blue glow, ultimately fading away to blackness without moon or stars, leaving the lone transport to glide alone in the endless darkness.

* * *

Empress Mandy sat in a large leather chair, staring up emotionlessly at an enormous computer screen. She had sat in this position for hours now, not moving more than a blink every now and then, and a movement of her fingers over the remote to control the video feeds she was watching. The computer was old, as was the chair, and the rest of the fortress, yet neither would ever receive the care and attention they needed in the form of repairs or upgrades. In that respect they were similar to her. Perhaps that was part of the reason why they really didn't matter to her anymore.

It had been years since she had spoken to anyone, or even said a single word herself. For months on end she would do nothing more than sit on her crumbling throne, or waste day after day, week after week at her computer, scanning through camera feeds of her ruined empire. When the computer came to an end she would loose her only link to the outside world. She wouldn't miss it. It was all the same to her now, indeed it had been years since anything major had happened to break the sense of absolute desolation that pervaded her entire existence. Not since Max had left, revealing his true uncaring nature to her in parting.

She was currently watching all the available footage of the attack on the prison a few days ago, taken from security cameras and the sight of the machines linked to the mainframe. Through them she could see practically everything that went on as the high security facility was overrun by the resistance. She didn't have any particular reason for doing this, not that it mattered to her. She watched the footage as a man would sit on his couch for hours on end, switching through channel after channel, finding nothing but static, yet continuing anyway. She continued to stare impassively at the scenes, her eyes beginning to lose focus and blur the images.

She pushed a button on her controller to bring up another view of the attack, this time through the optical receptors of one of the heavily damaged guards lying on the ground amidst the remains of its brethren. It rose its head to look out towards where a number of transports were waiting for a large group of liberated prisoners to board, a stream of them coming out of a hole in one of the walls.

She knew the resistance was finalising their plans, and that they were most definitely up to something. She knew her armies simply wouldn't be able to crush an uprising were it to occur. And she knew such an uprising was more or less imminent. Yet this didn't affect her in the slightest. She remained completely apathetic to the world she once ruled over, and her entire life in general. It didn't matter, she knew she wouldn't be here much longer anyway.

As she continued to stare lifelessly at the video taken from the ruined guard, for the fist time in so very long her eyes caught on something out of the ordinary that caught her interest. In amongst the crowd of dirty, shabby, ruined human beings there was one small figure that stood out. She narrowed her eyes to focus on a strange shape clad in pink, being carried by someone. As she focused on the abnormality she realised it was a girl, wearing a pink dress, with short blonde hair.

Mandy leaned in to scrutinise the girl more closely, the first thing she had shown any interest in for centuries.

The girl lifted her head from her position against her guardians shoulder to look in the direction of the machine, straight into the cameras.

The Empress froze. Her eyes shot wide and her mouth hung agape in absolute shock as the girl raised her arm to point towards the machine.

"_Look out, it's still alive!"_ The young Mandy yelled at her from the screen while her future form stared on in silence.

'_I don't believe it… It's me. But how? Why?'_ She thought to herself as her long dormant mind began to race, her heartbeat following suit. She paused the video, zooming in on the pink clad young girl, finding her to be an exact image of how she once was when she was that age. Her face was pale and her hair dishevelled, and the fact that she was being carried suggested a bad recent history for her.

Leaning in on the edge of her tattered seat she un-paused the video, and watched in absolute anticipation as the machine raise its plasma rifle to blast at her younger self. She held her breath as the targeting sight centred on the girl, before the machine was distracted by something approaching close by. She watched speechless as the machine rounded on…

"_Billy!"_

The word slipped from her mouth barely a whisper for the first time in centuries. She couldn't believe it. Not only was her past self here in her future of regret and eternal torment, but so was the boy who embodied the happiest time of her life, and all the mistakes that haunted her entire existence ever since, and had ultimately led to her destruction. She continued to watch as a moment later he bought her old scythe Judgement down on the machine, taking the cameras offline and ending the video.

Rewinding it slightly to the last moments of the machines life she paused, the still image of Billy's face overwhelming her as it looked directly at her. She could see the determination in his eyes, the desire to fight back, to protect that which he cared about most. She sagged back into the chair in a stunned shock, her logical, calculating brain dazzled by the sight of his face. Slowly as the waves of shock passed and a vague sense of thought came back to her, she became immediately overcome by an immense heartache the likes of which she hadn't felt for so long.

"Uuuuuhhh…" The woman groaned from the inner agony, placing her head into her palm and the other to her chest. She held the bridge of her nose as so many years of suffering and regret came to the surface again. The ghastly horror of the pain and guilt she had been forced to live with continued to stab away at her, cutting a hole somewhere deep within. She held her head in her hands as her despair took her, holding her in its crushing grip for what felt like an eternity.

Finally, as the burning pain subsided after almost an hour of crushing remorse, she sank back into the chair once more, as she fell into the bottomless hole dug within by her own pain. She was used to the numbness of the void; she had lived in it for centuries. And it was in this hole that she knew she would soon fade away.

But right now there were more important matters at hand than the endless depression that was her life. Forcing herself temporarily out from the void that had taken her she focussed once more on the computer screen occupying much of the wall before her. She gripped the controller as a sense of purposeful determination came to her, bringing her eternally young features into a focussed stare.

She opened the menu, cycling back to before the attack had come. Selecting one of the exterior cameras she played a video taken hours before the attack, showing an armoured prison truck landing in the courtyard. Enlarging the view of the prison transport she fixed her eyes on the two unconscious figures being carried over the shoulders of the guards, with Billy carried over a robot and herself over one of the few human officers. She tracked their movements from camera to camera as they carried the two down through the hardened complex, finally arriving at an empty cell, upon which the robot lay Billy down on the bench, while the armed man dumped young Mandy on her back.

The Empress continued watching the video feeds as they lay still for something like two hours before the young girl finally awoke. After waking Billy she watched as they conversed on their situation in a calm sort of anger at being imprisoned, followed by fifteen minutes of sitting around aimlessly in silence. After this she watched as her younger self began to sense what was coming for them, despite Billy's best attempts to calm her.

The older Mandy began to feel a writhing unease take hold as the door slid open revealing their captors, the image of her pail features from before coming to the forefront. She watched as the young girl on the screen summoned all her inner strength, and in a show of incredible courage, walked out to join the machines as they led her down the hall and into the depths of hell. The woman sat in silence as she watched her younger self screaming in agony, listened to her cry out for her father's protective embrace, before she was unable to watch any more, pausing it on a frame of her with her head downcast, breathing heavily as she writhed in pain between jolts. Mandy gazed over the skewers used to secure her hands to the rack, their lengths disappearing through her small palms and out the back of the rig, with small rivers of blood dripping down onto the floor. She looked down at her own slender hands as she contemplated just how much it must have hurt her.

'_Why would they come here? What could have possessed them to want to…'_ Then she remembered, back years ago when she had sent Max back to serve her. How cold and hostile his gaze was before he left, telling her that she was his real enemy.

'_Max. So he did it after all just as I suspected he would. He betrayed me when I was still a child for his own self-interest.'_

This came at no surprise, though it actually did hurt her from within. She had deliberately created Max from her genes in order to have what she could think of as a son. And indeed she had treated him as her son, showering him with so much love and devotion that was previously unknown to her except from her distant memories of her family.

'_He really was too much like me.'_

The thing was Max had been created with all her evil, and all her will to dominate and destroy, yet with none of the slight bit of love and kindness she possessed. He was programmed to lie and deceive, to infiltrate, and had done just that to her. From the beginning he had returned her love a thousand fold on the outside. He had always smiled at her, always told her he loved her, and held her in the same heart filled embrace as she gave him. And yet…

Despite how warm and loving he had acted towards her she saw the truth all along, the unspeakable, hideous coldness in his eyes. Though she denied it at first, telling herself it was not true, it always made a small part of her sick every time he looked up at her with his fake loving smile. Eventually though she came to accept it, having known from the beginning he was completely incapable of caring for another, and would never return her affection.

And so for the final year of his being beside her, she had simply stopped trying, becoming cold and withdrawn from him. It was then Max had shown his true colours. She still didn't know what was worse, the monster or the monster disguised as a loving little boy. The flat way he had spoken to her when she had given him his last orders was simply chilling, as was his deathly stare from beyond his black cloak, devoid of empathy or compassion.

Her Max wasn't a prodigy, he was an abomination. She should have known he would betray her from the start.

Returning to the young lady on the screen she hit the fast forward button, accelerating past her screams of anguish. She was again horrified to learn it had gone on for hours, and almost proud in a sense that by the end the strong willed girl was yet to tell them anything of Grim or the scythes. She watched as the machines withdrew the straps around her, allowing her to sag down limply from her bloody hands. She grimaced as they forcibly tore the two blades out of her hands, a trail of blood following them out, earning a cry of pain from the exhausted young girl.

After they dropped her back into her cell her heart began to clench once more as she saw Billy taking her in his arms and holding her small fragile form close. The woman paused the video at him running his hand through her blonde hair. She stared at the sight for an eternity, the image haunting her entire existence. There she sat staring at the screen until the image flickered. Second by second the flickers got worse and spread, the image blurring and fading away as they overcame the monitor, until finally it went out altogether, the computer dead, leaving her alone in the cavernous structure. The silence was total, and once more she returned to the void where she could fell her time running down.

She didn't care.

"_Empress… Come in Empress… This is the northern battalion. We are under attack."_ The speakers called out from beside the screen into the hollow chamber. _"Repeat we are under attack. All northern guard stations are being overwhelmed. We cannot-"_

Mandy raised the remote, silencing the voices, dropping it to the floor thereafter. She knew that this was it. The end of her empire had come. It was a long time coming.

She didn't care.

'_Why do I want to go on living anymore?'_ She thought to herself. She remained still and silent as she reflected on everything that had happened in her life.

She knew that her past self was with the resistance, and would be here soon. It would be her only chance to stop her making the same terrible mistake she had made. She would tell her everything when she arrived, about Max, and about what she had done. It would be the worst thing in her life for the girl to hear it, but it was the only way.

Now that she had that figured out she returned to her previous question. Again she thought back on everything that had happened to her in her ruinous life of regret. She heaved a deep sigh when the answer came to her.

Mandy rose from her seat, walking away from the blank screen, to the hollow depths of her fortress. There she would wait for the end, alone.

'_I don't.'_

* * *

**Did you like the Tony Montana-esque Mandark's last stand? I'm a fan of Scarface, and though Mandark plays little more than a side role as their loyal to the death ally, in the end I felt he deserved better than to just be executed, so I made the decision to send him out in one last blaze of glory.**

**So now the attack has begun, Grim, Billy and Mandy are on their way back into the fire, all the while Max has crossed the bridge into the future, and is now closing in on them. Tune in next time, and don't forget to review!**


	30. Downfall

**Hello all the wonderful people! A big thank you to everyone who wrote reviews for the last few chapters, they always bring me a big boost! I hope I got back to everyone...**

**That's right, I named this one after a movie! How original am I? It was a great movie though.**

**This chapter was a killer to get done, mostly cause I left it for later. So this one's just about as full of cliches and melodramatic crap as the rest of my work so by now I guess you know what to expect. Only joking (sort of). ****I tried to put in more evil laughter except the little clipit guy threatened industrial action.**

**Anyway there's more character development as the three get thrown into a violent situation beyond anything they've ever encountered before. This is also the last chapter Grim wears his man suit, it's all regae fan skeleton after this. It's also the chapter he stops being a whiney little manservant and gives in to the ancient force and madness within him! Billy can barely control the growing frenzy inside of him! We have more BillyXMandy development, and we catch up with Max as he draws ever closer to our favourite three. As I said it's all going down from here on so isn't long now before we have our reunion.**

**Also in this there's reference to something that came out of a prequel fanfic I wrote for this a while ago called Coming of the Night. I ended up taking it down though cause of spoilers, in hindsight I probably shouldn't have uploaded it. Hopefully I can get it back up after the spoilers are over.**

**Hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to keep those lovely reviews coming in!**

* * *

**D****ownfall.**

Through the darkness and dust of the night sky the group could make out the lights of the fortress atop the mountain range as they flew in. The lone transport descended into the remains of the ancient city beneath them, setting their sights on a patch of bare ground behind one of the thousands of ruined buildings. Slowing to a crawl the machine touched down on the grey earth, with Billy, Mandy and Grim being the first to emerge from the side of the vehicle, weapons in hand. She scanned their surroundings as the rest of the sixteen strong squad of the resistance's finest followed her off the transport. They each searched for any possible threat to their mission, with the hovercopter standing at the ready in case they had to make a rapid escape.

The two headed from the side of the machine across the sparse ground, taking cover at the side of the broken wall of the building, followed by the rest of the squad. Grim gave a thumbs up to the pilot, who gunned the engine, lifting off to fly away towards the city in the distance, leaving the squad in silence.

Mandy and Grim led the group they had been given for the operation around the side of the structure towards the street, Billy watching from the rear. From the corner they continued to watch and listen for enemy movement, ready to unleash a barrage of plasma bolts and armour piercing rounds in the threats direction. Seeing nothing they moved out onto the broken street, ever wary of attack.

Billy and Mandy reflected on the surreal position they were in. They exchanged a glance while they watched through the sights of their weapons. They had gone into battle before but to actually hold a gun, with the intention of using it to destroy the enemy, was still overwhelming. Never in their lives had they felt so completely out of their depth. They would look back on these past two months for the rest of their lives, and marvel at how they made it through alive, if they did make it through alive that is. What an incredible climax for their Grim Adventures of the past four years as they had come to call them.

Once they had established that the coast was clear Billy gazed up to the ruined structure they had taken cover behind. He remembered it from when they had arrived at this place four days ago.

"It's our old school again." He said. Grim and Mandy circled around and saw that he was right. Therefore the laboratory mustn't have been too far away. Many of the troops followed their gaze, others looking around in a strange sort of awe at the ruins.

"You went to this place?" One of them spoke up.

"This was our home town. We grew up here in the early two thousands." Billy answered him while keeping his eyes up.

"It must have been beautiful, before the takeover." Another spoke. Billy smirked.

"Trust me, its better this way."

"Did you know her?" The first one asked again. Billy, Mandy and Grim looked to him. "Mandy that is. She took over around the same time you were here. Did you know here at all?"

Billy thought quietly. "Yes, I knew her." He answered coolly. "She was… inspiring. She made me what I am today, bought me up out of my stupidity to see the truth. I admired her."

Though perturbed by his less than hate filled words about their enemy the squad let it go and returned to the task at hand, their three commanders leading them onwards.

Continuing on silently through the ruins they occasionally saw strange flashes reflecting off the dense pollution from over the mountain range in the distance. They wondered if the battle had begun yet, until a stream of plasma bolts streaked up into the air beyond the range, answering their question.

Not long after this, as they moved through the remains of downtown Endsville, they picked up on a distant whirring sound, like electric motors and tank treads, approaching from behind not far away.

"Patrols! Hide!" One of their number spoke in a hushed tone. Each of the group quickly retreated down one of the rubble filled alleys, watching from behind the corner of the ancient building as the sounds rapidly drew nearer.

Approaching from behind they watched in silence as an entire column of patrol machines, car sized tanks on treads similar to the ones from Mandark's laboratory, streaked past down the road the same way they were heading. Their numbers weren't great, Grim counting twelve, but they were still a serious threat if they spotted them. However, much to their relief, this didn't seem likely as the column of machines continued on past, disappearing down the street they themselves were taking, the sound of their treads dying out shortly thereafter.

"They're heading for the mountains. They must be heading for the city to give backup, just like he said." Grim spoke as the group moved out from behind their cover, looking ahead to where the machines had vanished amidst the piles of rubble.

"Looks like our leader's plan is working just fine." One of the militiamen commented on his idol.

"Don't get your hopes up too high, we still haven't reached the citadel. There's no guarantee the place won't be filled with them when we get there. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst." Grim looked down to his watch. "We have about two and a half hours before we're to attack so let's get a move on." Nodding the rest of the squad followed him as they continued on towards the fortress in the distance, not bothering to hide now the patrols were gone but still staying on high alert.

* * *

Continuing on from the ruins of the central business district the group of fighters made their way towards the edge of the ruins of Endsville, situated at the base of the mountains. They passed through the mournful fields of crystals as they picked their way through. Under the cover of darkness, with the battle in the city in full swing, they cautiously made their way up through the rocky ravines, ever watchful for…

"Cameras, up there." Billy spoke quietly, locating two of the of the Night Empire's many ever watching eyes. Hiding behind the cover of a rock formation they peered out at the little grey boxes sitting high up above the group, imbedded into the rock faces.

"You know what to do Billy." Grim said in a hushed voice. Billy nodded, levelling his plasma rifle on the surface of the rock and selected single shot and lethal settings, taking aim at the nearest of the two. He watched through the sight as he lined up the small box in the red dot, all his training now beginning to pay off. He pulled the trigger, feeling the weapon kick back into his shoulder as a flash of energy tore from the barrel, letting out a powerful retort and a brilliant light as it streaked through the air faster than a lightning bolt. The first camera exploded in a super heated ball of plasma. Taking aim at the second a moment later Billy let off another blast, the other camera being instantly vaporising in a similar fashion.

He stared at his violent handiwork, seeing how two large burn marks had now been blown in the rock. His weapon radiated heat and gave off a strong smell of ozone as a thin trail of vapour rose from the barrel.

"Whoa." Mandy drawled as she gripped her M4 between her hands, far too young to be thrust into a situation like this. All of a sudden the weapon she held in her hands felt far heavier and more foreign, like when she first fired her 1911 so long ago.

Moving out from behind the rocks they continued to pick their way up the mountain range. Not far away they could hear the sounds of heavy gun fire emanating from the fortress, followed by several massive explosions that rocked the ground beneath their feet. They ducked as two armed transports streaked overhead, pursued by laser fire from the capital building they were bombing.

As they picked their way up the remaining distance, the pounding of the turret guns increased to a thunderous roar. As they rounded the face of the last mountain they finally laid eyes on the giant steel and concrete ziggurat that had dominated the world for over a millennia, surrounded by an enormous square wall, with towers placed periodically and at each corner. Watching from their rocky cover a hail of rocket bombs roared down from above, striking the structure and producing several explosions so massive they blew the group over.

Coughing and waving away the sharp grey dust blown up they watched the clouds of billowing ash erupting upwards from several huge holes blown in the exterior of the great structure, internal fires causing the gaping holes to glow orange from within. Yet for all the power of the explosions the damage was relatively minor when compared to the sheer size of the five kilometre high concrete mountain. Behind it they could see the deep orange-red glow of the city burning as the Night Empire came to a spectacular end befitting of its history, unbefitting of the scum that had now corrupted it.

Looking to the high exterior wall the rocket artillery and air strikes appeared to have destroyed the tower turrets, and opening several massive holes in the concrete outer wall for the squad to storm. The transports flew by again, and this time no one fired up at them. Grim, Billy and Mandy shared a look between each other, before turning to the squad behind them.

"Ready?" Grim barked as he gripped his scythe.

The others nodded once, tightening their grip on their weapons similarly ready for what was to come.

As one Grim, Billy and Mandy leapt out from behind their cover, with the soldiers following as they began their attack, only to get a rude shock. Atop one corner tower a quad barrelled cannon turret previously thought destroyed swivelled around to engage them. The group halted in their charge, their eyes widening in alarm, before they dove back for their cover as the cannons began firing on them. The high energy plasma burst on the ground behind them as they took cover behind the face of the hill. The two crew members manning the cannon within the tower smirked with the feeling of power as they continued to fire, the blasts spraying hot rock as the quad cannon peppered them with rapid fire blasts, toying with them and keeping them ducked down behind the cover of the mountainside.

"Well this is a problem." Mandy commented dully on their predicament.

"The air strikes were supposed to wipe out all the defences! The general said so himself!" One of the soldiers wearing a helmet with a cracked visor shouted over the sound of the plasma fire.

"The key is 'supposed to' idiot!" She roared back.

Billy managed to calm his racing heart as he peeked out at the turret aimed at them, hammering away at their position in bursts of fire. He took cover again as one bolt blew apart the spot he had been watching from. _'I gotta find some way of getting out of its line of fire so I can destroy it.'_

Looking around at his surroundings he noticed another rocky outcrop high overhead on the mountain.

"Grim!" He called over the roar, seeing him turn to face his direction. "Do you have that case full of weapons on ya?"

"Right here." He answered him, pulling the tiny box out of his jacket.

"Give me the rocket launcher!"

Nodding he moved back to place the box on the ground, ordering it to enlarge. The squad watched as Billy flipped open the box, delving into it to withdraw the object of his desire, hefting the powerful weapon over his shoulder.

"I'm gonna take it out from up there. Keep it distracted for me. You tell me if it's destroyed or not, alright?"

Grim and Mandy silently marvelled at how intelligent Billy had grown over the years, and how he could show genius and stupidity at the same time. Genius because it solved their problem; stupidity because he was probably going to die doing it.

"Alright, just be careful." Grim called as the boy ran back to the rear of the hill, before he started clambering his way up the mountainside to the cover high up, the RPG slung over his shoulder. Taking his position he again peeked out to see the turret continuing to blast away at the group below, turning the rock they were hiding behind to ash. Grim held out his scythe and used it to cast out a field of purple energy, coalescing into a small number of glowing purple frenzied creatures that looked like monkeys. The half dozen or so shot out away from the group screaming and thrashing about randomly searching for something to destroy. The gunners immediately went for the bait, turning the sights on the crazed creatures and destroying them one by one.

Billy watched the mayhem below and laughed. "Furious the monkey boy! Hahaha!"

Bringing the tube up he took aim through the iron sights at the armoured gun position. With a squeeze of the trigger he fired the rocket, blasting away towards the armoured defensive position like a bat out of hell.

"_BOOOOMMMMM!"_

The unguided missile detonated against the sloped frontal armour, blowing a deep hole into its thick surface. For a moment the turret fell silent, giving them the impression it had been destroyed. Billy peered cautiously out from behind the cover, not expecting it to be destroyed so easily. He was lucky he suspected, because an instant later the turret raised its aim towards him and let off another stream of blasts. He only just managed to take cover before the high energy blasts hit the rock face, blowing it to pieces.

"GRIM, TAKE THAT THING OUT!" He cried, shielding his face from the shower of hot rocks and blistering fragments.

Grim snapped into action instantly as the gunners concentrated all their attention on where Billy was hiding. Charging as much energy as he could into the blade of his scythe he rose from cover, taking aim at the turret with the blade. He fired a blast, striking it between the concrete tower and the armoured head, earning a flash of neon light and causing green flames to erupt from within.

Peeking out from behind cover the group watched as atop the burning turret a hatch opened. The sound of screaming met their ears as one after another two burning guards exited the wreckage. They flailed around screaming in agony as their skin was burnt off their muscles, before they each fell from the tower, impacting on the ground below. Billy smirked with sadistic glee as they lay dead at the foot of the tower, their bodies still burning bright green.

Seeing the turret had been destroyed, Billy raced back down the mountain towards the others, depositing the RPG back in the case, which Grim then shrank and deposited in his coat again. Taking old of his plasma rifle again he joined Grim and Mandy as they each rose from cover, charging across the empty patch of desolate rock towards one of the massive breeches in the wall, taking a position on either side. As soon as the rest of the squad reached it two foolhardy fighters charged in through the breech, only to freeze in place at what they saw.

In the area around where the bomb had exploded on the wall the ground was covered with the wreckage of the enemy's machines. Outside the lethal blast radius though a huge number of the bulky mechanical drones stood packed like sardines, all looking at them and the others. The two foolhardy soldiers, their comrades behind them, as well as Grim, Billy and Mandy all looked at the enormous force before them with shocked and dumbstruck featured.

"… But his plan-"

They both fall to the ground a moment later, utterly dead from multiple blast wounds. Billy and Mandy recoiled in shock, the hail of blaster bolts had blown their bodies to bloody smithereens.

The squad pulled their heads back in behind cover around the breech the group and just managed to avoid being shot by the hail of fire now directed at them by the front line. Rounding on the approaching mass of machines the squad returned fire in a flurry of blinding light and deafening sound.

Mandy set herself up against the wall breathing hard through locked teeth. She looked across to Billy and Grim just a meter away on the other side of the breech, Grim already firing back at them with the scythe, Billy sitting upright looking to her in much the same situation. Moving back behind cover Grim dug into his coat and tossed several magazines to her.

"The general's plan said that they would all be gone by the time we got here!" Another of the indoctrinated troops called out. "There shouldn't be this many here!"

"It was a bad plan right from the start! We should've seen it coming! There was no way they were gonna send backup to the city while leaving the heart of the empire undefended!" Mandy called back.

"The general's never wrong!"

"Hey you wanna believe whatever you're told then why don't you step out into the open like your two buddies out there." Billy retorted with contempt. He didn't say anything more after that.

Stilling her nerves Mandy set the magazines for her carbine down beside her, before making sure it was set on auto. Billy readied his weapon likewise, both looking to each other for support before they acted as one. Moving out into the hole to shoot she took aim through the red dot sight, lining up one machine in the chest, firing off a burst of rapid fire armour piercing shells. She fired again two more times, watching the machine stagger as the rounds scored deep impacts on the frontal armour, some managing to punch through and cause internal damage.

Mandy kept the machine in her sights, seeing it loose control of its weapon arm, dropping the plasma rifle to the ground. She took cover once more as it bent down to pick it up with its left arm, returning fire once more despite the damage.

She waited a moment before she turned and fired again, emptying the first magazine. The thing was only slowed down this time, continuing to advance and shoot as soon as she ran out.

'_They aren't punching through. The frontal armour's too thick.'_ She thought frustrated as she withdrew the empty magazine, reaching beside her for another. From her point hidden behind the wall she saw Billy and Grim blasting away at them with ease, Billy showing particular finesse in picking off one after another through blasts to the chest and neck of the machines, while the rest of the squad struggled to fight back, finding even their plasma rifles to be insufficient against the armour. She noticed Billy taking aim at one through the sight, firing and scoring a hit to a machine's head, blowing it to pieces.

He turned to her. "Man-" He remembered who they were with, catching himself before he gave her away. "Aim for the head, the armour's weaker there!" He shouted while blasts shot past them through the gap in the wall.

Rising again with her new magazine Mandy took aim on her damaged machine, centring the dot on its head and fired away. The burst of two armour piercing high velocity bullets punched through the facial armour, shredding through the artificial brain, blasting out the back of its head with the burning remains of the silicon brain in tow. The machine convulsed uncontrollably, firing off its weapon randomly before it fell to the ground.

Seeing as her new strategy worked Mandy continued to take aim on another machine, punching holes in its neck and head with her powerful compact weapon. It fell, followed by another hit by both her and Billy's combined attacks, cutting its body to pieces.

She took cover again as she ejected the empty magazine, loading another in its place. Looking beside her she saw that she had five magazines for her M4, and that she had already used two, leaving three left. Peeking out at the mass of metal approaching she growled in frustration. _'There's more of them than I have bullets. So much for the plan!'_

The front line of metal was being systematically cut down by the rebels' fire, only for ten more to step over their carcasses to engage the enemy in an ever tightening circle, first thirty yards, then twenty. Behind them on the battered and wrecked towers a number of human officers and guards also joined the fray, firing down from the ruined walls in an attempt to get around the enemies flank.

Billy had to take cover as one such guard scored a nearby hit to the wall, searing his face with hot gasses, making him shout out. Recovering he snarled and took aim at the foolish lieutenant who laughed hysterically as he poured fire onto their position. Aiming at the arrogant uniformed man's head he fired, seeing his face light up in a burst of million degree gas. Shards of bone and pulverised pieces of skin and brain exploded out both sides of his head. He dropped his weapon and fell back as the plasma burned a large hole through where his face once was, through his liquefied brain and out the back of his head.

Billy immediately took cover again, thinking about what he had just done. _'I killed him. I… just killed a man.'_

Mandy looked across to him, concern obvious in her face as she watched him deal with this development. His face remained blank for several moments, oblivious to the army closing in. Then as he looked to her she thought she saw a hint of a smile tug at his features, a sadistic smirk forming on his face before he regained his composure and continued to fire at the enemy horde with greater vigour.

'_Did he just… Was that bloodlust in his eyes?'_ She pushed the strange thought from her head as she continued to struggle to hold back the army bearing down on them, firing away at the malicious mechanical horrors as they closed in on them.

Grim gritted his teeth as he continued to blast away at the enemy. His scythe blew five apart at a time, clearing a breathing space for them and littering the ground with smouldering metal. His destructive achievements were soon rendered useless as more took their place a second later, tightening the noose ever so slowly. They acted almost like a slow moving human wave, wholly unconcerned by the losses they were taking.

"We can't keep this up. We weren't supposed to face this many of them." He called out, thinking quickly. Over to their right another smaller hole had been blown in the wall at ground level, and no one seemed to be taking advantage of it. "You two." He indicated to a pair of fighters who looked up from their positions. "Follow me. We're going to attack from the enemy's flank."

Nodding the two soldiers rose and ran to follow him as he charged his way to the far breech. As Grim neared the gap in the wall his hopes were replaced by alarm when they got there and found several of the robotic patrollers rolling up towards the very same hole on the other side. He and the two fighters quickly dispatched the first three, swinging his scythe he unleashed a wave of hot red energy that blew apart their tracks and held up the ones behind them. It proved more difficult for him to blow through their sloping armour though, while the other two with him found they could only destroy them if they fired their plasma rifles at the same spot repeatedly. By the time the first three had been destroyed more had already begun pushing their way through, and opened fire on them with their light cannons. They quickly took cover around the hole helplessly as they got even closer, backed up further by the masses of foot soldiers behind them. Peeking out while trying to deflect their fire Grim counted their number, finding eleven or twelve including the ones already destroyed.

"It's the same ones we saw earlier in Endsville! They came to give backup here before we even arrived!" He roared in frustration. Levelling his scythe at the nearest one he fired a concentrated beam, earning a flash and an explosion as the machine was destroyed. Another flash occurred on his person and he took cover again hurriedly. Looking down he found a hole had been blown in part of his trenchcoat near his leg.

"But if they came here before we did," The fighter on his right spoke up, "what if there are more coming?"

Grim and the other soldier on his side of the hole looked at him alarmed before continuing to fire back with increasing desperation at the patrollers closing in on them. It wasn't long before they realised it was hopeless here, and began backing away from the breach in the wall still firing back at the enemy now only a few metres away on the other side.

The soldier on the right side of the hole found himself cut off from returning to the rest of the squad by the incoming stream of fire, each second being forced back and away from Grim and his comrade on the other side. Finding himself isolated from the group as he was forced further back his own survival instincts began to kick in and he began looking for an escape route. Turning to face behind him he looked out beyond the corner tower at the end of the wall not far away, facing the expanse of grey rocky ground leading down the mountains towards the city below, from which burning orange clouds could be seen filling the late night air high above. Coming up from the mountains towards them was a march of what looked like hundreds of the Empress' machines, soldiers, patrollers, sentry drones, and above them a number of hovering gunships, all closing in on them.

"Oh no. Oh god." His eyes went wide in dismay. The two behind him on the other side saw them coming as well. His panicked resistance counterpart rushed forward across the breach despite Grim's trying to stop him to grab hold of his shoulders and try and pull him out of his stupor.

"Come on we gotta get back! We gotta go!" He urged pulling him back towards the rest of the squad, forgetting about the incoming fire from the patrollers on the other side of the hole. "We gotta-"

He was struck by a bright bolt of plasma in his side. Jumping back from his dead friend as the first machine began to roll through the hole in the wall he ducked and staggered as more bolts blew through the air above him. He whirled around to see the approaching army behind him open fire on him, alerting Billy, Mandy and the rest of the fighters to the threat closing in on them through the hole and from the city. He seemingly froze in place, caught between the patrollers coming out right behind him and the approaching army on the other side, before he was struck in the chest by the oncoming fire.

Grim backpedalled away as the two fighters at his side fell under the fire reducing the number of their allies to twelve, having to return to the group as machines began to pour through the breech to attack the resistance on their flank, in addition to the backup from the city behind them. Indicating with his hand for the earth to rise he quickly managed to raise a rock wall against the blasts before they struck him too, the makeshift wall holding just long enough against the patrollers for him to make it back before the gunships fired their guns and blew it away.

Mandy and Billy turned to watch the machines now shooting at their unguarded side, turning to shoot back as Grim raised an energy shield to block the incoming hail of fire, leaving the front to the resistance. The machines closed in around the insurgents, now struggling to hold them back without being killed.

"We're losing this!" One of them called out as the enemy at their front closed the distance to ten metres. "They're gonna wipe us out!"

Mandy ran out of cartridges in her magazine, reaching back to load the second last of them. Turning and taking aim to the nearby armoured drones at their front she fired a long burst, striking it on the chest. None of the bullets penetrated.

"Oh for the love of… THE HELL WITH THIS!"

She tossed the practically useless weapon aside, opened her hand and summoned Judgement. Tightening her two handed grip she welled up the weapon's enormous reserves of energy, causing the blade to glow red and begin to give off flames while the onyx staff pulsated with her rage, growing her own thirst for destruction. Scowling with a terrible dark vengeance she prepared herself for the coming carnage, and her eyes turned orange. Standing up into the open breech she swung, smashing every one of the front line machines in a blast of vengeful orange energy, followed by another as she vaporised several more.

Billy roared in frustration as he fired continuously at the horde approaching from their flank, now high on adrenaline and savage fury. It didn't seem to help much, only destroying two… three… five… eight machines. The front had stabilised somewhat with Mandy's unleashing, but on the flank their situation was still dire. But Billy didn't give a shit, he was loving the madness of it all. When his plasma rifle ceased to fire he reached in and pulled out the empty canister, disregarding the burns it caused to his fingers, and loaded another. Dropping the weapon to his hip he fired again in a psychotic fury.

"I WILL TAKE YOU ALL TO HELL WITH ME! AHHHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!" He screamed and raved as he riddled a patroller with laser fire, its frontal armour finally giving out as it erupted in a surge of flames and sparks.

Grim eventually found he could no longer raise the energy shields fast enough to replace the previous ones as they were all gave way under the relentless fire from the gunship's cannons, so he tryed to block the incoming hail of fire with swings of his scythe, unable to return fire on the growing pack pouring out from the breech in the wall while still defending against the gunships. He swung his scythe from side to side as hard and as fast as he could, but he was still in the form of a human being. His muscles were tiring, and he was rendered unable to use his or the scythes full power.

"Guys… I can't … keep… this… u-AUGH!" He yelled in pain as one bolt slipped past his guard, burning a large hole through his shoulder. He toppled over backwards as the kids abandoned their posts to run to his side.

"Grim, are you alright?" Billy spoke in a loud alarmed voice as the others continued to fire back at the approaching machines.

What they noticed in Grim's eyes made them back away for the first time in fear. Grim's eyes had taken an evil glowing green hue, which spread across his now useless body as he snarled, anger taking over.

"Grrrr…" He groaned as the green glow spread throughout his body, turning his skin pale. His eyes continued to glow green as his pale skin sagged and his eyes shrivelled and began to sink back into his skull. He emanated an aura of rising power and darkness that bought the attention of the resistance fighters, who took cover to watch what was happening to their commander.

"…rrrrrr…" Grim curled his hands into fists as his muscles and skin began to writhe and waste away, the green glow strengthening with each second.

"…raaaAA…" The terrible demonic aura surrounding him burst out into a flurry of green flames, searing away his flesh from the inside, as he levitated up off the ground, clutching his scythe in his burning hands. The fighters watched on as the flesh was charred black and burned away, revealing a skeleton clad in a deep black robe, clad again in brilliant green flames.

"…AAA**AAHHHAHAHAHAAAA!"**

Grim let go, letting all the darkness and fury within him explode in a once in a lifetime event of earth shattering power. He soared high above the battlefield, staring down furiously at the thousands of mechanical abominations far below and grinned evilly.

Charging his scythe he swung at them, bathing hundreds of them in a terrible wrath before they exploded from within. Billy and Mandy stared up in silence as the Grim Reaper towered above the defenceless army beneath him, firing up at him in the vain hope of saving themselves. For the first time since she met him Mandy felt that she was in the presence of a truly horrific and powerful being, and gazed up at him with the rest in silent awe at the embodiment of destruction.

"**BEHOLD THE AWESOME POWER THAT IS THE GRIM REAPER! AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!"** Grim bellowed his murderous laughter out at the army of machines, seeing the few humans of the enemy group cower in terror. He swung again, bringing all his power and fury to bear as he turned another hundred or so to ash and broken scrap

With the army distracted by Grim, Billy and Mandy took their chance. They leapt out from the breech in the wall, charging into battle against the remaining machines. The rest of the squad followed suit, charging in with a great battle cry as they engaged the armies in the open, smashing at the enemy's numbers with renewed strength.

Mandy ducked and swayed in her martial dance through the field of robotic guards with supreme agility. She was as far in her element as she had ever been, slashing them apart three and four at a time with the blade, knocking aside more with the back end of the staff and the butt. It was made easier for her because the vast majority of the machines were busy firing up at Grim to no avail, only firing at her when she was right on top of them with her scythe. The rest of the resistance members who the enemy had almost totally forgotten about looked to her in awe, both amazed and disturbed by the deadly focus in her midnight onyx eyes. Many of them remembered seeing those deadly black eyes before.

Her instincts flared, and she dived down just as several cannon blasts strafed the junk littered ground she was just on. Looking up with an animal like snarl she watched as a gunship centred its spotlight on her to fire again, with several others coming up behind it. Her eyes glowed orange again. Reaching up she held her hand out as if to take hold of it she tapped into the fourth dimension, using her influence to bend the gravity around the gunship. Immediately the titanium bird of terror was sent hurtling back into the path of another. When they impacted they both burst into flames. Not ceasing in her destruction Mandy continued to crash one into another, sending the blazing wrecks crashing to the ground below outside the walls where she knew the reinforcements were approaching from.

Looking up in the air lit by their flames and smoke she caught sight of a number of small red eyed mechanical insects darting around towards her. They fired a half dozen small rockets at her. Indicating with her hand she pulled them down to come down on top of and around the wall, the tiny firework-like weapons detonating in huge explosions. Raising her hand again as they began to fire at her with their guns she called on the thick clouds above them, energising them, and bringing down a hail of lightning bolts that fried them all in seconds, causing them to drop out of the sky like dead birds, leaving her to return her attention back to the guards.

As Mandy led the group in attacking and destroying the few who had escaped Grim's wrath, Billy busied himself with hunting down the remaining human guards. Leaving the group he racing around the flank while the machines paid him no attention, hissing and breathing through gleefully clenched teeth to confront the remaining terrified officers behind them as they tried to escape the metal carnage. They each fled, trying to reach one of the exits when Billy slid around in front of them cutting them off.

"Heeeere's BILLY!" He grinned like a maniac as he pointed his rifle at them, counting seven. They each froze in fright, cowering in fear of the homicidal boy who leered at them cruelly like an animal. His face was flushed red and his breathing was heavy and laboured with predatory instinct.

"Going somewhere?" He sneered as they backed away from him. "You know you guys all look just like the greasy little shit who tortured my girl! Fancy that!"

"P-P-Please… Don't… Have mercy…" They begged and pleaded him for their lives, cowering with their arms held up in front of them. The boy simply laughed manically.

"Yes! Yes beg, just like that! Beg for your lives like they begged for theirs! All those countless innocents you guys murdered, raped and destroyed!" His grin turned into a hate-filled glower. "You were supposed to protect them! This empire was built to protect good people and keep everyone in line, but you fuckers twisted it just so you could have your little ego trip! And you fucking shitheads still think you're so great, that you're so much better than everyone else! I hate people like that SO FUCKING MUCH!"

"N-Nooo! NOOO!" They screamed, holding their hands up and away in a desperate bid to shield themselves from the boy's murderous rage.

"Oh No! No please no! Help me! PleaseheheHAHAHA!" Billy laughed again as he mocked them. "You pompous pricks haven't answered my question yet, are you going anywhere? Well the answer is, yes! YOU'RE ALL GOING TO HELL! EHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!" He cackled and laughed as he pulled the trigger and blasted away at them, showing neither mercy nor compassion for them as they cried out and held their hands to their bodily wounds and fell.

Mandy continued to busy herself with shredding the remaining machines, hacking away at them with the blade and blowing away the rest. She didn't feel tired, nor did she feel fear or hesitation, only the need to destroy. It enveloped her, and took her into its raging ocean of power and fury. She unleashed all of it on the last few, hacking and slicing away with stone cold determination until the last of the machines lay dead on the ground, sliced into five individual pieces.

Lowering her weapon she scanned the battlefield with hard, dark eyes, taking in the field of destruction and the piles of mechanical bodies reduced to little more than scrap. She scanned over the resistance fighters cheering at their victory, and the four killed by the wall. She felt no compassion for them. After all, they were little more than mindless pawns for Mac's own ambitions. In fact technically they were still her enemy, and the thought did occur to her that she should possibly dispose of them once they were of no more use to her, but as her battle fury calmed the idea retreated back into the depths of her mind.

Grim soared over the wall out over the remaining reinforcements, appearing before them like a flaming green meteor. They fired up at him, striking him in places, his bones and cape reforming almost instantly. He smiled evilly and went to work again, slashing at them with long tongues of glowing red energy, bit by bit cutting them down and reducing them to ruins. After a minute of this he aimed his scythe at the ground and cast out another field of purple gas that rapidly settled at ground level, coming together and forming nearly a hundred of the glowing purple monkeys he'd used before. He watched on entertained as they screeched and screamed and launched themselves at the remaining enemy drones, tearing them apart one limb at a time. He laughed as he saw a black uniformed human officer who had escaped the carnage running away back towards the city, the monkeys swarming around him. Hoisting him up they tore him in two through the middle, going on to pull his two halves apart further once they'd landed.

Once the last of the reinforcements had been dealt with, the crazed demonic monkeys thrashed about and turned on each other, destroying each other in explosions of purple light until there were none left. Smirking at his handiwork the flames around Grim's form calmed and vanished and he returned to Mandy in the fortress courtyard. He touched down behind her, kicking his way through the ruined hulks and scrap metal to reach her. He was soon joined by Billy, who he and Mandy had a strange contented smile on his face as he walked over to join them. She couldn't quite figure it out.

"What's so funny?" Mandy asked.

"Oh nothing." He remarked casually, turning to glance back to where the dead bodies of several officers could be made out near the main entrance, leading Mandy and Grim to their startling conclusion as he uttered a soft snigger. "Nothing at all." He smiled evilly before calming back down a moment later. Nobody would have suspected from how Billy looked that he had just slaughtered seven men without a hint of remorse.

Now that they were silent they first picked up on a faint humming noise. Looking over to the resistance they saw that they too had stopped cheering and were listening intently to the sound as it began to grow louder. It seemed to come out of the ground and fill the air around them. Looking about hurriedly they set themselves on guard as they awaited the source of the deep presence as it progressively drew closer and stronger.

The three turned as the direction of the vibrations began to be discernable, looking up to the side of the giant structure above them. From behind the face of the great concrete building, through a cloud of smoke from the fires in the damaged superstructure, a floating leviathan emerged. Every one of them stared mutely up at the colossal steel airship that came into view.

Designed as the ultimate defence for the Empress' reign, the monster possessed a length of five hundred metres from tip to tail, boasting the strongest armour, and the most powerful guns, missiles and bombs, the most deadly nerve agents and chemical weapons, and the best of the best crew in her civilisation. This was her other ultimate weapon, her mobile fortress and command bunker. Constructed in the closing days of her takeover alongside the very citadel it was here to defend it was designed as a weapon of terror, something that would be bought to bear upon any city who ever dared to rebel against her, with the Empress herself standing atop the bridge directing the destruction. Now of course it was just another tool in the hands of the corrupt regime. The ancient monster loomed in overhead, supported on its immense anti-gravity coils hidden within its belly.

Billy and Grim turned to Mandy. "Use yer scythe Mandy. It was made for use against stuff like dis."

Mandy just looked at him in disbelief. "Are you insane? An army of machines is one thing, but that…" She pointed frantically at the titanic vessel. "It's the size of a small city!"

"You created Judgement specifically to destroy cities." Billy responded. Mandy gritted her teeth as she looked upon the weapon in her hands.

"I've never used so much power before. I don't even know how."

"Just charge it up a lot, aim, den fire. Trust me, you can do it." Grim told him, hurrying Billy against his will to safety by the giant palace wall along with the rest of the squad, leaving Mandy standing in the courtyard alone.

The small blonde figure gazed up at the monster that was now closing in on them, turning its massive bulk around towards her. Gripping her scythe she took aim and began to focus the energy into the staff. She felt the power rising quickly as the blade began to glow red, then white as the thing continued closing in, casting them all in its shadow. Sensing imminent danger the resistance fighters backed up further and ran for the cover of the fortress entrance as overhead the monstrous steel airship closed in. Billy refused to be pulled away any further as he watched her try desperately to pour as much energy as possible into her weapon.

After twenty seconds the scythe had become burning hot to hold, and the tip shone like the sun. It shook and shuddered restlessly, and the power built up in the tip wavered abnormally. Mandy turned to the weapon with alarm as she physically felt the build-up of power groan and start to weaken, as if something was preventing either it or herself from unleashing its true potential. Grim and Billy watched her with concern as the dust started to swirl around them under the ship's approach.

"What are ya waiting for? Blow it up!" Grim shouted over the roar of the engines.

"I can't do it! I can't draw on its strength! It's not enough!" Mandy cried out still desperately urging every ounce of energy from Judgement as she could, only for it to continue to grow weaker. From the nose of the ship a blinding white spotlight shone down on her, lighting her up as she stood looking up at it amidst the debris.

Billy watched her as she faced the giant machine alone. He saw the fear and helplessness in her eyes, and realised that just as he was nothing without her, she wasn't complete without him. Without even thinking about the danger to himself Billy rushed forward, Grim trying to snatch him back to safety as he raced out to her. Stepping up behind her he placed his hands around her shoulders as they both gazed up at the light. Feeling his reassuring presence facing the mortal danger with her Mandy was glad that he had chosen to be her with her now. He leaned in close to her ear.

"We can do this." He spoke softly to her as she still fought for control of the scythe's immense power. "You and me, we can do this, just like we always have, together."

At the sound of his voice and his words Mandy's face relaxed and her growing anxiety fell away. It was just them against the leviathan and the corrupt men inside. She had her scythe in her hands, and all they had to do was use it. She set her teeth as she called upon its deep reserves of vengeful destructive energy once more.

Without hesitation the scythe ceased to shake and the front of the weapon became lost in a sea of ruby light, blowing away the dust around them as the colossal ship's weapons took aim at them. Grim and the other soldiers all shielded their faces against the blast of air and the light as it rapidly grew ever greater. Mandy narrowed her eyes against the light, Billy still holding her shoulders reassuringly, and finally let go of all the energy built up at the end of the weapon.

A titanic beam of red light blasted out the end of the staff, overwhelming and consuming the enormous machine. There was a deep hollow sound from above, and a scorching heat radiated down on them in an immense display of supernatural force.

Seconds later the shining beam of energy ceased and the scythe became calm. Looking up stunned to where the ship once hovered overhead Billy and Mandy gazed in awe at the sight of an enormous fireball billowing up into a doughnut shaped ring overhead. Grim was equally amazed, as were the resistance members who stared in stunned silence at the cloud of flame which had vaporised the monster, leaving nothing of its five hundred metre long hulk left.

'_We did it, because he was with me.'_ Mandy realised as he continued to hold her.

His comforting presence overcame her, and once again the knowledge that she would soon have to leave him cut at her. She didn't care anymore, she needed him with her now. Lowering the scythe she moved back into his embrace, placing one hand over his as he moved to place his arms around her midsection. They both closed their eyes as Billy held her from behind, Mandy holding his arms as he hugged her. He rested his head against the back of her hair and touched his nose to her neck, just wanting to be as close to her as he possibly could.

From beside the two Grim stepped up after a moment. "Sorry to disturb you two, but dis isn't over yet. We have to move inside."

They looked to him as a nervous tension began to press at them again. Letting go of each other they made their way across the debris strewn ground towards the front of the ziggurat where the squad was waiting.

Before them stood a large steel blast door thick enough to be used on missile silos.

"Check for any access panels so you can override it." One of the squad members spoke.

The soldier wearing a helmet and visor moved up to the side of the door, pulling out a compact computer. Searching across the door frame on either side the technician scanned for a panel or possible opening he could hack into and order the door to open. After going over it twice he turned back to his comrades.

"I can't find anything. There aren't any controls or terminals for me to access."

"I'll open it." Mandy said, stepping in with her scythe at the ready. "Stand back and take cover, there could be more of them on the inside."

Running to join the others the technician took position around the sides of the door, ready for what they expected to be a large explosion. They were surprised to see Grim and Billy taking aim around the edge of the doorway, while Mandy stood close to it, neither bothering to take cover from the imminent blast.

Mandy simply extended the scythe towards the door, letting a thin trickle of its destructive energy radiate out from the blade in a red glow. The resistance was surprised to hear the sound of a deep thump, followed by the whirring sounds of giant motors as they began to raise the massive door, seemingly accepting her without question. Many looked to her with suspicion but ignored it for now.

Shaking themselves from their surprise they took aim at the opening door, ready for whatever was on the other side as it slowly opened up. Mandy watched and waited tensely, with her scythe charged and ready to destroy whatever came to greet them as the door to the heart of her empire opened up for her.

* * *

Meanwhile.

The city was a totally different story. Here the situation was less one of organised revolution than one of frenzied rioting and looting. Everywhere the machines found themselves surrounded and hopelessly overwhelmed by the massive amounts of enraged people now storming throughout the labyrinth of burning buildings, intent mainly on stealing whatever they could get their hands on and destroying everything else. This gave many of the machines an advantage, because with so many concerned only with taking whatever they could for themselves few actually took on the isolated machines, instead fleeing as they opened fire on anyone partaking in the violence. Many of the soldiers themselves simply deserted to join in with the fray as people stole from, attacked, murdered and raped anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in their sights. Despite this the resistance fought the machines in the streets in a whirlwind of light and sound and chaos.

Amidst the violence, carnage and thousands of dead and wounded, Max walked calmly through the chaos, unconcerned by the destruction taking place around him, not batting an eye to anyone or anything that crossed his path. Stepping over the dead body of one of the rioters he continued to scan his burning surroundings with detached focus for any sign of his targets.

Spotting one of the armoured patrols swivelling around in his direction he quickly ducked to avoid a hail of fire from its shoulder mounted cannons. Jumping out of the way he took cover behind a building against the repeated blasts of high energy plasma.

Extending his hand he called for his carbine which materialised in his hand in a foaming black mass. Taking hold with both hands he stepped out from his cover and opened fire on the armoured target. Unfortunately the standard ball ammunition, copper jacket over a lead alloy core, had little capability for punching through heavy armour. The high velocity rounds stabbed away at the sloping frontal shield, the slanted head, and the heavy base, leaving small dents in the metal, but none penetrating.

Taking cover again behind the wall as the machine continued to fire he loaded another magazine into his weapon while he assessed his situation. _'I'm in a bad position. I have no armour piercing ammunition, and if I try to attack it hand to hand I'm likely to be shot.'_ He peeked out from behind the cover, seeing the machine slowly advancing on his position, continuously blasting away with its light plasma cannons._ 'How can I destroy it without exposing myself?'_

He received an answer when several blasts of energy lanced out from elsewhere, striking the machine in the side, disabling its left cannon. Max and the machine turned to see a resistance fighter blasting away at it from down the street, taking cover behind a building as the patrol unit turned to direct its fire on him with its remaining functional gun.

Seizing the opportunity Max sprinted out from behind his cover, stopping behind the armoured machine as it continued to blast away at its new enemy. Forming the energy in his right hand into a blade he grasped the machines head, drawing it backwards with his left hand, before bringing his right hand in to slit its throat. A hail of sparks blasted out from the severed electrical cables, and the remaining cannon fell silent. Max watched as the menacing red glow in the machines eyes winked out as the electrical discharges ceased.

Releasing the head so it could sit back down into its usual position he turned to face the resistance fighter who had distracted it long enough for him to make his move. He ran over from his hiding spot to check on the youth.

"Are you alright?" He asked as he made his way up to Max, who simply stood by the wrecked machine wearing his fake reassuring smile.

"I am now. Thank you." He looked up to him steadily. "Say, perhaps you could help me out. I'm looking for some people, a boy with red hair, and a blonde haired girl, both about my age. The girl's got a scythe with her. They're travelling with-"

"The Grim Reaper?" The soldier asked in advance. Max's face never showed any surprise.

"You've seen them?"

"Yeah, Billy and Maxine."

"Where can I find them?" Max pleaded with the man, noting the particular alias Mandy had chosen, and its relevance to his origin.

"They're leading the attack on the fortress. You should be able to find them up there." The scruffy uniformed man answered the young boy. In the back of his mind there was something that whispered to him that he had met the boy before, though he honestly couldn't remember where.

"Thanks." Max smiled kindly and turned to leave the puzzled man.

Behind him the head of the ruined machine sat in a position so as to reconnect the two severed power cables. As their broken surfaces made contact a current began to flow through them once more. The eyes flickered and began to glow red as the machine came back online once more. Identifying the boy that had destroyed it as he walked away it turned its remaining plasma cannon in his direction.

The soldier saw this and turned to try to fight back, knowing that it would probably be too late to save the boy.

The smile dropped from Max's face, leaving his true cold, unfeeling features as he heard the cannon swivel around behind him. Whirling around he bought his hand up and channelling his own demonic energy blocked a blast from the damaged machine. Diving forward with an intense ferocity he clamped his left hand around the cannon, driving it up and away from him as it fired another bolt out into the black sky. Rearing his right hand back he charged a large amount of force into his fist. The soldier watched on in stunned amazement, and open horror, as the boy punched his hand straight through the thick frontal armour. With his hand inside the machine Max clamped down on the power core, crushing it in his fist, earning an explosion that blew apart the machine.

The resistance fighter staggered back as a ball of fire exploded from the machine, enveloping the boy in flame. He watched on as moments later the boy calmly walked out through the flames, not a scratch on him, his dark eyes locked on his.

Now that he gazed in horror at Max's stoic features and onyx eyes, the flames of the machine behind him, he remembered the unfeeling, pitiless abomination that had attacked their base five years ago. It had destroyed their four trump cards, and left the base utterly devastated. He was only seven years old then, and here he stood now before him, staring into him with that same unnatural, cold gaze.

"You…"

That was his last word as Max channelled his energy and bought his black clad hand forward, striking his chest with his two fingers, stopping his heart. He took the man's plasma rifle as he fell to the ground, checking and seeing it had half a charge worth of gas left. Leaving the body he turned his onyx eyes towards the fortress in the distance, continuing his slow, purposeful stalk towards his targets, apathetic to the chaos and flames around him.

* * *

As the door slid open they got their first glimpse of the heart of the empire. A massive hall greeted them, done in only stark concrete and steel, held up on hundreds of monstrous pillars. They kept their weapons at the ready for anything to appear, waiting at the entrance tensely.

Nothing came, and after a minute of waiting Mandy took the first steps into the titanic structure. They took up positions around the pillars, watching and waiting for anything to come. Surely they figured there must be more on the inside?

Yet again as the seconds passed nothing greeted them but silence, total, absolute silence in the vast empty chamber. It was very dim inside, and they could tell nobody had walked between these pillars in a very long time. Around them they could see that it hadn't been maintained in years, and was also decaying slowly from without and within. Still they waited for their enemy to come.

After several minutes of carefully scouting out the bottom floor for any possible threats each of the fighters relaxed their guard when it was clear nothing was coming to get them.

"Alright, I think it's safe to say there are no guards on the inside." Mandy spoke, lowering her scythe. It disturbed her just how empty this cavernous place was, like there was no life left in it. Why would someone want to live here, without even the presence of guards to patrol the halls?

"Guys, there's an elevator over here." Billy called out from another corridor leading off from the hall. Drawing around to the right side of the chamber she and Grim laid eyes on a steel elevator door, with Billy standing before it.

"Dere's another one just like dis at de other end." Grim spoke as they approached the door.

Turning around Mandy faced the few troops gathered behind them. "You are to wait down here until we get back. Anyone who follows us will be abandoning their posts, and will be punished. Do you understand?" She ordered her subordinated, the threat of retribution plain in her commanding tone. They nodded.

Billy smiled at her as the others left them alone. _'Oh god I love that commanding voice of hers.'_

Mandy advanced on the door, opening it with her scythe. Stepping in they gazed over the myriad of buttons and levels. At the top they laid eyes on one marked 'Throne Chamber'. Reaching up Mandy depressed the black button, causing the doors to close on them. The elevator car began to rise up into the massive structure, to where all the answers they had come for awaited.

Mandy closed her eyes to take a deep breath in and out, calming herself for the imminent confrontation. _'Well, I guess my destiny awaits. This is it.'_

* * *

Mandy of the Night stared blankly out at her city from her chamber, watching it burn below her. Her time as ruler of the world had come to an end. Her empire was destroyed, her armies were wiped out, her subjects rioted against her, her power was gone, and her life was at an end.

She simply didn't care anymore. She hadn't cared for hundreds of years, ever since she made the one mistake. That one mistake that had made her life worthless, a curse that had doomed her to live alone to the bitter end. She simply could not go on living like this anymore, and so her mind had been counting down to her end.

Soon she would confront the young, strong, vengeful and ambitious little girl she had once been. She would tell her of why she was being hunted like she already knew she was. She would tell her why she had decayed into this wretched shell of a human being. She would not tell her how to live her life, but she would tell her how not to do so. And finally, once her final duty was complete, she would mercifully cease to exist.

Closing her eyes she sighted. Turning away from the ruins of her empire, Mandy of the Night walked away, on towards her throne chamber. There she would confront the strong, brave, dark little girl she once was, and there her life would end.

At long last…

"It is time."


	31. Revelations of the Night

**Well this is the one we've been waiting for. God this was a lot of work to get done. I'm not really that good with dialogue so after refining it I guess it's the best it'll ever be coming from me at least. But I think I hit the mark with where I was aiming for with this, though constructive criticism is always helpful.**

**By the way, I just completed a Ben 10 fanfic called A Life Alone. It's horrible and bleak and will make you want to listen to emo for at least a few days. Check it out if you want.**

**Anyway no preview this time, just that this is the end of the future arc of the story, and in terms of character development it's kinda like armageddon for everyone involved. That's all. I sincerely hope you enjoy, thank you.**

* * *

**Revelations of the Night.**

After several minutes of rapid skyward ascent the elevator car began to slow as it approached the uppermost floor it could ascend to. Sensing the shift in forces the three breathed deeply, stilling the sea of anxiety and apprehension they felt as they closed in on their objective. Soon they would have the answer as to how to defeat their enemy, as well as who or what their enemy is, and why it had marked them for death.

And for Mandy it gave her the opportunity to find out where in her future reign she had let it all slip away. There was little real doubt in her mind that somehow it was Billy that had weakened her, and once she knew what it was she would take no chances in stopping it from ever being repeated in her own future. Once she saw up close and personal just how much Billy had cut her down, she would finally have all the motivation she needed to put an end to the weakness, to overcome the attachment and break away from him permanently, and go on to a life of limitless power and control. None of what was happening down in the city would ever take place. The resistance would never get off the ground, her empire wouldn't be left to wither and die, and she would forge the world into a hard, unforgiving, and above all orderly place through her iron will and merciless focus. No matter what she needed to do to attain and keep her power, no matter how dark her own life and the lives of others would become for that end, she would do so.

But then again there was always doubt, the lingering uncertainty that had plagued her more and more. The feeling that even this was more than what attachment could do to a person still pervaded her in the back of her mind.

'_Just so long as I can see where I went wrong, where I will go wrong, and instead go right.'_ She thought to herself with a scowl. _'I will correct my mistakes, and I will overcome my weakness. Soon Billy will be a sad distant memory.'_

She hated the faint pull that emanated in her heart at leaving him, despite her determination for strength and control. _'One day it too will be a thing of the past, and I will finally be free.'_

Billy was concerned more with his best friend, the girl who had come to be the love of his life, finding why she had ultimately failed in her dream of power than anything related to himself. He knew that logically it was more important to find out about their enemy, but Billy never was one for logic, choosing more to live according to his emotions, passion and instincts rather than thought. And right now he cared more for her than any lone wolf killer wandering around somewhere a thousand years in the past.

He knew that she was conflicted over him, the emotional part of her wanting to be with him, and the logical part wanting to dump him and go it alone. He knew that to pressure her would cause even more stress than she was under now, and that he did not want. He would be there for her when she needed him there, and if the time came he would leave her when she needed him gone.

And yet, though he knew Mandy wanted him gone so she could focus on power, he knew the emotional part of her wasn't going to let go so easily. That was the reason behind his suspecting she would one day be his death. And yet, if that was what she needed, for him to die, then he would die for her.

A sudden hurt occurred within him, as he remembered back to someone else who had volunteered to die for the one they loved.

'_So this is how Jeff felt about me. I wish I could take it all back. I guess it's a bit late now.'_ He reflected on Jeff's death of simple old age two years ago, when he was a mere two years old. He would not make the same mistake with Mandy. He would be whatever she needed him to be, lover, friend, subordinate or body in the ground.

Grim simply hoped they could find out something useful, and that Mandy hadn't done something to throw her life away. As much as he tried to remain hopeful, deep down he knew that ultimately this was the case, that the news was not going to be good.

At last they felt the car come to a complete stop as they arrived at their fateful destination. When the bare metal doors opened a dimly lit empty corridor greeted them. Done in the same stark metal and dark grey concrete, it held a bitterly empty feeling. The air that flowed into the car was chillingly cold. In the distance they could be forgiven for thinking the end was silently retreating back away into the hollow and dead world around them, like it was part of some demented fever dream of sorrow and regret. It filled them all with a dread that made the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end.

Mandy was the first to step from the elevator, Billy setting his plasma rifle down against the inside of the car as he and Grim following shortly thereafter. They remained close as they left the safety of the confined space for the long corridor ahead.

As they moved along down towards the other end of the empty hall their slow footsteps made rhythmic taps on the cold floor, echoing throughout the structure as if it were only them alone. And yet they knew that they were not quite alone. Somewhere they could feel the distinct presence of a person eternally condemned to the darkness, and yet mysteriously familiar. It echoed faintly within and without, as if it were reflecting off the solid walls and passing through them unobstructed simultaneously.

Approaching the other end of the long corridor they saw it turn sharply to the left at the end. Following it around they could see another long, hollow corridor, which led off to the left at the end also, most likely to the other elevator. Making their way down they saw that this corridor wasn't as stark and empty as everything around it. Set into the right side of the hall was a pair of bare black metal doors, coming together in the middle with two round metal handles.

Coming to rest before the plain iron doors the three gazed upon the cold, flat surfaces for an eternity.

"Looks like dis is it." Grim spoke sternly. Billy and Mandy remained silent as they stared at the last barrier to what they had come for.

Taking one last scan of the door Grim extended his hand to grasp the doorknob. Mandy saw this and caught his arm in her grip, stopping him short.

"No Grim, not this time." She spoke flatly as Grim withdrew his hand, Billy and him looking intently at her. She simply hardened her features once more, dismissing her scythe back to the underworld. "You two stay here. This is mine. I'm going alone from now on."

Grim and Billy stared in silence at her, while she simply gazed back stern and unaffected. Submitting to her wishes they both stepped back away from the door, leaving her alone to face it. Taking one last deep breath she turned back to the bare metal sheets before her.

Extending her hands she grasped the doorknobs, turned them, and opened the heavy iron doors.

Staring down into what lay beyond she was again met with another corridor, just as stark and bare as the others. The only differences were at the far end, where the light failed into a faint blue-grey glow, there was no wall. At the end it led to something she was yet to see. The other difference was the feeling of total hollowness and regret they had sensed earlier was now coming from straight before her, beyond the end of the cold grey walls. It made her feel heavy, and she had to keep herself from hunching over.

Despite the ruined nature of the vibrations emanating from where she could not see, she could still feel that underneath the bleak foreign nature it was all too familiar. She had felt it herself when her heart ached for her friend, only this felt far more hopeless and numb, like knowing it could never get what it wanted and needed so badly.

Staring down into the tunnel ahead Mandy found herself wandering towards the other end in a trance-like state, her feet shuffling along the ground as she swayed forward, her determined face replaced by a blank stare. She wandered on down towards the end of the long, cold hallway, the faint blue haze that had previously obscured her view coming clear. As she made it to the end she found herself staring up mutely into the colossal throne chamber.

This one room from what she saw took up more space than ten football fields, with dimensions so vast the walls became ghostly apparitions under the dull blue haze that permeated this strange and disturbing world's reality and existence. Like the laboratory the rectangular roof was supported on mammoth pillars ten or more metres across, most likely originating from the hall in the ground floor. Once more the walls were of the same sparse, lifeless steel and grey concrete, typifying what could not quite be called the 'life' of the ruler responsible for the thousand year old megalith.

Starting out into the great hall of cosmic dimensions, past two empty passageways to elsewhere on either side, Mandy saw in the distance, centred at what she presumed to be the other end of the massive chamber, a pyramid of some type. Closer in she saw the sheer flat sides of it rising up to a flat spot at the peak, with a long row of stairs along the front leading from the top to the base. In short it had the appearance of a Mayan temple, only of steeper sides and devoid of soul. Now as she came to a halt before the towering spire, she could see at the very pinnacle of the towering structure, at the final zenith of what was once the world's greatest and last empire, there sat a towering solid slab throne.

Mandy continued to stare up at her entire future, now showing the signs of its age with chips and cracks over its surface, running down into the tower supporting it. Hypnotised by the sight of her entire future, all her dreams becoming reality, and then all fading away to dust, she did not even notice the echoing footfalls coming up behind her until they came to a stop.

"Do you want it?"

Mandy whirled around to see who had spoken, her eyes coming to rest on a slim, blonde haired woman who stared down at her, with black eyes that she could tell had long since frozen over, showing the complete void within that had consumed her. Physically she had the body of a woman in her early twenties, though in her gaze Mandy could tell that she had lived as long as the lonely, dead world she had ruled over. In reality she hadn't really lived in the true sense for an eternity. The figure stood at five and a half feet tall, wearing a dark blue and violet long sleeved dress fastened with a light armour corset. Atop her head instead of an elaborate crown there sat the same simple black headband as hers, her hair still held up in the same twin curved spikes, with the lower end draped down across her neck at shoulder height. Despite the total lack of life or force within the ancient Empress the two women shared the same hard gaze from their onyx eyes, the younger's inquisitive and probing, and the elder's largely indifferent.

At last this was the ruined entity known to the world as Mandy of the Night, long since become one with the ruin she had allowed to befall her entire future.

Mandy stared up at the soulless woman for an eternity, all the while she dimply stared down back at her. "What?"

"Do you want it?" She asked again in the same flat, unfeeling tone.

Mandy turned her eyes from her, up towards the crumbling throne high overhead. She knew perfectly well what she meant. _'Power… control… immortality… everything.'_

Turning back to face the living shadow that had destroyed her she once more bought all her darkness, power and authority to the forefront once more. "Yes."

"Take it."

Again Mandy looked up at the older woman incredulously. That someone composed entirely of darkness and all the anger and vengeance that went with it could care so little about everything they had dedicated their entire life to, how was it even possible that she had strayed so far from the path? What kind of catastrophe could have happened to her that she would end up like this drained hollow wreck?

Sensing Mandy's loss to her words she repeated, gesturing towards the empty throne. "You wanted it, take it. It's yours. I don't want it anymore."

Mandy stood in silence. The concept that she would be so willing to give up everything for another, that she didn't want it anymore…

"No. It's not true. I want power. I want control. I want all the people of the world to bow down before me in fear of my wrath. Therefore so do you."

"I don't want it anymore. If you want it, take it." She turned away from her, walking around to her right as Mandy continued to stare at her with growing frustration. "Although, I guess it's not worth much now anyway." She said now that the Night Empire was a thing of the past, and the throne itself was all that was left.

Mandy continued to stare as the woman walked slowly on around her left, continuing on towards the throne with her back to her. Incapable of comprehending just what this human wreck was talking of, or why she was so devoid of care for herself, she came to a vague conclusion.

"You're not me. You can't be me." She spoke as the woman halted before the first steps to her temple, never turning to face her.

"No. I was once, a long time ago, but not anymore. I am the Night, not Mandy, and not you. You are long since dead." Night spoke distantly, turning to face Mandy side on as she paced in front of the temple dedicated to the power and authority she once wielded, all of which had long since crumbled away to nothing. All that was left was this throne, a dead Earth, and one billion wholly self-serving people, none of which understood the concept of empathy or care for others.

"But how could I die? I'm immortal, I can't die!" Mandy demanded of the empty shell as she walked slowly from the end of the temple back towards her.

"Time doesn't heal all wounds. Sometimes it just prolongs the agony until the inevitable. With immortality, you get all the time in the world." She stopped before her, staring down coldly once more. "I know why you're here Mandy."

The younger of the two looked up at her in confusion. "What? How…"

"You came here because you are being hunted by something with unnatural underworld power that you have so far failed to defeat. You traced it back across time, and have come here to find out why it's after you and how to destroy it." She guessed, seeing the girl's eyes widen in response. "I thought so."

"What do you know about whatever's after me?" Mandy spoke as she stared questioningly upwards.

The woman let out a sigh, turning back towards the temple as she thought back. "I know all about it. After all, I created it."

"You… created it?" Mandy asked as she stepped to follow the retreating woman.

"Yes, crafted from my own genetic code. I created him, along with four other inferiors, for use as an infiltrator, to destroy my enemies from within. Because it was crafted from me in my likeness, he was a one off final weapon, and was bestowed all the power of the underworld that could be incorporated into his own being, far more so than the other four. From there he was genetically engineered to be completely focussed. I reinforced that by teaching him myself to forsake any sense of care, compassion, guilt or remorse, any emotions which would destabilise the power he held inside of him." She turned back, leaning on her right leg behind her as she continued. "He was created from the beginning as an infiltration, and was perfectly able to act like a normal friendly human being to blend in and gain favour and trust. When the original four were sent out to destroy the resistance…" She cut away as the younger picked up on the story.

"They betrayed you and joined the resistance for their own benefit, to overthrow you." Mandy answered. "The resistance already told me this, and about how they were supposed to kill you. And how-"

"One more was sent to destroy them, that's correct. That was my one." The Empress responded equally. The woman's eyes seemed to loose focus and gaze off to the side of the girl, and Mandy noticed her bitter frozen stare thaw somewhat.

"There was another reason why he was more important to me than the others though. Because he was crafted from me he was essentially my son. I loved him, and I showered him with all the love and affection that I could, even when I was teaching him how to become my right hand. And he returned the care I gave him, and he was the only one that didn't betray me for the resistance." She went on, remembering back years ago, and a vein of life began to stir inside her. "He renewed my hope. He was the one who gave me reason and will to live again. I started to dream again, about my son, about reviving my society and setting him on all those liars and sycophants that had grown like weeds in my absence. We were going to clean house, and give the people something to fear again. I drew strength off my love for him, and… his love for me."

Suddenly that flare of life within her died, crushed under the deadweight of all her regrets and the reality of her existence.

"But I knew the truth all along. He never loved me. He would hold me and say he loved me, but his eyes gave it all away. They were just so… hideously cold, I could feel it. I knew all along that no matter how much I loved him, he would never return it. He chose to be loyal to me because it was in his favour to do so, not because it would help me. Eventually he realised that I knew the truth, and he let his true nature show through." She lowered her face in what could've been disappointment or shame. "For the longest time I simply refused to believe it. He was the only person I had left in the world, and I wasn't about to let that go again, but underneath I knew he'd already made the decision for me."

"So why is he trying to kill me? Why would this thing you created come through more than a thousand years to kill me when he could've killed you then?" Mandy asked her.

"His final mission for me was to go back to when I was a child and help you to take over, while killing off the founders of the resistance before they could oppose you. But as I later found out he had no intention of helping you. I suspect he would have tried to befriend you at some stage, saying he agreed with you on everything you stand for, gaining your trust, then help you take over, and kill you once you were no longer of any use. It's all part of the way he operates, I taught him so." The woman told her.

Mandy began to think. _'Befriend me? Help me take over… Wait… No, it can't be… It couldn't be him!'_ The elder woman watched her, seeing her eyes beginning to draw wider as recognition came to her.

"I suspect something must have gone wrong with his plan for you to be here, and he must now see you as his number one obstacle that needs to be removed before he can take over himself." Night summarised. She continued to watch Mandy now struggling with the thought that she had bought up. Her head was downcast as she stood heavy and tense, gritting her teeth together. "Tell me, did a boy with dark hair and your eyes offer you a chance to work together on taking over shortly before you were attacked?" She asked.

Mandy immediately bought her head up to stare wide eyed at her in stunned shock.

"… Max." Mandy spoke the name of her enemy, her voice so soft it could barely be perceived if not for the sheer emptiness of the haunting chamber.

The Empress simply stared dispassionately at her, as her face twisted in abject horror. "Yes, Max is his name. He is the one that's been trying to kill you."

Mandy began to find herself having to gasp for each breath as the memories of everything her and her 'friend' had been through together came back. When they had fought to an end the last of the threats that had confronted them before the peace, it was Max that had been fighting gallantly at her side the whole way through. He was almost as good a friend as Billy was in the early days, and had become something like a mentor to her, helping her to decide which way was best. To think that absolutely all of it was a lie. That all along he had just been waiting for the right time. That it was him who was trying to kill her. He who killed all those people. He who killed Irwin. And that it was he who had orphaned her.

She audibly gasped in pain as she realised what her own cold-blooded companion had done. "He… He killed my mom and dad!" The revelation that it was in a way her fault that her parents were dead hit here so hard she staggered and dropped her head down, struggling to breathe through the waves of shock and anguish. "It's my fault. They're dead because of me, because I chose to create him."

Night gazed on sternly and turned away from the girl as she doubled over, gasping for breath, her face etched in such anguish of a form she had rarely known before, that of guilt. If she was destined to become the woman before her, then she was in one way or another already responsible. Raising her foot the elder woman took the first step up the long set of stairs leading up the towering pyramid to her throne.

Turning back to face the girl she continued on the reason for her coming here in the first place. "I know you came here for answers on how to stop him, but from all my knowledge of him, I can think of no weakness for you to take advantage of. Max is a living weapon designed to survive every attack, and follow with his own. The only way you can hope to kill Max is to simply strike him with more power than he has, and hope that it's enough to break down his defences."

Recovering somewhat from the shock and betrayal still burning away within Mandy raised her head to look up to the burnt out woman. "I fought him off with the scythe before, but he blocked all my attacks easily. I only managed a glancing hit because I caught him off guard. How am I supposed to destroy him if he's already withstood what I can dish out?" She racked her brain for ideas. "Is there some way I could use his own power to destroy him from within?"

"I don't know. I suspect to do so would require you to get inside him and make his own energy tear himself apart. It would probably work, but you would surely die with him in doing it." Night answered the girl in need of answers, only to come up with naught. "I don't know how to stop him."

Mandy looked in silence as the woman stared back coldly. "I am truly sorry I bought this disaster upon you, but I'm afraid I can't give you any more advice on how to destroy him. It's all up to you now."

Her quest to find the answers to how to kill her enemy was at an end, and they had come up empty, and beyond that she had received the awful burden of knowing it was a boy she considered a close friend who was trying to kill her. She thought back to how many long hours they had spent with Max, not only how he had been there for them in the hard times, but how they used to just hanging out like friends do, playing video games while the world around them went to hell. Throughout the entire time everything they thought about him, everything he was to her, was all a lie created by a cold-blooded murderer. Every time he shone that kind, caring smile was all an act. She had been so close to the very person who had killed her parents, and it made her feel sick and hollow. More than that she felt grief for all the history and memories she had shared with him now lost.

Through her own despondency she dimly picked up on the waves of emptiness, of despair, regret and above all a particularly bitter sense of loneliness, emanating from the woman increase as she began to scale her way up the tower to her throne. Mandy forced herself out of her stupor of shock as she felt the sadness that marked her future grow to something that hollowed her out from within. The total wretched misery she sensed from the manifestation of all her hopes and dreams sucked away all her strength and resolve, leaving her feeling once more like a helpless little girl, completely over her head in a world composed from all her nightmares. It filled her with dread at what she feared was to come.

"I'm _so tired_ Mandy. I haven't spoken to anyone in four years since Max left my life. Ironically, even now I'm talking to myself. I've lived for so long, and although my body doesn't show it, I have felt every single year of that existence. I've felt every day, and every second as if each one was an eternity that I had to wait out. One eternity after another, composed of absolute nothingness." Indeed her voice was as flat and hollow as her words, as if they were as old and tired as she. Mandy could now see just how empty and drained this woman was. There was absolutely no reason or desire to continue living within her. She was, in all reality, the walking dead, with no soul or emotion or will behind her anymore. All that was left of her was her body and her consciousness, which longed for the day it too could simply cease to exist.

"I don't understand." Mandy spoke to the slowly retreating form while shaking her head in dismay. "You had absolutely everything you ever wanted. You ruled over the entire world, people lived in fear of you their entire lives, and you have outlasted every other living creature in the history of the planet. And you don't care? How could I become this?" The girl stared alarmed up at the soulless woman as she continued to scale the stairs, seemingly devoid of care. Mandy's stress and apprehension reached breaking point. "How? How! Tell me! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!" She screamed at the top of her voice, filling the chamber with her echoing rage and frustration. The woman didn't react or care.

"I have gone through my life with everything except the one thing I truly needed more than anything else. And because of one choice I made over a millennia ago, I will never have it. I haven't lived for a single day ever since I made that one mistake. Time doesn't heal all wounds child. Some wounds never heal, and time just prolongs the agony, until the inevitable end. Every day a little bit more of you dies inside, until now, where your soul is long dead, and my life will soon follow. All because… _I was afraid."_ She spoke more to herself.

Mandy continued to stare absolutely perplexed as the Empress continued to ascend. Again she shook her head baffled. "What could possibly be more important than power?"

At this the Empress stopped, starring down towards the ancient concrete beneath her. "Love is not a weakness Mandy. It is a basic necessity for human life. It is the spiritual equivalent of bread and water. You cannot hope to truly live completely alone without someone to bond to. You can hold out for a time, but ultimately being without love will destroy you."

"Love is for the weak minded! It is a chain that binds us to others!" Mandy spat in outrage at the insane sermon this woman was preaching. "It is a weakness that destroys a person's ability to-"

"To rise up and dominate everyone below us. Sound familiar?" She asked with a serious tone without humour of any kind, turning to look back to the girl. "Max told you that didn't he?" She could see by Mandy's silence that he had told the girl the exact same thing he had told her. "You are human Mandy, Max is not. Max is a demon, unable to feel love or have connections to others. You need to be loved just as much as everyone else."

Mandy stood in silence, deliberating on what the manifestation of her failed dreams was telling her. Night watched as she stared up at her, turning once more to continue her slow ascent towards her throne. She was about half way up when her young, naïve self spoke up again. "Why are you telling me this? How could you possibly think this way?"

"Because I have lived for almost one thousand, two hundred years alone. I have felt the loneliness as it slowly began to take effect on me. I survived for a few hundred years by focussing on my own power and greatness, but slowly I could start to feel it eating away at me from within. There was nothing I could do to stop it. When I tried to create a son in my image, someone who would love me in return, he turned out to be the opposite, not surprising when you thing of what he was created for. Now I am old, and tired, and all I want is for it to be over."

The two of them stayed silent for an eternity. Mandy stared, frozen in place directly before the long flight of stairs, looking up to herself. After another few moments the Empress at last made it to the top of the tower, taking her place beside her throne, gazing down upon its bare slab surface from which she had sat and watched as herself and her world withered away to nothing.

"I watched the security videos of your ordeal back in the prison." She spoke as she laid her slender hand on the cold hard arm of her throne, never turning towards the girl far below. "I saw when you were returned to your cell, how…" Her voice seemed to waver. "When you were being held by Billy… How did it feel?"

Mandy was at first taken aback by her words, but then thought back to the moments immediately after being dropped back into her cell. _'Billy… Hold me close. Protect me. Make me feel safe. Comfort me now I'm the one in pain.'_

She lowered her head, wrapping her hands around her elbows as she remembered how he ran his hand through her hair, cradling her with all the love and care in the world. Unknown to her the lonely woman atop the temple was thinking the exact same thing as her, having watched those particular moments closely.

Mandy felt a warmth come over her, imagining what it was like to have his arms around her again, and almost involuntarily a soft smile formed on her features. "It felt good… warm… safe… It felt like I was loved."

She looked up again to face the old woman as she thought to herself. The Empress thought of her earliest years, back to how Billy and she had been best friends, and later companions, never one seen far from their counterpart. How she had begun to love him just as he loved her. She bought her arms up to wrap her hands around her elbows, trying to imagine they were his own, telling her she was loved. But her hands were so bitterly cold, she looked down at her outstretched palms, so pale with the years of non-life. Hopelessly she dropped her arms to her side again and turned back to face the young girl below. Mandy's blood ran cold as she looked upon her face now.

The elder woman's eyes were wide and unfocussed, her mouth hanging open mutely as she stared out into the empty hall, her skin bone white. She moved over to stand before her throne, before she fell back into it. Her eyes fully displayed the horror of an eternity alone as she thought back on every moment since the one that had ruined her life. "I… have… never… felt… like… that."

Lowering her head her face became lost in shadow as she breathed deeply in and out, anguish and grief washing over her.

It was at this moment, seeing her as she was now, baring all the ghastliness of her existence, that Mandy came to realise something even more unsettling.

"You're dying." She spoke as the woman raised her cold features out of the shadow to stare down at her.

"I count that as a mercy." Night spoke coldly. "I lost the will to live a long time ago. It is only now that my body is reacting accordingly, counting down until I can be free of this misery. It started the day you arrived, and soon it will end, and I will end with it."

Mandy stood unable to move as the doomed woman lamented. "I am dying because of one decision I made that has haunted me my entire life."

Finally she managed to work up the courage to ask the question that she knew all along she wasn't going to like the answer of. "What did I do?"

"I wouldn't let myself be in love with another because I was afraid of weakness, because I thought the attachment would hold me back. It was this belief alone that has led to my downfall." Night stared down from her place at her throne to Mandy, both sets of dark eyes locked on each other, cold and anxious respectively. "Do you know what I am talking about?"

Mandy struggled to think through the sheer weight of her stare, but she knew what it was she referred to, and the pit of dread in her stomach grew. Her empty eyes drilled away at her, making her tense further. Mandy continued to look up at the ancient figure, while she unexpectedly diverted her eyes from hers to look up, gazing upon something behind her, towards the entrance to the hall.

She narrowed her eyes questioningly, before a thought came to her, and her dread grew worse still. She looked around behind her. At the entrance to the hall stood Billy, staring mutely up at the woman, shock evident in his face. He had, she realised, heard most of what they had said over the past few minutes.

As Mandy set her eyes on him, the terrible dread growing in the background reached its peak. Her eyes widened, and she found herself unable to turn back to face her future, unable to face what she feared she would be told. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, her breathing became laboured, and her body tensed with the worst fear she had ever felt.

"_You're gonna kill me one day aren't you?"_

She remembered his words from yesterday, when he had told her how he had felt, and she of what she thought. She had told herself she would never do such a thing to her best friend, even if moving away didn't break the bond holding her to him.

'_I couldn't have… I wouldn't… I would never…'_

Gradually she forced herself to turn back around to face her future failure. Sitting high above she saw how tired her cold, regretful gaze was as she bored into her eyes, telling her the answer before she even opened her mouth. Mandy's terror overcame her.

"No."

"I killed him."

At that moment Mandy broke. Her face became etched in horror and grief as the whole awful truth came to her. She couldn't breathe, her body unable to move. All she could do was listen as her greatest fear became reality, all from her own hands. Her mind became overwhelmed by an anguish unknown to her. She couldn't even scream.

Billy simply watched in silence as his partner became hit with an inner agony neither had believed possible. All the while the solemn woman watched on as her young self began to break apart, although even in her he could see the remorse she felt.

"I killed him just after I took power. I couldn't keep him from my mind through will, and I was unwilling to sacrifice my power for love. I was afraid having him in my life would weaken me. So I killed him, all in the name of power. The decision has haunted my life ever since. It is a curse that has broken my will to live through my endless regret." Her eyes took a glazed over appearance as she stared off vacantly, remembering how she had sat in this very spot for days, weeks, months, years, simply remembering that one moment. "The worst part about it is that as he died, he forgave me."

"Augh!"

Mandy whimpered and staggered back as the grief, anguish and guilt tore her entire being apart. Everything she was, the dark, foreboding and inspiringly cynical girl that was bound by the will to dominate and control others, came apart like leaves before a storm. She could do nothing but stare up at the empty ruin of herself as her life came crashing down. "No… No…"

Mandy of the Night sighed deeply, showing all the sadness and regret in her tired features. "My last purpose in living was to tell you these things, and they are done. I'm dying now because living without the one I love has destroyed me inside. I have no reason to live now that I have no one to live beside me. I have become strong, but my strength has come at a price. All it cost me was the one thing most precious to me. The price was too high for me to pay."

Mandy bought her hands up to her shoulders as she tried to turn away from the source of her pain. She chocked out a sob as her first tears welled up in her eyes and began to spill down her cheeks.

The dying woman took one last deep breath, sighing as she turned down to the crying girl one last time. "Mandy, I don't know what you should do with your life. Just remember, don't make my mistake."

With that Empress Mandy of the Night slumped forwards in her throne, dead.

Mandy stared up in shock, too overwhelmed by everything to speak. Her future was dead, her family was dead, Billy was dead, all because of her. She staggered back, turning away from the body of the broken ruler and her broken dreams, turning to the exit where she had come in, where Billy stood waiting for her. She kept her head down, unable to look at him in this state. It just hurt so much.

"Mandy…"

She continued on past Billy, who regarded her with concern seeing how torn up she was.

"Mandy wait…" He tried to reach out to comfort her, only for her to increase her pace ahead of him, heading down the corridor towards the metal doors at the end.

Pushing through them she passed Grim and turned left to head to the elevator, but as she walked the weight of all the pain and grief and guilt became too much. Staggering and reeling she collapsed against the wall. Leaning against the cold surface she found herself unable to go on fighting against the pain. She slid down the wall, sitting with her side to it, burying her tear stained face in her hands. Grim lowered his face as he regarded the tragic girl sombrely, before he turned to head through the doors to do his job, Billy passing him as he headed through the doors to reach Mandy.

When he turned to face her he felt his heart clenched painfully to see here sitting there curled up into a ball, her tears hidden away behind her hands. He watched as her back shook softly with her sobbing. Moving slowly towards the broken girl he loved he knelt down before her. Gently he eased his fingers across her hands, softly probing away at the edges. She yielded, lowering her hands so she could stare in silence through her tear filled eyes at the boy she had betrayed. Seeing her gazing at him, with her cheeks wet with so many tears for all she had to regret, he reached up again to cup her face in his hand. Mandy continued to watch as her best friend smiled softly at her, forgiving all of her sins against him as he always did. Seeing how much he cared for her melted her shattered little heart.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't…" She chocked on her words through her tears. "I didn't want this. It wasn't… supposed… to be this way…" As Billy continued to hold her face, his kind gaze comforting her, Mandy's words broke up as she collapsed in under the strain of so much guilt and loss. "I didn't… I…"

Billy wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace as Mandy finally broke down and cried openly into his shoulder. She heaved and racked with the anguished sobs coming out of her, for there was so much pain for her to let out. What had started with the death of her parents had ultimately led to this, the end of the hateful domineering girl that had never valued them while they were still with her. The notion of having taken the life of what was far more than her best friend, had bought about the end of all her ambitions and her will to achieve them. Without Billy, there was nothing, and no reason for there to be anything in the first place. Now all she could do was press her face into his shoulder and cry out all her pain.

He continued to hold her, Mandy wrapping her hands tightly around his shoulders as her tears continued to come, staining the front of his shirt, followed before long by his own at seeing the person he loved so much and for so long in such a broken state. He reassured the girl with his embrace, running his hand through her hair as she cried out the grief of a ruined life. Eventually her sobs came to a halt as the pain subsided, and the feeling of being held so close by the one person who could do so bought on a warmth that eased the hurt away. Bringing her tear streaked face up she could see how Billy had shared her pain as his own, and yet he continued to look upon her not in anger and accusation but love and care.

"Don't worry Mandy. Once we get back home we'll fix everything, just as we always do, okay? I promise, everything's gonna be alright." The young man cupped her chin in his fingers. He wiped away the tear streaks with his thumb while Mandy continued to stare up at him wide eyed. She could not fathom how he could continue to care for her after all the evil she had done to him both past and future. By all rights he should hate her, despise her, and yet here he was wiping away her tears with his hand, wiping away his own once her face and eyes were clear. "I'll help you through this. Everything's gonna be just fine."

"Billy, I don't understand. You're… forgiving me… after all I've done to you?" Mandy asked him uncertainly, half expecting some harsh biting comment on how she had betrayed him from the start. She knew she deserved it, but it still unnerved her nonetheless, the concept of not having him there for her now that he was essentially the central pillar of her young life.

Billy nodding in conformation. "Of course I do. After all, bestest friends forever." He said with a kind, loving smile.

To actually hear Billy say those words again, in his silly distorted language like he used to, made all the hurt and fear of being alone melt away. Now it was just her and the one person in the world she wanted to be alone with. It just felt right, like deep down some hole she was only dimly aware of before had been filled. She stared up at his kind face, until a smile came across her young face as new tears welled in her eyes.

She pressed her head into his chest again as her tears came renewed down her cheeks. "Billy, thank you." She closed her eyes as Billy wrapped her up in his arms again. "Thank you so much." They held each other close in their tearful embrace, both finding completion in each others arms, never wanting to let go.

* * *

Grim approached the tower in solemn silence, leaving the two youths to make up for all the regrets and pain their coming here had uncovered. _'Perhaps now that she's seen the true effects of the path she's chosen, maybe she'll change her ways.'_ Whatever was to happen to her now, or Billy and him for that matter, he knew for sure something would be changing for the better, in the long run at least. For now though they were still yet to get out of the forest they had been dumped into two months ago.

Coming to a halt he stared up in silence at the dead body sitting slumped in her throne high above. His solemn expression, devoid of all joy and light was copied in the face of the woman, her eyes shut, yet her features still formed into her hard scowl. Oh how he had come to fear this, to see all his warnings and attempts to sway her from her terrible conclusion come to nothing. And yet he always knew this would be so, Mandy was simply too headstrong to be convinced to follow any other way other than her own. Still, to see her now as she sat, devoid of life long before she died, he couldn't help but feel a sense of regret and failure for not preventing it.

"Oh Mandy, I am sorry."

"Not nearly a zorry as me." A rough, gravelly voice spoke directly to his right. Surprised Grim turned to face the source of the foreign voice, to find it was really very familiar.

Beside him stood himself, still wearing the same dark cloak, still featuring a skeletal build, and still brandishing the same scythe. But though they were one, there were obvious differences between them. For one the older scythe held by his future showed rust and a dull edge, with the shaft scoured and marred by so much time and ruin. The pristine white bones now held a faint yellowing to them, and were also pitted and scarred by the age of suffering, and his cloak was similarly torn with holes in places. As the two turned to face their opposites, the younger Grim could see that the elder had lived up to his sombre namesake; he looked like he had bared all the weight of the world, and all the suffering of a long extinct planet.

It wasn't time that had weathered his being so harshly, but rather the endless suffering from his ancient failure. The loss of Billy and watching Mandy slowly waste away, had haunted his entire existence, and were likely to do so until there was no more life left to reap. He would live in the shadow of everything Mandy had done until there was no more use for him, and he too found himself joining the infinite number of souls as he returned to the great vat of existence on the other side of the River Styx from which they came and ultimately went. It was chilling to think that he himself had almost turned out to be this broken down wreck.

The two stared back and forth, the younger's wide eyes staring into the elder's bitter gaze, burning straight through him. "You look different." He managed to say. "You sound different." He added.

The elder turned back to his ancient charge, staring up with a long embittered scowl. "A thousand years of regret will do zat to a person. Just look at her." The older Grim muttered in his dark sense of philosophy. "Night, ze poor woman."

"Night? Is dat was she called herself?" He asked questioningly, to which the older nodded. "She once said it to me before. She said I am the Night. I am dark and cold. She told me dat after I warned her against dis path." Looking back up to the still figure he sighed. "I guess it was ingrained within her from de very start."

"We never had a chance did ve?" The elder muttered, remembering how he too had advised her against leaving Endsville, and that she shouldn't try to abandon Billy for the attachment.

"Yeah well, seeing as now she's seen de effects, and has been told about it by herself… Maybe there's still some hope left now for her and Billy." He said with a bare hint of optimism.

Glancing to the side he saw his elder heave a deep, lonely sigh. "It's too late for me, for my Mandy, for my Billy. Now I have only one thing left to do with zem." He readied his scythe in his old bone hands. "I vill ask you to let me have this grim honour. I have been waiting for, and dreading of zis moment for more than a thousand years." He turned to him seeking his younger's approval.

Grim lowered his face and waved him onwards. "Go ahead, be my guest."

"Zank you." With that the very old, bitter reaper stepped forward to begin his long ascent to the throne high above. He never took another step forward, both of them stopping as a green and blue spectral cloud took shape above the woman's body. It soon coalesced into a glowing manifestation of Mandy's soul. The two reapers stared in shocked silence as the girl they once knew stared down regretfully at them from her position atop the temple.

"_Hello Grim, and Grim."_ She looked from the younger, alternate version of Grim, to her reaper, the grizzled, worn out being that had been there with her when she had originally taken over. _"I suppose it's too late to say sorry now isn't it? I didn't listen to your warnings. I guess it's also too late to say sorry for the hell I put you two in when I was younger, and for what I put you through after I killed Billy."_ She spoke the last part with a pained expression, looking down to the older reaper as she spoke.

"Apology axxepted."

"Apology accepted." They both answered.

The spectral form of the woman smiled, content with having righted at least one of the many wrongs that had haunted her existence. The elder Grim nodded light-heartedly.

"Well you look great, despite everything." His heavy almost eastern European accent fell away partially as he spoke. "By the way, what happened to your scythe? What happened to Judgement?"

"_Judgement was linked to my own soul. It broke apart into dust hundreds of years ago. I transferred the last of its power into me when it happened. It's how I'm projecting myself to you now."_ She explained almost casually. To both reapers they could hear the particular sharp almost barking note hidden somewhere within her voice that Mandy as a child had been known for, and it made them smile fondly at the memory. Mandy herself just smirked at the two.

A moment later her face grew stern and serious once more, putting both the reapers on edge. _"I know that I'm supposed to go to the next world from here. And I know your job is to send my tainted soul to a place befitting of me. But I'm afraid I'm not going to be joining any pool of consciousness just yet."_ The reapers exchanged an unknowing look before they looked back to her.

"But Mandy, dat's impossible. Everyone must go to de underworld once dere time's up." The younger reaper spoke up. The Empress shook her head.

"_As I said, I can't go to any afterlife just yet. There is something that I must do, one last piece of unfinished business that requires my attention, something that should never have been started in the first place, and it requires my soul to finish it. In doing so my entire being will cease to exist. There will be no heaven or hell for me, because there will be no me left to go there."_ She explained in a calm yet serious voice. The two ancient spectres below her continued to gaze at a loss as to what she was talking about. She looked to the elder Grim. _"You will eventually learn what I meant when you become part of the afterlife."_ She then turned to the younger Grim. _"You though will learn the reason soon enough."_

At last the spectral form of the woman who had dominated the world for so long began to fade away before the two versions of the one being. _"Goodbye Grim, I count it as a blessing to have known you. I'll see you soon."_ With that said her wispy form came apart as if it were smoke, leaving behind the wilted physical body that had both supported and imprisoned her for over a thousand lonely years.

Grim continued to stare up at the empty shell, sitting on her ancient hard throne, mounted atop the slowly crumbling pyramid, inside a ruined fortress, built upon the dead earth. Turning away at last he looked to his future self, who had already gone as mysteriously as he had come, and walked away without saying a word. Before he reached the long corridor leading to the doors he stopped.

Turning around back towards the tower at the end of the hall he raised his scythe to aim at the body of his old friend. With one quick flash a bolt of blue energy shot out the tip, to disappear into the body. He gazed at the dead Empress as her skin and clothes flashed briefly with the energy and were still, before turning grey. A loud snap rang out, and the throne she sat slumped on became split through from the sudden force running diagonally from top to bottom. Watching on Grim saw as a second later the cracks tore down through the pyramid out into the floor, while a piece of the top of her throne broke and fell away to come crashing down behind. Satisfied that he had given the body at least a decent disposal safe from being defiled, Grim once more turned and walked off down the corridor, leaving Mandy's body to collapse into broken clumps of ash, breaking down further into a fine dust, eventually to become a part of the air, leaving nothing behind.

Making his way through the metal doors he turned to see the two huddled together in a loving, if solemn embrace. He closed the doors behind him, a gesture that seemed to be the metaphorical closing of the doors on the Empire of the Night, and on the woman who had ruled it for over a millennia. He made his way over to the two youths. They stared up at him through their tear stained eyes, while he gazed down in his sombre if contented state.

"It's over. Let's go home."

The two slowly rose to their feet from their place beside the wall. Mandy pressed herself up against Billy's side, not wanting to be separated from him. He followed by putting his arm around her waist to hold her by his side, he too wanting to keep her close. Together, with Grim leading them in front, they made their way slowly down the corridor, taking the right turn before them, to the end of the corridor they had come out into, where the elevator was still waiting with its doors open for them at the end. Together they entered the elevator, standing facing the door. Grim selected the ground floor towards the bottom of the rows of buttons. The doors of the elevator closed and the car began its descent, the trio leaving behind their future now their task here was over.

* * *

Mandy remained silent with her head down as they descended back to the ruined world below. She thought back to what Grim had said. Off hand she began to wonder where exactly 'home' was for her now.

'_What am I going to do now? I have no future. I have nothing to work for now except to continue living. Having Billy here with me is great, it's wonderful, but it's incomplete. I can't live a short mortal life simply trying to survive, even with the love of another, growing old and weak, and dying after a brief, unfulfilled existence. How could I live myself if I just sit on the sidelines and watch the vermin of the world destroy everything and everyone, while knowing I could have stopped it? But I can't go down this road either. I simply can't risk making the same mistake again. I can't live a short life of nothingness, and I can't live a long life alone. What am I going to do?'_

'_And what am I going to do once we get rid of Max? My parents are dead, and no one would be willing to… Billy's mom and dad, they offered to let me stay with them for awhile. There's nothing stopping me. I guess now that my future is gone I don't have much of a choice. Besides, it would be good to live with them, with Billy. Why would they want to offer me this anyway? Could they really care about me like mom and dad did? Oh I wish I hadn't ignored them while they were there. I miss them so much. I'll move in with Billy for awhile, until I can find a foster family. Oh god, I can't believe it, I'm an orphan up for adoption. I'll be living with total strangers. What's gonna happen to me?'_

Mandy squeezed Billy's hand, causing him to wrap his arm further around her small waist. She knew that no matter what she could count on him to be there for her. Against everything she smiled at the fact. Their future may be uncertain and filled with danger and destruction, but this was where she wanted to be. She wanted him to be there for her for the rest of her life.

* * *

A few minutes later.

After what seemed like a very quiet eternity the elevator came to a halt at the bottom of its travel. A lone resistance member, a rugged man in his late twenties, turned to see the doors part, revealing the powerful yet solemn trio within. He stepped back to allow them to step out of the metal cylinder that had taken them across the length of the mighty structure.

Mandy's face was still downcast, with traces of the tears from earlier still visible on her solemn features. Billy was also strangely less lively than usual, with his right arm around the girl's waist, cradling her against his shoulder, while his plasma rifle hung in his left. Grim stood behind them, gazing ever watchfully out over the two. Their appearances and the general air they gave off suggested that somehow they had failed. Yet they were all here in one piece, with no signs of any physical injuries.

The trio made their way out of the car to stand before the lone fighter. He watched them all expectantly, getting nothing out of the depressed and weary group of visitors assembled before him. The fighter and the trio remained in silence as they regarded one another. At last the armed man before them could not take the strain of waiting any further.

"Is it over?" he asked unsteadily, his voice wavering slightly with the fear that they may have failed. "Is she… dead?" The possibility seemed so momentous that he could barely bring himself to ask the question.

Each of the group looked to each other silently, each wondering if they should tell him what to them was bad news, or to just pass him by and let them pick up the pieces. At last Mandy sighed, returning her face to the ground.

"Yes, it's over." She answered in a low tone. "Empress Mandy is dead."

The lone fighter stood in silence, watching and waiting as he processed what he had been told. The fact that they had said she was dead was at odds with their behaviour, and it confused him as to if she were really dead or if there was more. Gradually as the seconds ticked by he found them to have remained silent, giving no word that something terrible had happened. As it began to sink in his anxiously questioning expression gave way to an ear to ear grin. He let out a howl of laughter.

"SHE'S DEAD! WOO! HAHAHAHA!" He whirled around and ran, skipped and danced back towards the hall, ecstatic with their victory. While Mandy and Grim stayed silently solemn, Billy's eyes flickered up to look in the direction of the enemy now skipping to the death of the girl he loved. He watched him from the top of his eyes as he skipped away, his face giving away nothing of the flicker of aggression within him. Despite his control Grim and Mandy had managed to sense the subtle change in him.

"HEY! THE BITCH IS DEAD!" The man yelled out to his comrades as he danced his way down the side corridor towards the hall.

That pushed him over the edge. Both Grim and Mandy became alarmed at the sudden burst of rage and righteous fury emanating from the boy, who remained as calm as ever from the outside aside from his eyes widening. Billy let go of Mandy to take hold of his rifle again, curling his fingers around the grip and the trigger while he steadied the front with his left. Slowly, with a calm, controlled, yet murderous intent he raised the weapon to take aim at the back of the resistance fighter as he neared the turn to the hall. He was about to pull the trigger when a petite hand wrapped around his wrist and pulled his hands down away from his would-be victim. Billy looked across to see Mandy look at him with a bleak scowl and shake her head.

"No Billy, remember what I told you, I can't have loose cannons. If I want him dead I'll kill him myself." She spoke, reminding him of the long ago incident with Irwin. It seemed like a lifetime ago, a lifetime lost to them now that their lives had been permanently turned upside down. "Thank you, but it's not worth it. Besides, if we shot him, all the others would come."

Billy's predatory urge relented as he realised she had a point. Turning he looked back to where the figure now rounded the corner, joining his buddies to spread the word. Extending his arm he held out the weapon towards Grim, who took it from him. Sealing the weapon away within his cloak the group stepped forward to make their way out to the hall.

Before they even rounded the corner they could hear the squad members they'd come with cheering and celebrating passionately over the end of the regime they had lived in fear of their entire lives. Some laughed, some cried, some sang songs with their comrades. Some were just too overwhelmed to do anything but sit and think back on everything they and the world as a whole had been through. As they celebrated the Empress' death under the vast pillars and the high roof, Grim, Billy and Mandy simply walked on past. None of the twelve remaining rebels noticed the departure of their heroes as they stepped out the front door and quietly slipped away. They simply continued cheering and jeering amongst themselves as they left forever.

* * *

Outside the three picked their way along the makeshift path cleared through the piles, mounds and sheets of scrap left by Grim as he destroyed the army in his rage. They made their way through the scene of devastation towards the hole in the wall they had come through. The night sky still held no stars, and in the distance they could still see the glow of the thousands of fires in the world's last remaining city, a sign that what was meant to be an uprising against oppression had degenerated into riots and pillaging. The night air was cold and dry having come off the endless desert surrounding the city.

As they approached the giant breech in the wall Mandy stopped. Turning she looked back up to the vast structure that had dominated the world for its final age. The pinnacle of civilisation, and ultimately its downfall summed up in one almighty pyramid, now scarred by the massive burning impact craters from the rocket bombs. Billy and Grim stopped to wait for her as she gazed mournfully upon what had once been her future, and the manifestation of all her dreams, her greatness and power and glory, her control and her discipline, and all her fears. She knew now as she took in its broken surface, the gaping holes burning a faint orange in the exterior, the ruined outer wall and guard towers, and the fields of carnage left outside, that she would never have it. This part of her life, of power, control and immortality, would never come to be now. Though she still had Billy by her side, it still pained her greatly to know that all her drams and ambitions would all come to nothing. She simply could not have both, Billy would always object to her plans for domination, while her power would beckon her to ignore him and go on alone. There could be no middle ground, there could only be one.

It was too bad neither of them ultimately led to true happiness and fulfilment. Mandy would now have to be content with living a short life as a nobody, in amongst an ocean of vile, depraved scum, and being quickly forgotten after her death. It was the only choice she had left now that she saw what was inside those great walls all along. Now all she could do was stare up at the manifestation of her dreams, bidding them a silent farewell, before she finally turned away and let them all go.

Joining Billy and Grim they made their way through the huge hole in the wall, finding themselves once more outside the fortress, their mission over. Mandy reached down beside the wall to retrieve her M4, still lying where she had dropped it. Selecting 'safe' she had Grim stow it away within his robe along with the remaining magazines beside it. Within its seal the radio the resistance had provided them with squawked within his robe spreading the news of the Empress' death.

"_Repeat, Mandy of the Night is dead. The regime has been defeated. The city is ours. It's all over. We no longer have to live in fear. We are free. Long live General Mac."_ The words sounded scratchy and distorted by the radio, and the announcer sounded like he was reading from a script without any apparent emotion, but it was audible enough to know that down in the city a lot of people would be very happy right now.

Neither of the group reacted, not bothering to switch it off as Mandy stepped along.

Before they could take their permanent leave they were confronted by the sight of a gleefully smiling General Mac as he approached them from along the right side of the wall. He looked enthusiastic and upbeat, as if finally all the years of hard work, planning and preparation had finally paid off in full. There was a renewed energy in his stride as he made his way over. Each of the three tensed inside at having to deal with him again.

"Billy, Maxine, Grim! I want to thank you for what you have done for us all. Without you three taking care of Mandy for us this whole operation may not have been possible." He praised them all in his joyous state, despite having threatened them with execution the last time they had spoken. He was only slightly puzzled by the seemingly morbid indifference shown by the group as they stood facing him. "So, will you be going back now?" He asked clasping his hands together.

Grim nodded calmly. "Yes. We've gotten what we came for, so we'll be leaving now. Tank you for all your support."

Mac smiled and nodded with a sly edge. "Very well. In that case I bid you good luck with whatever it was that was hunting you. But I still think it's a shame you're leaving so soon. You could have done this world a great deal of good, if you weren't so heretical in your thinking." He added with a shrug. "But we can't have anyone spreading misinformation and leading people astray, especially not in the first stages of bringing the masses under proper control."

"Yes, well I hope you and your comrades enjoy your newfound freedom." Mandy answered half-heartedly.

"Heh heh heheheheh! Freedom?" The general chuckled in response with an arrogant undertone, and smiled conceitedly. "You know what, because you're leaving now I'll tell you what we're going to do. Now that the corrupt imperial regime has been overthrown it gives the rightful leaders of the people the chance to take their place in charge. The people are like sheep, and they need a strong system of hierarchy to keep them in their correct place and on the right track. For too long the people have been oppressed by the upper class rich and powerful, and even though they have been defeated they and those like them will continue to try and retake that power, by spreading propaganda and bad influences that turn the people against each other. And until the last of these corrupt people have been exposed and killed, personal freedom will have to wait."

Mandy felt so disgusted and contemptuous on the man's self-righteous rhetoric she simply turned and waked away, Grim following behind with Billy tailing at their rear, the general still pouring forth his speech. Billy's eyebrow perked up as he listened in on him.

"Again I'd like to thank you one more time. Because of what you've done here today I can finally step in and take my correct place as leader of the new order. We're going to implement a new system where everyone is equal in their correct hierarchical place, and where all industry and property is transferred to me and my ruling elite for the benefit of the working class. I will control what the people hear and read and download to keep them safe from the depravity of our enemies. In this new order everyone will finally be able to live in peace together under my rule, united against our war against the remnants of the old regime! And they will know a new kind of liberty, the liberty of not having to think for themselves! For that we can't thank you enough for helping bring about our… _my_ new empire."

He finished in his deranged ramblings at last, watching on with an ear to ear grin as the three walked slowly away.

Mandy was still silent. Her heart hurt knowing that the life she had known and loved wasn't awaiting them back home. And what's more, from what they'd heard from her failed future self, and what they themselves had learned in combat, Max was practically unstoppable. There had been no weakness for them to take advantage of. There was no Achilles Heel. And from what had occurred when she faced the giant ship back at the fortress she didn't even know if her scythe would be able to do the job when she called upon it. She honestly didn't know if they were going to make it out ali…

Her grim outlook was broken by a faint change in the air around them. It was as if it had just gotten a little bit colder, and the dust a little bit harsher. Yet she and Grim knew it had nothing to do with the air,. Something swirled around them, penetrating their bodies. Out of this mystical haze of strange sensations a new presence made itself known to them. It was a feeling of malice close by, like a deadly predatory instinct watching over them. In the silence Mandy noticed a very faint sound, something that at first she couldn't quite place. It almost sounded like…

'_Is that laughter?'_

Sure enough now that they stopped they could hear the faint sound of someone nearby chuckling under their breath to themselves. With it came the sensation of foreboding, that there was some deep, terrible darkness lurking nearby waiting to ensnare them and drag them out into the open and expose all their sins. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end once more, and sent a primordial chill through Grim's bones.

It came as a surprise when they searched for the source of the faint, ominous giggling, to find it coming from Billy.

"Hn hn… hn hn hn… heh heh heh heh…"

Billy's eyes were closed and his body hunched over slightly, with a strange wide smile on his face that to them seemed somewhat unnatural, not just because they'd never seen one like it on Billy, but because it looked like it wasn't supposed to be on the face of a human being. Now that they turned to face him his barely contained sniggering escalated into an open laughter, making him shudder and rack as the force behind it deepened.

"… heh hehehahahah… AAAHAHAHAHAHA! _AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"_

The general behind them began to pick up on the laughter emanating from the boy as he planted his hands on his knees and hunched over further, his face torn into a huge, mad grin as the laughter continued to grow more and more disturbing.

"What's so funny?" He asked in trepidation.

That set Billy off. He leaned back, taking a deep breath, before he screamed with laughter out into the black sky, carrying it for hundreds of metres all around. It made everyone hearing it feel uneasy, as if the sound carried some kind of toxic, festering evil spirit within it. Mac continued to stare at the boy as he howled out his insane laughter, cackling mindlessly almost to the point he couldn't breathe. The sound latched onto him like predatory claws, and suddenly he was caught within its grasp, making him more and more fearful.

"What? What is it?" He asked again now apprehensively.

Finally Billy ceased his crazed laughter to turn and stare straight into the man's eyes, showing a twisted and savage desire, and a ravenous destructive power not previously seen to the world from him. The devil-possessed boy looked at the haughty man with glee, watching as he squirmed under his judging gaze, seeing him for everything he was.

"You parasites, you're all the same, and you don't even know it!" He called out aggressively, before he tried to stifle another bout of laughter, Grim, Mandy and General Mac all looking on in unknowing silence as Billy continued to writhe in his fit of hilarity.

When he came out of it he looked to the general again, locking onto him with his piercing stare. "What? You really think that if you do it it's not a crime? You think that just because it's you that you can do whatever you want and it's all somehow justified? You shit-for-brains spent your entire life hating the corrupt men in power, the killers, the liars, and dedicated every waking minute to bring them down. Now you're gonna step in and take their place, and you actually have the sheer arrogance to think that you have the right do the exact same thing they did!"

The general gaped at the boy as his heart started to hammer. He was calling him out, and he could do nothing to stop it. He felt like he had been rooted to where he stood. There was no escaping his judgement.

"You hypocrite! You talk about equality for all people, and keeping them locked in a hierarchy in the same sentence! You say you're superior to the people who entrusted everything they had to you just so they could live like human beings and not like slaves, and yet you're using that trust to enslave them yourself! And you kill anyone who objects to your control, your own comrades, and still think you're somehow the guardian of freedom and justice! Tell me general, if it was anyone else doing the same things you've done, would it still be justified?"

"O-Of course. It's all for the greater good." He responded shakily. Unconsciously though he shook his head violently. Billy doubled over again at the obviousness of his lies.

"HAHAHAHAHA! You pathetic worm! You can't even lie to yourself!" He mocked the man cruelly, crushing his feeble attempt to escape like a paper cup. "And these wretched little people you're supposed to represent! How exactly do you plan on getting everyone to cooperate towards your private utopia? Perhaps you're going to ask them all to surrender everything they have and to work their entire lives with no hope of getting ahead. These people are too selfish and spiteful and stupid to work together, or be controlled! Just look at what they're doing right now. They're burning their own city! The first taste of freedom they get, and immediately they turn on each other! They can't even work together for their own benefit. It's too late for your dictatorship, they've already divided against each other. By the end of it there probably won't be enough left to sustain life." He grinned evilly at the terrified man. "Don't worry general, you'll still rule an empire of one, until you starve to death at least."

He turned down an alternate path, with an equally ominous, inevitable outcome. "And even if you somehow forget your own self-importance and plan on creating a democracy, and somehow stop those creatures down there raping and eating their neighbours, how are you going to maintain your free society? How are these mindless little shitheads supposed to run a country for themselves? Your democracy will instantly become decadent and corrupt, just like ours did, and it will begin to collapse in on itself due to the overwhelming greed and stupidity of the voters and the narcissists they vote for." Billy began to smirk deeper now seeing that his words were taking effect. Mac knew all about how stupid and greedy the people were, and Billy could see that his doomsday picture was striking a chord in the arrogant fool's brain.

"Inevitably your wonderful free society will decay and ultimately collapse in on itself. Industry will die, jobs'll run out, and people will turn on each other once more. It's already happened where we come from. We've seen it plenty of times before, how most people automatically turn on each other like rabid dogs unless kept under control by someone with more sense than pride."

Mandy froze at that. What Billy had said sounded like something torn straight out of her own head. But she had never directly spoken those exact words to him, those words were all his own. She had followed this philosophy, if haphazardly at times, from the very beginning, and now here was Billy, the light-hearted, upbeat, lovable kid who had been the exact opposite to her dark and authoritarian personality for so long, now talking about the same thing as she believed in. But this was distinctly his own, it was far more aggressive and sadistic. It fed upon the man's depravity, turning his narcissism and his cruelty back upon him and watching him writhe under it. Now she saw what was going through his head when he attacked the thugs back months ago, he wanted to make the corrupt suffer for their sins, and take joy and satisfaction in doing so. She was quietly stunned by what she was seeing and hearing, and the primal fear she felt inside. It left her in awe at him.

Billy continued, closing in for the kill. "So what are you gonna do now general? You know what; you can have your new regime. You can have your personal empire and all the power and delusions of grandeur that go with it. You can take over, and manipulate, and lie, and oppress, and terrorise people as much as you like. You've done it all before, no one will stop you. But from here on out I am hereby cursing you to always remember these three things, so they may haunt you for the rest of your life. One, you are the exact same worthless piece of shit as all those other corrupt pieces of shit you spent your entire life hating with all your heart. Two, no matter how powerful you become, no matter how many guards you station outside your bedroom at night, and no matter how far you run or how deep you hide, my personal friends in hell, the other generals that you murdered, and all the killers and liars of the regime before you, they will always be watching you. And they will always be waiting for the day you join them on the other side. No matter what you do, no matter how long you live, you can not escape it."

At last he sneered in a sadistic grin and watched as the blood drained from the general's face. "It's gonna be one _hell_ of a party!"

Grim and Mandy stared in silence, their eyes and jaws gaping in mute shock and bewilderment as the boy they previously thought they knew and had a fairly good understanding of began to chuckle darkly once more. He turned half way back to his friends, facing the mortified general side on as he continued to sneer evilly at the silently horrified man. "Enjoy your freedom general," He turned and began to walk away, a dark smile spread across his face, "because it's not going to last."

He stepped back towards his companions, where he suddenly halted and turned around again, standing beside his partner. "Oh, and one more thing." He shot General Mac a low smirk as he placed his hands on his friend's shoulders from behind while she looked to him in wonder. "Three. Her name isn't Maxine."

The thoroughly cut down and shamed man frowned, looking across to the blonde girl, seeing her suddenly come to understand and look back upon him with a cold, menacing scowl, all the while Billy grinned at him evilly.

"It's Mandy."

His ominous farewell given Billy turned and continued on away from the ruined fortress, the predatory sense trailing along in the air with him. Turning and watching him go Grim and Mandy both stole a look at one another, sensing the same confusion and surprise between them, while the man behind them stood frozen. They had never before known of this darker side to Billy, instead seeing only his joyful stupidity, his times of quiet reason, and on rare occasions of blinding rage when the time called for it. Yet even in his moments of fury, when he attacked anything that moved with a vicious drive, he was only ever going off his emotions without any particular deep thought to his actions.

What they had seen now was very different. Whereas before they had seen him to be relatively impulsive, what Billy had said and done simply couldn't have come out of nowhere in an instant, he had to have been carrying those dark beliefs for a long time now for them to manifest so powerfully. Indeed the general behind them was still stunned into a coma, from the feel of the malice in his voice and his sadistic stare that scoured his soul, and the three body blows to his pride and world view. Mandy gazed at his retreating form in a daze. To think that all along the boy they thought to have been a beacon of light and good will, who she had previously believed she would have to abandon in order to follow her own ideals, was actually a lot more like her than she had ever dreamed possible.

The only seeming difference between the two was Mandy was cold and logical, unforgiving, efficient, everything a ruler needed to be, whereas Billy had relished in the fear of his enemy, cutting him down defences and exposing him, like an executioner. All her life Mandy had aspired to be the dark overlord who would reward the responsible and crush the depraved beneath her fist, and for so long now Billy had been far more like that vision than she had ever been, wishing to bring anarchy and disaster to the lying sycophants and thieves in power, and the murderers and rapists who preyed on others.

The two did not bother turning back to bid their own farewells. They simply strode away to catch up to him as they disappeared down into the razor sharp rocks and lifeless grey mountains, leaving the general to stare in silence, wondering what kind of nightmare he had gotten himself into.

* * *

Half an hour later.

The group made their way to the bottom of the mountain in total silence, with only the sounds of their feet on the ground of hard rock disturbing the tense quiet. Grim led the way, still vigilant of their surroundings. He knew that there were no more patrols out here, he had destroyed them all himself, leaving them all free to travel the ruins below them in peace. He still scanned the horizon vigilantly because the imaginary threat was a distraction from the still awkward matter of Billy as he trailed a few paces behind him.

Mandy did not distract herself as she kept in step next to her friend. She carefully monitored him from the corner of her vision, silently taking note of everything he did. There was something about the way he had changed back there that she felt drawn to, like a moth to a distant flame. The strange, ominous, powerful sensation that swirled around him now reminded her of herself, only his suggested the ruthless desire to toy with his prey before he destroyed them. So now she was straining to see what exactly was going on in his head as he walked beside her.

Billy had kept his head lowered slightly as they made the return journey in silence. The only thing giving away the sudden shock he had unleashed was the faint smile that curved at his lips. Mandy continued to subtly keep an eye on him as they made their way through the ruins back to the ancient laboratory, and their ticket home from this hell.

As the group walked Mandy kept right beside Billy the entire time. She was so intent on reading him that she hadn't realised he had been slowing down to allow Grim to continue on ahead a bit by himself, leaving them alone together again. Once he was satisfied they were alone, he stopped and looked around, pulling Mandy and himself across to their right behind an outcrop. Mandy looked to him uncertainly as he stopped and turned to face her.

His sudden turn startled her, and she nervously stilled herself to face him. It put her on edge slightly to see the boy she'd spent most of her life with so far looking into her all of a sudden with those eyes, their gaze carrying a different feeling to what she was used to from the air headed boy. He looked at her with the same soft, gentle affection he had always shown her, but below that there was a boiling lake of malice and destruction, as if he had become a living natural disaster. But it was not her who he was directing his malice towards. Instead there was something in his gaze, some sinister power and passion that pulled on her, beckoning her to join him. The combination of the two sides, affectionate and aggressive, produced something that matched with both sides of her own personality.

"Mandy, I was thinking…" He began as they stood amidst the rocks. "Perhaps… Maybe, after we get back, and we take care of Max, and we all settle back down again…" He spoke in a soft yet serious way, urging her to consider whatever it was he was saying. "What say you and I show all the arrogant idiots of the world just how it's done?" He asked her with a smirk.

Mandy looked at him uncertainly, searching for the cryptic meaning of what he was proposing. '_How it's done? You and I? Could he be suggesting that we both…'_

Seeing her struggling to comprehend his new concept he continued. "Well I was just thinking, you know that something needs to be done about all the narcissists and sociopaths that are destroying the world, I want to hunt them down too. But if we've learned anything from this hell it's that neither of us can do this alone." Humbly he lowered his face to her. "What if… you and me, we could do this together?"

Mandy gasped slightly and bought her fingers to her lips in wonder. She looked to Billy wide eyed, lowering her gaze as she thought. "Billy, what are you saying? That we could take over together?"

"That was what I was thinking." He nodded. Mandy breathed deeply at what this meant.

'_All along I thought he would want to stop me, to protect who I was trying to dominate. But he actually wants the same thing I want.'_ The main reason she had to choose to give up Billy to take power was because she had thought he would be opposed to it. To see now that he was the same as her, a new realisation came to her. _'We could rule together. I would have the lowlifes of the world living under my shadow, and have Billy there beside me the whole time. We wouldn't have to suffer alone or choose to watch people kill each other.'_

"Billy…" She stammered shaking her head. "I… I don't know. I've never thought about this before. Are you sure this could work, if we…" She looked to him worriedly. Billy smiled tenderly to her, settling her nerves.

"I don't know. But we could figure it out. We could make it work." He spoke softly. Mandy could hear his voice wavering slightly, and saw his blue eyes start to shine up. Her breath caught in her throat. ", above everything else I just want you to be happy. If we could make this work then… maybe we could both be happy." He smiled lovingly to her as he extended his hand for her to take.

Mandy gazed wide eyed at his inviting hand. Was he right? Would this really bring them both happiness?

She thought about her plans, power and control, greatness and vengeance, of being master of all, how such a dark path could possibly allow for someone else to be there for her, to hold her and share in each other's affection. She needed both to find fulfilment in her life, she needed Billy. She wanted to be with him, for him to be there for him when he needed her and for him to comfort her when she needed to be comforted. And he was offering that to her. Was it really possible? Could something so beautiful really work out?

When she looked back up to him again and saw the sheer heartfelt love and affection he held for her, she knew it was. She knew now exactly what was going to bring her happiness, and it was all within reach.

A small, hesitant smile emerged across her features as she tentatively extended her hand and placed it gently in Billy's palm. He smiled in return as they closed their grip on each other's hands. Quietly they gazed between each other, before Billy turned back and they both stepped out from behind the secluded rock face and continued back down the path before them.

Billy smiled light-heartedly beside Mandy, until a moment later his smile morphed into a slightly crazed smirk. Already his mind swam with thoughts of all the madness and terror they were going to spread together in coming days. Sensing the sudden shift in temperament in her partner Mandy looked up to him, seeing him look back to her with a gleefully mad visage, hearing him utter an evil chuckle. Through their connection that set her off. She looked out ahead with a merciless focussed scowl, before a small low smirk of satisfaction formed on her lips at what was to come.

They continued on down the mountain range, holding hands as they made their way back to join Grim. They soon found him waiting for them. Looking up he saw them holding hands, and the ominous looks they both gave him, and knew a terrible judgement lay ahead for a great many people. He let out a small chuckle himself as he continued on ahead of them. From the choking clouds far above a low rumble of thunder rolled through the rock faces at the collective dark energies between the three, and Mandy herself let out a small snigger of evil intent.

A bright flash of lightning lit up the dead world from above as the new Mandy of the Night chuckled softly to herself, holding her partner's hand as Billy and she smiled in their sinister delight.

* * *

**That should be enough cliches for one fortnight I think.**

**I originally got the idea of Mandy killing off Billy from Frogman's epicnormous fic Mandy's Metropolis, which inspired me to go ahead and write this. I haven't been able to contact him in a year or so though, such a shame it looks like it's gonna go unfinished.**

**So the ruined old Mandy is dead, Billy's revealled the demon lying within him, they've left the resistance, and now nothing's stopping Billy and Mandy from finally giving in to the feelings they have for each other, except for one last thing...**

**Like I said that was the end of the future arc of the story. From here it all starts happening much, much faster again.**

**Next time, the beginning of the climax. Get ready because we're down to the final hour now.**


	32. Catching Up

**Not much to say here. A big thank you to everyone who wrote reviews for the last arc, or who faved me or any of my stories, you guy's are awesome! I saw that documentary about Kony, what scum. I wonder if he has trouble sleeping at night knowing most of western civilisation knows his name and what he's done, considering he's survived so long becaue people just didn't know about him?**

**So new story arc, picking up right where the last one finished. Now that all the side issues have been put to rest there's just one thing left to face. Also in here we get a glimpse at what the next part of the story's gonna be about, but that will all come much later. Hope you enjoy the beginning of our big climax, and please don't forget to review as the feedback is always useful.**

* * *

**Catching Up.**

Mac snarled as he staked his way back and forth through the fields of wreckage fuming as he returned to his soldiers celebrating inside the grand yet oddly sparse citadel. The boy's words, and the horrifying, almost demonic force behind them, were the most chilling thing he had ever felt in his life. They had stripped him of all the pride and glory he had carefully sewn for himself over nearly four decades of service within the resistance through bent truths and the execution of his rivals. To make the matter worse, no matter how much his ego denied it, everything he had said was true.

How could he consider himself superior when he had done the exact same thing as his enemies? All his life he'd considered himself to be of a greater righteousness, that no matter what he did it was always excusable in the name of his own cause, because ordinary morality was for ordinary people. But what set him apart from the others? He could think of nothing more than it was him who was doing it.

And how was he going to escape the fate that awaited him in death? It could be five years, or ten years, or fifty, but no matter what he did it was coming. That was perhaps the worst part about it, knowing that he had a long time left to wait and fear for his inevitable eternity of horrors to come.

And finally, the biggest insult of all, the fact he had spent the last few days with the girl who would one day grow up to become his ultimate enemy. She'd been right there. All he had to do was take out his gun and shoot her through the back of her head, and he'd have done what they had tried to do for centuries. And he had let it slip away. Now the society and the people he had long since dreamed of ruling over were practically in his hands, and all he could do was watch them tear each other apart like rabid dogs.

His ego of course refused to accept this, choosing instead to take it as an insult against his honour, and a spiteful attempt by a group of liars and traitors to undermine his innate superiority and his born right to rule. Though he covered his wounded ego with a huge amount of indignant rage, underneath the truth of the matter still remained, and every moment he denied it he was driven progressively more and more insane.

He wasn't worried, swirling himself into a furor of megalomania. He would have his dictatorship; the chain of events leading to it was already in progress, only the new one would not be the weak, decaying wreck the old had been. It would be a regime of terror and fear. Clenching his fist he pledged it upon himself, knowing that where the old had gotten lax, his new reign of terror would be ever vigilant for any sign of dissent, and brutal and cruel in keeping people under his boot. Shaking he huffed to himself resolutely.

'_I will rule them all with an iron fist so hard they would all more than likely wither and die from the sheer stress of it all before they ever dared to defy my will! I am the one who-Daugh!'_

He tripped himself on a robots severed leg, stumbling away before he regained his posture. He stared down in immense rage at the offending piece of wreckage, which immediately became the focus of all the frustration he had felt at having his narcissism and his disgraceful nature exposed.

"GOD DAMN IT!"

He kicked the metal limb as hard as he could, sending it tumbling off into the vast scrap heap as he continued stalking through the fields of broken metal, lashing out at any piece of wrecked machinery that should get in his way. He sent a decapitated metal head flying off towards the distant broken wall behind him with his foot, before he stopped took a moment to calm himself down. He took several deep breaths in and out, forcing himself to remain in control and in the moment. After all, they had just bought an end to an eternity of terror and brutality, this was his victory, and he intended to enjoy it.

What's more, he reasoned, Billy, Mandy and Grim were likely still here. They wouldn't have made it back to the ruins yet. And so long as they were in his world they could be taken care of, at least for another few minutes. He didn't have much time. A pressure formed within him at the prospect of loosing his only remaining chance to destroy them, as he turned towards the massive bulkhead door that served as a front entrance to the great building.

As he made his way into the hall, calling over one of the fighters within, a small lean figure, shrouded in his own unfeeling malice in addition to his dark blue shirt and pants, stepped through the hole in the wall. He stopped to scan over the scene of destruction before him. From the sheer volume of wreckage, and the unmistakeable energy signatures of Grim and Mandy's scythes left in huge amounts all across the area, he automatically knew that the three had been here very recently and had more than likely completed what they had set out to do. Figuring that if his targets were still here they would be waiting inside Max stepped forward towards the entrance, bringing his foot down on the armoured cranium kicked there moments earlier. His face remained set in a detached mask as he crushed it flat into the ground with a peculiar strain of aggression previously unknown to the stoic rogue agent.

Mac smiled and laughed outwardly with his comrades as they celebrated their new found freedom, dragging one of them, the helmeted technician, away to talk. Taking a moment away from the joyous group he took a spot by the open door where they would not be heard, and turned to face him with deadly severity.

"Listen to me. Those three who I sent you with, they have committed treason against us. They are enemy agents." The helmet wearing officer looked at him taken aback at his hushed words but kept quiet as the general rose a finger warningly as he continued in a quiet angry voice. "The girl, she's Mandy in her young form, before she took over! The others are her collaborators! We have to kill them before they can go back! I want you to call a gunship, and tell them to find them while they're still in the ruins. Eradicate them! And tell them that if anyone speaks about this I'll kill them myself, that goes for you too! Now go!"

The officer nodded and hurried away to a more secluded part of the hall while preparing his equipment to make an encrypted transmission.

General Mac closed his eyes momentarily, resting his back against the door frame as he heaved another weary sigh. He still couldn't quite get the ominous thoughts Billy had bought down upon him out of his head, and though it bought him some consolation knowing they would soon be dead, they still tormented him in the back of his mind.

Reaching around to his belt he withdrew an old cigar he had been waiting to smoke for a long time, sticking it in between his teeth. He had been saving it for the day the tyranny and oppression they had lived in fear of for over a millennia came to an end, and he could step in and take its place with his own. He had carried it for five years now, taking it up when they first planned the revolution all those years ago, when the enemy agents had defected to their side in the hope of destroying the Empress. That plan had been put on hold after that little boy, no, _demon_ came through and massacred them with an ease he had never thought possible before in his life. He crushed the rogue four as if they were insects in comparison to him, and had simply left as if it were just a job, killing hundreds on his way out.

Now, after five years of rebuilding, struggling and waiting, their plan had come to fruition. The tyranny was gone, and now here he stood at the door to the Empress' lair as if it were his own. Now he would smoke his victory cigar.

He fished around to his side again, drawing an old lighter from his pocket. Bringing it up to his face he lit it and bought it up to the tip of the toxic treat in his mouth. He only just felt the air around him turn cold for a moment before the flame went out. Cocking an eyebrow inquisitively at the tip of the lighter he tried again, sending a shower of sparks off into the flammable vapours rising from the nozzle again and again. Alas, as if to taunt him in his hour of glory, he still could not get it to light. _'God! Five years waiting and when it finally happens its outta gas?'_

He was distracted from his frustrated musings as he spotted a young man, or rather a boy, walking towards him from around the side of the piles of ruined machines. He looked to see the boy coming up to him from the courtyard with a light-hearted smile on his face. Seeing his strange quiet optimism and the pristine condition of his dark blue clothes and hair, largely unheard of in a world slowly rusting into oblivion, he cocked an eyebrow at him wonderingly.

"Hi. I heard the Empress was killed. Is it true?" He asked with a hopeful tone. In truth the status of his mother really didn't influence him, and he only assumed she was from the carnage around them.

At this Mac flashed his eternally confident ear to ear grin as he stepped from his spot by the door to greet the mysterious dark youth while taking the cigar in his fingers. "You've heard correctly my friend. After more than a thousand years of corrupt brutality and evil, Mandy is at last dead!" He spoke in his loud, ever lively way, the same showmanship he had used to make him popular among his followers. The boy smiled slightly, yet he could tell he wasn't really as overjoyed as he should have been. He cocked his head and frowned momentarily at him. Strangely though he had never seen this particular youth before, he could have sworn he remembered him from somewhere.

"That's great. Listen I'm looking for some people that I'm told were coming here, two kids my age. Have you seen them?" He asked softly yet with a blunt edge.

Mac now raised an eyebrow. He removed the cigar from between his teeth and looked to him gravely. "Billy and Mandy?" Mac watched as the boy's face rose with interest though his eyes remained mostly neutral. "They came here to take out the Empress, along with the Grim Reaper, if you can believe it. It was them who killed her." He conveniently left out their treacherous allegations, and the fact he'd called in an airstrike on them, opting to keep it from getting complicated.

"Are they still here?" Max asked getting straight to the point, probing ever so slightly at the heavy set general.

"What does it matter to you?" He retorted irritably. The portion of him that told him he'd seen the boy before continued to press away within the back of his mind. "Who are you?"

"Just tell me where they are." He pushed further.

Mac narrowed his eyes at the strange youth and turned the cigar over in his fingers. He suspected him, he knew he was involved in something, but he gave nothing away. Then a thought occurred to him. If he was involved with the three then he could use him to keep them where he wanted them for a little longer, giving him more opportunities to get rid of the girl and her escorts.

"Why do you want to see them?" Mac continued to press back. Max, seeing a standoff quickly developing, he made a concession.

"I'm a friend of theirs." It was all he gave away, but it was enough. Mac nodded while lowering his eyes in thought.

"Sorry, they just left. They're going back to the laboratory in Endsville to go back where they came from. They only left half an hour ago." He told him openly. Max just stared up at him in silence as he evaluated the information he received from his old enemy. Mac stuck the cigar back in his mouth and withdrew a small radio communicator from his side. "I'll call them for you."

Max's polite visage turned to trepidation. His immediate thought was that it would be highly detrimental to his objectives if they knew he was here looking for them. If his targets had confronted his creator then there was a strong possibility that they knew who he really was, that he was the one who had been hunting them the past two months. If they heard that someone was here looking for them, the most likely scenario was they would realise it was him and take flight. But by the time he opened his mouth to tell the general it wasn't necessary he was already too late.

Mac bought the radio up to his mouth and began to speak.

* * *

Billy, Mandy and Grim continued their hike through the rubble on the outskirts of Endsville, climbing their way over one such pile crossing the street. They could vaguely remember where the concrete building they had exited from had stood, but the memory was still vague. It didn't help that every levelled city block and suburb in the distance looked alike, with no real features to be able to tell one ex-building from another, and they hadn't passed near it when they dropped in on the transport. They knew the facility lay somewhere in the suburbs, but that was it.

As they made their way to the top of a small hill covered in ancient ruins, most of which were less than a metre high, they saw out over the distance over the remains of Endsville, across the central business district with its skyscraper stumps, towards the remains of the outlying areas of the city. Through the haze of ash and dust in the air they could see the endless wastes of the suburbs where they once lived in the distance. The ruined view reminded them of what they had seen when they first laid eyes on the world's sole remaining megacity, so much like the bleak future envisaged in their old favourite Blade Runner, and somewhere in their minds they each wondered if in another thousand years the capital would look just the same.

One ironic thing about the ruined neighbourhoods was that while their lack of features made navigation difficult, it had the opposite effect of not hiding anything behind them. That made it all the easier to see out ahead and make out the shape of the small concrete building in the distance standing up above the remains stripped to their foundations.

They moved to continue their trek through the rubble, but were stopped by the sound of the radio in Grim's cloak coming to life once more.

"_Grim, Billy… Mandy, come in."_ The voice sounded familiar, and they quickly recognised it as that of the less than noble general.

Grim reached in and withdrew the device from within, handing it to Mandy. They each looked at it perplexed, they hadn't expected to hear from the man after Billy's parting words.

"Yes what is it?" She barked into it.

"_There's someone here looking for you, a kid about your age. He says he's a friend of yours. I told him you were heading back."_ Mac said over the device.

Mandy's eyes widened. She looked up to see Billy and Grim sharing in her alarm. An ominous cloud of dread descended upon them. They each shared the same thought. _'Is it him? Could he have tracked us here somehow? Surely it couldn't be… Could it?'_

"_You still there?"_ Mac's voice came over again as they thought in silence.

"What's his name?" She spoke into the radio again.

* * *

Mac thought for a moment. The boy hadn't introduced himself when he had arrived.

He withdrew the device from the side of his face as he turned back to the strange dark youth standing at his side. In his focus on keeping Mandy and her crew where he wanted them he didn't quite notice his previously polite, light-hearted smile had been replaced by a chilling flat scowl, as he stared at him with deadly intensity, or that he had conjured a stolen plasma rifle in his right hand, and an ancient carbine in his left a lot like the one Mandy had carried.

"What's your name kid?" He asked casually, his mind still skipping over the meaning of his lethal cold gaze.

The boy continued to stare darkly at the clueless man, his calling them having given away his presence. He should have hilled him immediately after learning of where they were going. It was too late now, and he blamed the conceited general standing before him.

"Max." He spoke at last with a low note.

The general smiled, returning the radio to his face as Max continued to stare up at him with the disturbingly menacing scowl he had inherited from his mother.

"He says his name is… His name is…"

Mac's smiling visage slid from his face, replaced by one of open horror as he realised where he had seen the boy before. Though he was years older now, the name and the chilling black eyes reminded him of the monster that had attacked them that night. He turned his head slowly to look back down to Max, who now held his M4 pointed at his head. The last thing his eyes laid upon was the cold, deadly face of what he knew for a fact really wasn't a human being.

"You…"

* * *

Mandy recoiled in shock at the sound of gunfire coming over the radio right before it went silent. The three of them stared in silence at the pocket radio still held in Mandy's hand.

"… Okay, I tink we should get on our scythes and get going, right now." Grim said nervously as he and the kids turned to look up to the ruined fortress, where their enemy may well be standing right now. And if he was there, then Mac had told him where they were heading. It was now a race of who could get there first.

"I agree." Mandy said dropping the radio as she summoned her scythe, mounting it immediately, Billy hopping on behind her while Grim did the same with his. They immediately took off down the ruined streets, heading for their goal in the hope of making it here, getting back, and then disappearing again. That was if the enemy didn't catch up first. After two months what had started back in Endsville had begun again.

* * *

Two resistance members raced up and rounded the corner to where they heard the sound of shots, coming up on the massive door. They froze in horror at the sight of their leader with a large hole blown in his skull, and the living shadow standing over his body, smoke rising from the barrel of his ancient weapon. He turned his black gaze to stare menacingly at them, letting them know exactly who he was, reminding them of that day several years ago. They remembered.

"AAAAAHHHH!"

The two screamed in terror, drawing their weapons around to shoot madly at him. The massed blasts of high energy plasma exploded against a barely visible dome of energy around the front of the being. He simply stared in silence as they fired.

As the two backed away from the demon standing before them several more resistance members arrived to form an arc in front of him, opening fire on him immediately. He regarded them all with cold-hearted killer intent from behind his shield, glaring at them with contempt, before he raised his twin weapons and fired on the group.

The first two who had found him fell with chunks of flesh missing from their bodies, followed by two more to the right of them, cutting them down to eight.

From the left hand side of the chamber the technician looked out and watched in dismay at the massacre. Backing away to safety he continued to work with his bulky equipment to set up the bombing of the three and to call for backup.

The remaining squad ran for cover behind the pillars and walls, continuing to shoot at him in desperation. Their efforts proved useless as Max stepped out into the hall, turning his weapons on each of the remaining eight… seven… six fighters. One by one they fell to his merciless, systematic fire as he made his way through the hall, scanning back and forth between each of them with his detached gaze.

He continued to slaughter the weak humans until there were only two left. The last remaining soldier turned and ran to take cover around the corner of the wall while the technician shrank even further back towards the elevator door at the end. Max aimed at the nearest of the two with his plasma rifle. He fired a burst, felling him with a blast to the head, but finding his weapon ceased to function as he fired. Looking down to the ammunition count displayed at the back he saw the gas canister loaded in the weapon was empty, most of it probably used up in the battle for the city by its owner.

Dropping the useless weapon he continued on around the corner, met with several blasts from the last of the group, a man wearing a helmet with a cracked visor, his radio discarded beside him as he took up his rifle. Scowling at the assault Max channelled more strength into stabilising the front of the shield, stopping each of the blasts as they continued to come. The white hot flashes as the bolts burst against the energy dome largely blinded his forward view for the moment as the lone fighter continued to blast away desperately in the hope he could get past the shield.

Having tired of the stalemate Max dropped the shield and leaped high into the air over the technician's line of fire. As he arced over he bought his carbine to bear, firing off the last of the magazines rounds into his enemy's body and the elevator door behind him.

Max watched calmly as the last of his opponents fell, coming back down with a crack, the concrete floor breaking under his shoes as he landed. He ejected the empty magazine and loaded a new one in its place, leaving only it and one more. He still had his submachine gun and his semi-automatic pistol so he wouldn't run out of firepower anytime soon. And even if he did, it wouldn't matter, he was a living weapon.

Chambering the first new round he turned back to the door, returning his carbine to its place in a cloud of black mist as he walked past the bodies, not interested in his victims in the least. Making his way past the general he looked out past the piles of wreckage and shattered walls, out towards Endsville and his targets. They were so close now. Starting out he walked calmly through the scrap heap out the front of the massive fortress palace, making his way towards the huge breech in the wall. Stepping through it he took off at a lightning sprint down the mountain range. He bound across the rocky surface at a blistering pace, reaching the bottom of the range in just over a minute. He continued to race through the ruins, stirring up a thin cloud of grey and brown dust in his wake as he raced tirelessly towards the distant laboratory.

At last he was closing in. This time they weren't going to escape.

And General Mac never did get to smoke his victory cigar. Elsewhere though, in a horrifying realm beyond the river Styx, several thousand angels, demons and condemned souls had a victory of their own to celebrate, and their party was only just beginning.

* * *

Grim led Mandy and Billy through the sparse expanse of the suburbs, blasting through the remains of what were houses as they streaked towards the light grey building rising out against the backdrop of ruin. They rode their way right up to the front door still hanging open, dismounting and hurriedly rushing through it. Grim lit his scythe once more as they raced to the back through the empty building. Reaching the elevator they stepped inside, selecting the downwards arrow, causing the car's doors to close, shutting them off from their last glimpse of the ruined world, and bringing their stay in the future to an end.

They waited within the elevator as it descended down slowly into the cavernous facility below. The sense that they were trying to run for their lives while this machine they rode in continued to go at its lazy pace was infuriating. Their hearts still pumped faster and their breathing didn't slow, yet the car still…

"OR FOR HADES SAKE HURRY UP!" Grim roared in frustration as he stabbed repeatedly at the down button with his bony finger.

"Grim, calm down. We'll go back, get to the car and disappear again until we can either come up with a strategy to kill him, or we get stronger, or both. Just don't freak out, it's… annoying." Mandy reasoned with the ethereal being, a subtle hint of the underlying tension she herself felt beneath her controlled mask at the end. Grim relented and stood in silence.

The elevator continued to descend at its leisurely pace while their enemy closed in on them. Mandy folded her arms impatiently. Billy sighed and shifted his weight from one foot to another uncomfortably. Grim gritted his teeth. Mandy started tapping her shoe intermittently against the floor, all as the elevator continued to dawdle its way down.

"Grim…" She muttered.

"HURRY UP!" Grim roared again, stabbing his finger on the down button as the elevator continued to make them all tense and anxious with its slow descent.

As Grim continued to stab at the button they felt the rate of the cars descent change as it began to slow down, indicating that either they were almost at their destination, or it just wanted to infuriate them. Billy accepted the latter.

"Oh jeez, now it's going slower! We'll never… Oh great it just stopped! How are we gonna get back when…" He paused as the doors opened out into the massive chamber, the familiar cold, ancient air once again greeting them.

"Oh. Oh well." Billy spoke as Mandy and he mounted the dull red weapon while Grim took off just ahead of them. The wind rushed passed as they raced down the monstrous structure's throat, attacking their exposed faces. As fast as they went it still appeared as though they were going at a snail's pace due to the sheer titanic dimensions of the hall. Each pillar took around five seconds to pass at their blistering speed, yet it was still an improvement over when they had originally come through here in the first place.

The way ahead was still covered in darkness as Grim rode on, the blade of the scythe shining brilliantly out into the vast space around them while the two kids followed as quickly as they could. They continued for another minute until the black void before them was replaced by the sheer wall at the end. They each pulled to a stop hurriedly for fear they'd smack into it at nearly one hundred and ten kilometres per hour. Dismounting from their scythes they ran to the open doorway cut into the right hand corner of the enormous arching roof.

Stopping within the doorway they looked around at the room they had first arrived in. On the floor in the centre of the room was the crater burned into the ground from when they had materialised in this place four days ago. The hot surface had now since cooled to the same icy cold as the rest of the concrete. The ring of the portal at the end of the room stood ready, with the coordinates still locked into the controls.

The sight of the crater prompted the group to search for another such crater nearby, indicating that their so-called friend had indeed, as they feared from what they heard over the radio, tracked them all the way here. They each fanned out and scanned over the room within their field of view, finding everything to have been the way they had left it after what seemed like an eternity since they'd arrived.

How the last few days had differed from their life of lazing around amidst the forest, going fishing, exercise, playing video games, learning to drive and shoot, and just relaxing and enjoying the peace.

Alas those days were long gone now. They each finished searching the room, finding no trace of any second crater burned into the floor. If Max had come here surely there would have been evidence, but against what they expected there was none. Content that no one had appeared in a ball of superheated ions since they had arrived they each relaxed slightly. Grim led the three over to the control panel to check that their coordinates were still set from when they had arrived. Looking at the time and space coordinates he confirmed everything was still in place.

As Grim and Mandy busied themselves checking the controls Billy turned back to look vacantly around at the place of cold, slow decay and lifeless emptiness. Grim finished with the controls, depressing the button to the side, activating the huge metallic ring, the swirling green wormhole taking form inside. Billy continued to look around, glancing over the corner of the room as Grim and Mandy stared up to the vortex before them.

"Come on Billy, let's go." Mandy called back to him. She made her way with Grim up towards the metal grate supporting the ring above them. Billy continued to stare at the corner.

"Billy?" She called back to him, turning to see him staring with a doubtful wonder to a peculiar shadow in the corner where the floor and the two walls met. Where there should've been a point where the three edges came together there was a blackness they couldn't quite make out in the darkness of the room.

"Grim gimme the scythe for a moment." Billy held out his hand as he beckoned to Grim. Making his way over he transferred the weapon to the boys hands as the blade continued to shine brightly. Grasping the scythe Billy approached the corner of the room, wary of whatever was causing the dark spot on the wall. Normally he wouldn't have bothered over such a trivial matter, but considering the situation and what they had heard over the radio he had to know for sure wether or not they were moments away from their deaths.

As he approached the light of the scythe illuminated what they had all feared. The entire corner of the concrete room had been burnt away in a perfect sphere around two metres across, with the concrete burned to the same black as the crater from when they had arrived.

"He's here." Billy spoke in a hollow voice as they each stared at the omen before them. It was clear that it was Max who had killed the general, and was now closing the distance between them at that very moment.

Turning from the hole in the wall he ran back to join Mandy and Grim, handing him back the scythe as they hurriedly ascended the metal grate, stepping cautiously through the vortex, leaving the future nightmare altogether.

During their brief period around the end of the tunnel and the machine they hadn't heard the sound of the elevator returning to the top from several kilometres away, and then begin its descent shortly after. As they stepped through the vortex the elevator opened up into the enormous hall far behind them.

* * *

The ball of lightning superheated the air as it formed just above the ground near Mandark's original time portal generator. As it dispersed it dumped its cargo unceremoniously on the ground a metre below. Groaning at the sudden painful dumping the three struggled back to their feet.

"Um, little help here?" Grim, or rather his top half called. Billy and Mandy turned to see Grim's head, arms, ribcage and most of his spine talking deadpanned from the floor, while his lower half, broken off just above the hip, continued to kick and thrash around in a mad attempt to run. His raven cloak lay crumpled in a heap nearby.

Mandy stepped up to the thrashing lower limbs, grabbing hold of them around the femurs. They continued to kick and thrash about as she moved back towards Grim with her awkward load, the skeletal limbs kicking Billy in the face several times as he tried to secure them from the feet. Securing the two spinal vertebrae back into place Grim's legs ceased kicking madly as he re-established control over the rogue limbs. He forced himself to his feet, willing his robe to form around him from its spot on the ground next to him.

"We gotta keep moving. Max knows where we're going. He could be right behind us fer all we know."

Turning to face the open doorway in the newer laboratory the three made their way at a jog out into the brightly lit hall. As the group moved for the other end they spied a form slumped on the ground in front of the computer desk, face down in a pool of blood. Mandy's eyes widened as she instantly recognised the figure.

"Mandark!" She and the others rushed over to his side, kneeling down to check on him. She paused, unsure of how to actually handle a person when they were mortally wounded. She extended her open hands in the thought that maybe she should check his pulse. Then again the pool of blood before her gave her the feeling she already knew it wouldn't be beating. When she touched her fingertips to his side she found he was cool. She backed off with the bleak realisation; he was well and truly dead.

Examining him they found a bloody exit hole coming out his back right over his heart. What's more there were rifle casings littered across the floor, and an abandoned assault rifle lying nearby. It gave her some satisfaction knowing Mandark had gone down swinging, but she grimaced a moment later. He was a key part of her long term plans. _'This is going to screw up everything.'_

"Forget about him Mandy. Dere's nothing we can do now." Grim said leaning in to the girl, beckoning her to continue in their retreat. Rising from her spot by his side she joined her companions as they ran from one end of the laboratory to the other, thankful it was only a fraction of the size of the one they had come from. Rushing past the various machines and instruments that cluttered the place, past the warehouse full of Mandy's small army, they quickly made their way to the elevator at the end.

It opened upon sensing movement, allowing them all to crowd in before its doors had the chance to fully open. Grim selected the up button, waiting anxiously for the doors to close and take them a few steps closer to disappearing once more from their enemy's sights. Taking their place on the opposite wall they breathed hard from so much running. Billy and Mandy realised just how much all their exercise had come in handy over the past few days, if not for all their training they might not have made it this far. Finally the doors began to close, earning a small flash of relief to ease their tension.

It was broken the moment it formed. As the doors closed they could see, down at the other end of the laboratory, the first streaks and flashes of an electrical surge forming a spherical shape on the ground, before the doors closed completely on them.

"Did you just see that?" She asked the two beside her. They nodded anxiously.

"Don't worry, we'll be gone by the time he gets to de top." Grim tried to reassure the two. Billy found better reassurance by reaching into his cloak and bringing out the plasma rifle into his arms, checking to see how many more rounds he had left before it ran out of gas. He frowned, it wasn't many. But feeling the launcher under the barrel he was somewhat relieved, remembering that he still had the single grenade left. Mandy resisted the urge to reach for her carbine, figuring the presence of a weapon in her hands would only increase her tension. This was about escaping, not confronting.

'_But he's so close now. What if we can't get away? He'll stop at nothing this time to not let us go again.'_

She continued to wonder if they really could escape as Grim had said for another few tense seconds, before the elevator door opened out into the bottom floor of the laboratory. It was dark, finding it cast in a deep blue veil of night. Stepping out they saw it was deserted and silent, just after eleven. Not wasting time they walked quickly past the empty work stations and modern architecture, eager to reach the car park and be gone. Pushing past the double doors from the workspace into the foyer they looked around, seeing the reception desk empty and the giant plasma screen a dull black, before they turned their attention to the glass windows lining the front.

Through them they could see their car sitting in the empty car park as they had left it. Making their way over to the glass doors they saw the locking mechanism had apparently been broken by the force of Max's entry not long ago. Pushing the gleaming blue steel door handles they found it opened easily as if nothing had been broken in the first place.

Rushing out the doors they ran across the small empty patch of road as they returned to their car. Grim reached into the pocket of his robe, followed by another, and more as they stopped by the left hand driver's door.

"Mandy, did I give you de keys?" Grim asked in a desperate voice. A flash of panic raced through each of them.

"They're in my bag, I gave that to you!" She replied exasperated.

Billy groaned and bought his hand to his head worriedly as Grim reached in and withdrew her backpack and tossed it to her. Mandy stuck her hand in, rummaging around the bottom frantically for something metallic while Billy looked about anxious to get going. After a moment she found just what she was looking for off to one corner.

"Here!" She thrust them to Grim, taking them and unlocking the vehicle with a loud…

"_Blip!"_

* * *

Max emerged from the elevator as stoic as ever from the outside, his face drawn into a low flat scowl. Inside however he was becoming increasingly apprehensive at finally catching his quarry, though he bought it back down to detached control. No sentiments would get in the way of him doing what he had come all this way to do. He scanned his surroundings for potential signs of his targets, his eyes cutting through the blue night shadow with methodical ease, listening for sounds of movement. Finding nothing in the darkness of the workstations around him he craned his head up to the gap in the upper floors. Lowering himself to his knees he launched himself upwards, past the second floor, touching down gracefully on the upper level overlooking the surrounding area. From here he had a better chance of spotting his prey if they were nearby.

Walking calmly and objectively through the deserted room, taking no interest in his technologically advanced surroundings, he continued to scan methodically from his left to his right, moving through the empty building with the refined gate of a dancer, yet as precise and focussed as a machine.

"_Blip!"_

Stopping suddenly in mid step he analysed the sound. _'A car being unlocked. They are here.'_

Turning towards the window at the front he made his way to the glass pane with no change in his movement or flat gaze. Approaching the window he could finally see his targets below him, Grim starting the engine of an old Honda Prelude from the open door while Billy clambered over to the back seat hurriedly, allowing Grim to take the driver's seat a moment later.

Stopping just before the window he continued to stare coldly down at the remaining member of the group, and his final target.

'_Mandy.'_

* * *

Mandy hurried around the back of the car to the right side door as Grim shut his and prepared to make their getaway. She had been immensely relieved to have made it in time, and they had each tripped over each other in trying to get in the car and go. But they weren't out of it yet. At that moment she figured their best course of action was to head south to Mexico, or even further, and disappear into the mass of people. They couldn't go north to Canada, or overseas to the United Kingdom because both were places they could be traced easily, and Australia was still being invaded so far as they knew. Her brief idea of what was to come was for them to hide out until they were maybe fifteen, and strong enough to hopefully face and defeat him and return to life in Endsville, if they still had a life to return to. It was hard to believe just how far everything had gone downhill during the past two months.

As she arrived at her door she opened it outwards, bringing her to face the building they had just come from. She stopped when her eyes caught on one particular shape that stood out behind the window of the top floor.

Mandy froze as she and Max locked their dark eyes on each other for the first time in so long. Mandy looked up wide eyed in fear at the person who had long ago befriended her with the sole intention of one day killing her, the one who had killed her parents and scores of other people. The one who had been hunting them relentlessly for the past two months.

Max gazed down on his prey with a coldness that made Mandy's insides writhe. He displayed no emotion as she continued to stare up at him, like a lamb before a wolf. He knew she had the scythe, the weapon that when combined with his own abilities would give him all the power he ever needed. He was so close now that he could almost feel a flicker of anticipation, if he wasn't devoid of such sentiments. Then again, four years of constant grinding failure had an effect on even the most detached person.

Mandy almost shuddered under his deathly calm stare, and as he continued to gaze down on her with that scowl she realised two things, just how much of her was really in him, and just how little they really resembled each other. He was everything she had ever aspired to be like, dark, cold, focussed and perfectly logical, but lacking any of the good in her, or the sense of justice that spurred her on. He was soulless and unfeeling, _inhuman._

Breaking away she jumped into the car and she closed the door.

"GO!" She cried to Grim, who wasted no time in reversing out of their parking space.

* * *

Max watch in silence as the car reversed out, before spinning its front wheels as it tore out into the driveway. He followed them with his gaze as it shot out onto the highway, watching calmly as it turned left and sped off away from him.

Turning back to the car park below, and the glass pane before him, he ceased his calm stillness as he lunged forward. The window burst into a hail of broken shards as he exploded through it, the shards descending in a hail to the ground with him. He landed crouched on his feet and one hand, crushing the road surface beneath him, forming a crater of broken tarmac beneath his hand from the energy burst accompanying his landing, as if he were unconsciously attacking the ground rather than just landing on it.

Rising to his upright position once more he turned to his left. He calmly strode over to where he had hidden his dark blue Camaro around the side of the building. Opening the driver's door he reached across to the passenger side seat where his black backpack sat next to his carbine. Grabbing it he upturned his pack with his weapons on the passenger seat, dumping them and the magazines there, before he tossed the now useless bag out the door. Sitting down in the driver's seat he closed the door, turning the key to start the powerful engine.

It roared to life with a barely restrained burble. Selecting first gear he disengaged the handbrake, moving slowly out into the car park, passed the broken glass, the crater and the broken door to the lab. Turning into the driveway he drove calmly out onto the largely deserted highway, crossing over the first few lanes to reach the other side heading off to the left. Reaching the road his prey was on he depressed the throttle flat to the floor more aggressively than necessary. The engine screamed and the tyres spun and smoked as he tore off down the road towards his prey.


	33. The Monster Awakens

**Congratulations to our newly elected Queensland Premier Campbell Newman. May he and his associates clean up the huge mess left by our previous elected representatives on our behalf. Seriously if anyone has been paying attention to what's happening in this little backwater state you'll see that not only was the victory a landslide on top of a landslide, but some of the negative propaganda employed on both sides reached new levels of both seriousness and stupidity. In the end Anna Bligh's group changed their campaign message to not giving the New man too much of a victory so they could still form an opposition. It's ridiculous! Oh wait, no, it's _politics!_**

**I saw a carload of hoons (white trash in cars) doing a burnout in an old Commodore outside a polling station just after voting. Maybe it's time to start putting together a bug out bag.**

**So anyway on with the fic. The confrontation with Max continues to grow more and more intense as Grim, Billy and Mandy are forced to fight it out in the big car chase scene that's been building! What develops from there you'll have to see for yourself. Enjoy the madness as it deepens. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed!**

* * *

**The Monster Awakens.**

"That was Max!" Mandy called as she faced the back, watching out the rear window as the laboratory faded into the distance.

"What?" Billy spoke from the back seat turning in his seat to face her. "Are you sure?"

"I saw him! He was standing right there at the top floor window just watching us!" She recalled the terrible lethal way he stared down at her, as if she was of no significance to him whatsoever. A shiver ran through her insides as she thought back to the two other times she had seen him in his true colours, back years ago when he overpowered Sperg, and that night at the Doolin house where he had proposed they join forces to take over. That had been the beginning of his master plan, taking over by her side, then once she was of no more use kill her and usurp her throne. All along, throughout the four years they had been friends, she had never suspected a thing. If she hadn't turned him down to be with Billy a few more days, she wouldn't have found out the truth until it was too late.

"How could he have caught up so quick?" Grim asked from the driver's seat, concentrating most of his efforts on tearing around the long right hand turn, passing the few cars and trucks on the road like they were snails.

"You saw back in the elevator. He came through just after us." Billy answered as he lay in the back and kept his head down.

Returning her head to the front Mandy sank back into her seat, leaning her head back and taking several deep, calming breaths at such a narrow escape. Closing her eyes she forced herself to breathe easier, content that they were safe now that they were speeding on their way to somewhere remote where they could hide for a few years. Grim let off the throttle as they cruised their way down the long black road lit by the orange glow of the street lights.

While Grim and Mandy kept their eyes on the long road stretching out before them Billy raised his head from the back seat to look out to the road behind them. Mandark's laboratory had long since disappeared far behind them around the long sweeping right hand bend of the highway. In the distance he could see the lights of the cluster of cars and trucks they had passed in a hurry a minute ago.

His interest became picked up by the sight of another pair of headlights approaching the group from behind. He watched the mysterious headlights flash past them all in an instant, charging around the long bend in the road like a hunting wolf, coming up behind them in the distance.

"Grim, Mandy, we have a problem." The emotional strain of worry was clear in his voice.

Grim looked in the mirror while Mandy swung her head around again. There they could see the car approaching them from behind through the rear glass, currently closing from about two hundred metres. They all knew who it was behind the wheel, preparing to attack. They could imagine his withering stare at that moment, burning a hole in the back of their heads. Billy and Mandy looked to each other worriedly. Just when they thought they'd finally made it to safety their predator was closing in on them faster than ever.

Mandy was quick to act, reaching around beside the seat for the lever to recline it back. Lowering the seat back flat she climbed over the low head rest over to the back seat. She lay out flat across the seat alongside Billy. No matter how much of a strong, stern young woman she was, right now she needed him with her. Billy shared her sentiments, both making sure to press up close to each other.

"Grim, gimme the rifle." She spoke. Grim reached in and retrieved it, handing it back to her. Taking it and laying it out beside her she reached forward again as he handed her the remaining spare magazine.

"Dis is de last one. Make em count." He spoke back. She looked to her partner lying with her.

"Billy, take my seat." She told him as she took hold of her carbine. Billy gazed back at her, watching as she grappled with what she needed to do while still facing the fear they both held. She was always the most courageous of them all, and even now everything he had become he attributed to her, learning from her example. He always loved her courage. Reaching down he took his plasma rifle from the foot well where he had dumped it and clambered over to the front seat as Grim hit the throttle again, causing the engine to rev hard and the car to accelerate down the road, their enemy still closing in the distance.

Behind them Max kept his eyes fixed in a dark stare on the car in the distance as he powered on towards it with his hands clutching the wheel, closing more and more space with every second. After scouring the country for so long his targets were almost within firing range.

Mandy bought her M4 up, selecting the auto setting as Max reached over to the passenger seat to seize his, smashing out the glass window beside him with his elbow and transferring it into his left hand. He stuck the rifle out through the broken window, taking aim as best he could out the window in his one-handed grip.

Mandy readied her weapon as she took her position in the back of the car. Peering up over the back seat out the rear window she could make out the two headlights slowly closing in. She could hear the roar of the highly tuned V8 engine in the distance, before it was overtaken by the sound of gunfire.

She stuck her head down again against the first long blast of fire from out the side window. The rear glass burst in several places as the rifle bullets blasted through, piercing the front windscreen as they exited the cabin. They punched through the thin metal of the trunk, barely stopped from penetrating the rear seat by the firewall.

Max kept firing on the distant target as Grim swerved around, making him struggle to aim properly from his position. Several rounds hit the target, but most missed. Though Max was ambidextrous and could call on the strength of an elephant at will he still could not properly control such a powerful weapon while sticking it outside the window.

Emptying his magazine he withdrew the rifle, leaning it against the steering wheel as he withdrew the empty magazine, tossing it out the car window.

Finding a break in the fire Mandy rose from her position, stabbing the muzzle of the weapon through the lacerated rear glass, causing it to burst into shards completely. Taking aim through her compact weapon at their pursuer through the red dot sight she pulled the trigger, firing off a burst of armour piercing fire at their enemy. The bullets struck home in the front and through the glass windshield, blasting small holes in the bodywork, though scoring no major hits. Though after all their training handling the carbine had almost become second nature to her, the range between them still made aiming difficult on a moving target, especially from a moving platform. She kept firing away one small burst after another as Max reached across to seize a new magazine, loading it into his weapon, chambering the first round as Mandy ducked down again.

Readying herself for the next few rounds she lay out flat on the seats, Billy and Grim slumping themselves down in their seats to avoid the next attack. Grim turned the wheel violently, throwing the low slung car left and right across the empty road as Max blasted away another long string of automatic fire, stabbing at the car further with the last few rounds that struck home as he struggled to take aim out the window.

"Mandy keep that ting off us! Dis car can't take much more of dis!"

"I'm trying okay! We gotta find some way to run him off the road before he does!" Mandy called from the back seat as more of the remaining rear glass was blasted in, while her bullets appeared to be doing little real damage. She worried about Billy, seeing as where she was in a safer position ducked down, and Grim's skeletal form was almost impossible to cause real damage, Billy though was sitting higher up, and any one of the bullets that shot through the cabin could strike and kill him. He seemed to know it as well as he kept his head low under the stream of fire being blasted at them from behind.

After firing the last round from his rifle Max looked across to the seat next to him, and as he thought found there were no more magazines for his venerable M4 carbine, which he had gotten years ago from a military base near Endsville. Still to him it was no more than a tool, and now that it was of no further use to him, he dropped it out the side of the window, letting it clatter against the road, disappearing into the distance behind him.

Taking a new strategy he floored the accelerator, causing the sleek dark machine to spin its wheels and blast forward, intent on ramming the car ahead. Mandy stuck her head up again at the sound of the roar of the engine, seeing the car getting closer very quickly. She could now see that the car chasing them was a Camaro, and she could make out the dark figure behind the wheel as he bore down on them with his cold and objective wrath. Raising her weapon again she took aim through the optic sight at the driver. Max saw her taking aim, ducking down into the other seat just as a blast of armour piercing rounds shredded part of the windscreen, blasting several holes in his seat where his head was but a moment ago. He let off the throttle and applied the brakes as Mandy kept trying to blow away the driver, their Prelude gaining distance with the seconds as he dropped back again to a somewhat safer distance.

Mandy exhausted her weapons second last magazine, ducking down again as she withdrew it, tossing it and the weapon aside as she summoned her scythe in a bid to end it quickly.

Max kept following from fifty metres back as he reached across for his MP5K. Checking to see that the first bullet was chambered and ready to fire he punched his hand through the ruined front windshield, tearing a hole over the steering wheel. Taking the submachine gun in his right hand he stuck it out through the new gap in the windscreen, taking aim more easily now at the car ahead.

Rising up to take aim Mandy began to push a charge into the dangerous bladed weapon. Before she could use it though, Max fired away several rapid fire bursts of pistol rounds. The three ducked low again against the blasts that now riddled the rear of the car, blowing out the left hand tail lights followed by the right. The larger nine millimetre pistol rounds punched into the fuel tank, starting a rapid leak that began to drain the vehicle of its power source. Grim noticed the fuel gauge beginning to drop as they swerved left and right, Max matching them move for move as he emptied the first magazine.

Seeing she wouldn't get the chance to use the scythe while he was on their tail she dismissed it, taking hold of her M4, reaching across her seat for the last magazine. Loading it she selected semi-auto, knowing that she was down to her final thirty armour piercing rounds she had to make every shot count now.

As Max took the time to reload Mandy popped up again, taking aim in single shot mode at their enemy. Max saw this and turned violently to the right, throwing off her aim for a moment. Taking aim again she lined up the front grille of the Camaro in the red dot sight, firing away several high power rounds at the front of the vehicle. They each punched through the radiator, shattering the fan mechanism behind it and digging into the engine block before she took cover again, leaving twenty five rounds left.

Max saw the billowing clouds of steam flowing out from the bonnet and under the vehicle, trailing a cloud of white vapour and hot coolant behind as he continued to chase his quarry. Paying the clouds no mind he lined his targets up again, blasting away several more bursts into the ruined rear quarters of the vehicle as it sped down the road, approaching a wide concrete bridge over a river in the distance.

Emptying it he reached across to load his last magazine for the submachine gun. He hadn't expected them to have been so difficult to stop. They had fought back with a skill that had matched his every attack move for move. Now he had to take more desperate measures, seeing as he was now running low on long range weapons. But Max was, as had been proven time and time again, completely single-minded in his focus, they were not going to escape him again, not this time. _'I will ram them and shoot at the same time. That way I will have a better chance of striking them.'_

Flooring the accelerator again he charged up towards the vehicle in the distance, closing the distance rapidly as Grim struggled with the dying machine, trying to get anything more out of it.

"Grim he's gonna ram us!" She called from her position as she watched it coming closer, knowing that she probably couldn't stop it now. Ducking another long burst of fire she took aim again at the front of the vehicle, blasting away at the radiator again, causing even more steam to surge out of the shattered cooling core, blocking off Max's vision.

Grim swerved to the side as the badly damaged sports car came up beside them to the right. Max now struggled to continue driving straight through the billowing clouds blocking his view as he lost sight of his targets. Seizing the opportunity Billy lowered the window and bought his plasma rifle to bear on the car beside him. Taking aim he fired a blast at the front quarter, blowing the front left tyre to flaming pieces.

Grim saw his opportunity to go on the attack as Max fought for control over his now crippled vehicle as it shook and shuddered across the road surface. As Max continued to accelerate unsteadily down the road Grim let them drop back behind him. The blown tyre caused the Camaro to veer off to the left, as the steam and clouds of hot water and chemicals began to cease as the radiator ran out of water after several minutes of bleeding out, and the engine began to overheat. Max knew he had to finish this within the next minute before the engine of his car melted and seized. If he lost them again now, he would more than likely never find them again. As the clouds of vapour cleared away, followed by the growing smell of searing hot metal, he began to see his targets taking position behind and to the right of him.

Max turned his head around to see the Prelude coming up on the vulnerable right rear quarter of his crippled vehicle. He saw Grim pulling away ready to ram him from the side as he struggled to keep on the straight and narrow.

The two dying cars crossed over onto the concrete bridge spanning the river as they both jockeyed for a better position with which to attack and defend. Max tried to gun the powerful engine again so as to pull out ahead, only to hear the sound of screeching metal and machinery beginning to break down within the engine bay. A plume of black smoke started to pour from the exhaust followed by shards of red hot molten metal as the piston rings began to melt and come apart inside the cylinders.

Grim urged the car on as the fuel tank ran down to its last reserves from the many perforations it had sustained. He looked across to the railing on their right, blocking the road from the river and began to think. _'It's not too high, but it'll take more den momentum alone to propel dis guy up and over into de lake.'_

He remembered Billy's futuristic weapon still had the single high power grenade for the exact circumstances they found themselves in. "Billy, get ready to use the grenade launcher. Shoot directly under de car when it's about to hit the guard rail, okay?"

Billy looked down to the bare metal weapon held between his hands, seeing the selector switch on the side. He nodded, activating the high power function, causing the display screen at the back to turn a bright green and a small radioactive symbol to appear. _'That's fitting.'_ He thought as he prepared to take aim, aware that he would only get one shot at this, to destroy the car and Max at the same time. It would not do to simply shoot the car, they had to get Max immobilised in the water to destroy him. He also knew after this there would be little remaining gas available to the weapon, meaning that this had better work.

Grim continued to follow at a distance, watching the car slowly melt itself from the inside out as sparks and flames began to cough from the rear of Max's Camaro, until he was content that they had reached the midway point in the bridge, far from the banks of the river below. _'Now or never.'_

"Hang on!" Grim yelled as he took one last sweeping turn away from Max, before he bought the wheel around to close the gap between them. Max saw what was happening, and whipping his arm across tried to take aim with his weapon. But he was too late to save himself, the Prelude slammed into the rear quarter of the Camaro. The rear swung out under the impact, pushing the front out to the right towards the barrier. Max realised what was happening, and tried desperately to turn out of the slide he found himself in as he careened out across the front of his targets' vehicle. Yet despite his best efforts to regain control he simply could not stop the blown front tyre from digging into the bridge beneath him. As it bit into the concrete surface it tore the car sideways, sliding across the road as he raced towards the barrier before him.

At this moment Billy saw the perfect opportunity as the side of Max's car lifted up as the front rim caught on the ground. Positioning the sights just underneath the vehicle he fired the powerful shell from his rifle, knocking him back in his seat as it hurled across the distance, striking the ground and detonating directly under the front of the Camaro.

The effects were instantaneous and catastrophic. Max barely had time to think before a bright neon flash and a massive explosion blasted the front of his car up into the air. As the front half soared while the rear remained grounded, he ploughed directly into the guard rail at one hundred kilometres per hour. When he struck it under the car around the middle, the rear was instantly levered up off the road surface, and he and the ruined Camaro were catapulted over the guard rail and off the side of the bridge.

For the first time in his life Max terror, sheer blinding terror that blew away all logic and control, at what was about to happen imminently, as his stolen small block Camaro plummeted towards the water below. The effect of having been flipped over the guard rail was that his car now fell at an angle beyond ninety degrees, thus ensuring that the already broken windshield would take the full force of the impact on the water's surface. His face changed instantly from a blank slate into one of abject horror, his dark eyes open wide, his mouth agape to scream a scream that never came.

The impact with the water was so severe the glass instantly burst from the front of the cabin, ploughing inwards and crushing Max with all the force of the water behind it as the car crashed head first into the freezing cold river.

Grim braked hard, pulling the car to a halt as they watched Max careen over the side of the bridge, followed by what sounded more akin to a bomb going off than a splash. Billy and Grim hurriedly exited while Mandy climbed over from the back, bringing their weapons with them as they left their ruined vehicle. Running to the side of the bridge near where the guard rail was dented in and the road scorched by the bomb blast, they looked down to the blackness of the river below to see the tail end of the late eighties Camaro disappearing beneath the water in a mass of bubbles. Mandy readied her M4 one last time, selecting auto again as she aimed downwards, ready for the killer of her parents to surface.

Billy followed suit, readying his weapon to fire its last few bolts of energy down at whatever happened to surface. Mandy pushed his weapon aside with a heavy scowl.

"No. He's mine to kill." She glared him down and he relented respectfully. He lowered his weapon to his side, leaving Mandy alone to take aim at where Max's car had disappeared.

* * *

Max struggled to hold onto the air he still had in his lungs despite the many broken ribs he had received in the impact. He knew he had to get out before he ran out of air, but the sheet of crushed glass prevented him from moving. Dropping his MP5K he pushed as hard as he could forwards against the windshield, causing it to bulge out and tear through as he grasped the edges, heaving them apart as best he could in his badly injured state, cutting his hands in doing so.

He struggled to open his eyes to see underwater. He could just make out the hole he had torn himself through the front, with his last fully automatic weapon sinking rapidly through it, disappearing into the gloom at the bottom of the lake. Searching around for his one remaining weapon he found his Glock 17 lying alone against the warped windshield just to the side of the hole, close enough for him to reach, though he would only have the one magazine left in it, making it his last weapon.

Reaching forward he winced against the flood of pain that shot through his entire body. He could sense that not only were his ribs broken but at least one of the bones in his right leg was either fractured or broken altogether, as was the case with his left shoulder.

With his right leg and left arm more or less disabled, and his air supply starting to run out he struggled forward, seizing the weapon with his right hand, loading it into the side of his belt, before he prised himself painfully out of the broken car as it continued to descend into the murky depths. Struggling to overcome the current as it tried to push him back in he levered his way painfully up over the roof, eventually freeing himself from the broken hulk to hang suspended in the freezing water, leaving the car to sink down into the murky abyss below.

Straining his head upwards as he partially returned to his objective state he saw that he still had quite a way to swim before he could take another breath of air. A more alarming realisation occurred to him. _'They are probably waiting for me to surface before they shoot. I don't think I can hold them off in my state and try to swim for the shore as well.'_

As he looked up to the surface, where he knew death awaited him literally and figuratively, he began to realise that he was trapped. There was no way out that ensured his survival. He had to surface eventually, and in his critically wounded state he couldn't swim far enough to escape them with the little air he had left. Already he could feel his lungs burning painfully from the lack of oxygen and the broken ribs. As he stared up at where he knew he had to get to for air a profound change took place within him, as the stoic, calm and controlled Max gave way to terror and panic. _'I am going to die. I am going to die! No, I can't die, I'm better than this! I'm not supposed to die! I've come too far to die! NO!'_

Seeing no other way he swam as hard and fast as he could towards the surface, kicking with his left leg and pulling himself up through the water with his right arm, all the while the terror that gripped him, knowing what awaited at the top, grew greater and greater as it overwhelmed him. All sense of logic and reason, and most importantly self-control, became lost to him as he became mentally paralysed by panic, with only the animalistic objective to draw breath driving him on. It was this total loss of control that had led to him being created without emotions, and now that they were surging through him unimpeded he fell to their mercy, acting on whatever whim he wanted. And right now he wanted to breathe, no matter what was waiting for him.

As he continued to pull himself upwards he could feel the air in his lungs getting thinner and thinner, causing his vision to blur and his sense of feeling to fade away, except for the pain throughout his crippled body. Eventually he could make out the bridge and the night sky overhead through the rippling water as he approached the surface, and the air he so desperately needed. And the prey he stalked standing on the bridge above, now turned predator.

At last he made it to the surface, reaching up and pushing his hand out of the water ahead of him as he kicked the last few feet up with his remaining functional leg. Even before he managed to poke his head out above the water's surface he felt his prey strike, feeling his right hand almost explode as an armour piercing bullet shot through it, breaking two of the bones within, rendering it useless. His eyes went wide with the pain and shock as he burst out from under the water, taking the agonising breath he so desperately needed.

As he managed to steel a quick glance upwards he could make out the face of Mandy, staring down with cold, quiet loathing as she took aim once more down on the crippled abomination beneath her. Stricken with the terror of death once again he thrashed with his damaged limbs, trying to push himself to the shore. As he attempted to swim towards the bank not far away, at the other side of the river to where they had drove onto the bridge from, Mandy stared down through the sight as the strange creature thrashed in terror. She had never expected the ever stoic and cold Max to become so overwhelmed by terror, and for just a moment she enjoyed watching it, seeing him struggle in agony after all he had put her through. Mandy watched him with satisfaction as he suffered, like they had been made to suffer because of him, her in particular, Billy and Grim watching silently with her.

Before long though she tired of her one time friend's pitiful display, there was no more satisfaction to be had in knowing she had once held him up as an example of how to be. Scowling contemptuously she made to end it and pulled the trigger. Max felt the first bullet blow through his shoulder before he struggled to raise a shield against the incoming barrage. Yet as he had predicted he couldn't even bring it up for a second in his condition, and soon felt dozens of armour piercing rounds riddling his back, shredding through his body. He opened his mouth as if to scream as his lungs became perforated and pulverised, followed by other organs, bones and muscles as Mandy kept firing continuously, watching through the sights as he seemed to freeze at the scores of fatal blows. At last the magazine ran out, the last bullet striking home again through Max's bloody ruined body. All his demonic strength had failed him now, leaving him floating face down in the water dying in amidst a cloud of his own blood.

As he lay sprawled and still very much conscious the lapping waves gently washed his body over onto his back. From his place lying in the river below he gazed up blankly, his mind and thoughts fading away as he died, and saw high above him, looking down on him coldly, the three people he had devoted so much time and effort into, all staring down at his corpse as it floated on the bloody black water. His last coherent thoughts were how Mandy, his creator, his mother, had ultimately become his target, his enemy, and finally his destroyer. She had shown him the way of control and order, but he had been the one to put it into practice while she gave in to weakness, so how was it possible that he was the one who was left dying while she watched on with contempt? After four years of constant struggle and failure here he lay now, dying in a cloud of his own blood, while she stared on coldly at his body, as if she were satisfied that he was dead. In fact she was, she was enjoying seeing him die.

Whereas before he had been a powerful bastion of darkness and destruction, now he was nothing but an insect in comparison to her. It wasn't right, she was the one who was supposed to die, not him. He was every bit as dark and cold and powerful as she had failed to be, but he was the one lying dead beneath them.

Max closed his eyes and finally succumbed to the darkness that was there to claim him. Though despite his losing consciousness, there was something strange forming inside him that burned with an all consuming power beyond anything he had ever imagined. His last thought was not so much an actual thought but a blur of a new feeling he had never felt before, of somehow being cheated and wronged, that he was the superior being, that he was supposed to be the victor, and with his last flicker of sensation he cursed Mandy with all his heart and soul. It overwhelmed him, driving away all semblance of logic and sanity, before his consciousness came to an end.

* * *

Mandy lowered her empty weapon, dropping it to the ground at her side now that her vanquished enemy lay beneath her. She, Billy and Grim all looked down at the shape of the dark boy as he floated face up in the red water, staring up blankly at them before his eyes closed as death took him.

Mandy reflected on his last moments, on how he had thrashed around in a desperate panic, struggling to continue living. Seeing him struggle, and then arch and spasm in pain as she shot him, he almost appeared to be a normal human being. Though she did not feel pity for him she had to admit it left a slight bitter aftertaste in her mouth having killed something so similar to a person and not a demon, especially one who was once so close to her. Still she knew that he had to die in order them to live. He deserved to die for killing her parents, Mandark, Irwin's family, and so many other innocent people.

But how did he deserve this fate any more than she? After all she would in time kill a great many innocent people in the name of her new order, and she would for the most part call it acceptable losses. Her parents were important to her, and loosing them had torn a part of her heart out, but how were they more important on a larger scale than any other honest people? She didn't even know what Max had been doing it for. Had all this just been for his personal benefit, or did he have his own ideals that he had been working towards? Could his ultimate goal have been the same as her own? She would likely never know.

So maybe this was about personal retribution to having taken two of the few people really close to her. Perhaps she had no right to feel angry or to seek revenge. Perhaps Max had been all too similar to her to be able to seek revenge. After all, she was doing this just as much for her own personal power and greatness as she was for the betterment of humanity. There were so many aspects of her life she knew were hypocritical, perhaps this was just another case of that same old inner conflict coming through. Maybe there was no clear answer. Either way the fact remained that the person responsible for ruining her old life and trying to kill her and her friends for so long, now lay floating face up in the water, dead from the multiple bullet wounds she had inflicted on him.

"So, is that it?" Billy asked from Mandy's side, watching the waves take the body slowly down the river, pushing him slowly across towards the bank nearby. He floated down the river towards a boatyard in the distance, the waves turning his body over onto his back. They could just make out the red holes the armour piercing rounds had blown through him as they continued to bleed out into the water, slower now that his heart had stopped.

"Let's not jump to conclusions just yet." Grim said as they watched their enemy float away. "Dere's still a chance he might not be as dead and gone as he appears to be."

Grim and Billy turned back to their ruined vehicle, leaving Mandy to stare at the body a few moments longer before she too returned. Grim eyed the damage taken to the rear, noting the fuel tank continuing to leak out the last few litres of the precious propellant, the purple liquid dripping and running onto the concrete. Even if the car could somehow run on the tiny bit left after the fuel level crossed the lowest bullet hole, he still thought it simply too unfit to be driven in its wrecked state. Mandy reached over into the driver's seat and turned the still purring engine off, leaving them with the wreck.

Grim and Mandy left the derelict Prelude to make their way to the bank of the river not far ahead on foot. Billy though chose to pay some last respects to the vehicle before he joined them, taking on a respectful stance in front of the car with his face down and his hands clasped low in front of him.

"Goodbye my metal and plastic, sporty, Japanese friend." He raised a hand and patted the car on its faded red bonnet above the pointed nose. "You served us all well these past two months. You taught Mandy and me how to drive, recklessly, you gave me something to make Grim clean, and most of all you saved our lives just now at the cost of your own. But now, you're history. I hope you and that other car in the lake are at peace in the great wrecking yard in the sky. Bye!" He chirped as he left the wreck, running off to join Grim and Mandy as they made their way to the end of the bridge and down to the riverbank below.

* * *

The three made their way down from the roadside across the moist grass beside the long wide river, coming down to the rocky bank not far down from where they had run the car off the road. As they approached the body of the boy no older than them they could each make out the individual holes in his back. He lay face down against the rocks with his arms spread up beside him, the water lapping at his legs.

Coming to a stop before the lifeless figure they could see the shot Mandy had fired first as his hand broke through the water. It had punched a hole right through the centre, destroying the bones within as it blew through.

His soaking wet body had turned a deathly white from the loss of blood, and the many gaping wounds over his body had ceased to bleed as there was little left to be bled out anymore from his time in the water. Now there was nothing more for the boy formerly known to the world as Max to do than lie face down on the riverbank, soaked through in cold water and blood.

Mandy and Billy remembered back to the day they met. Reminiscing on the days they had all spent together, their activities ranging from hanging out at their houses, to fighting for their survival against hordes of demons. It was at his side that they had each managed to put an end to the threat of Boogie, Jack and any other underworld inhabitant over the four years they had been together. Max had been a mentor for her, a textbook example of self-control and cold focus. She had, on many occasions, thought of him almost like a brother. He had become almost as close a friend as Billy had been before she started to want to be more than friends.

"Oh Max…" She muttered regretfully, seeing now that everything they had been through had been a lie. All along, right from the moment they had met, he had been waiting for the time to make his move. All along, throughout every moment of trial and hardship they had gone through together, he had viewed her as simply a tool to take power himself. And as soon as that plan failed he had without hesitation tried to kill her, along with her family and friends. He was the one who made them go through hell and back, the reason she had lost her mother and father, and had been tortured, and all for much the same power Mandy herself had worked towards her whole life.

And after it all here they all stood together again, one an orphan, and one dead. Grim, Billy and Mandy were still alive, and despite the loss and the setbacks they had all suffered they could now focus on rebuilding their lives after he had destroyed them, before concentrating on continuing their plans. He however would not be joining them. Together the three remaining members of the group looked down solemnly upon the fourth, each in their own quiet grief for what they had all been through together with him. Billy crossed his arms in front of him as he gazed down on his old friend with his features set in stone. They stood there together at last at the end of it all for a long time.

"Grim." Mandy spoke from besides the skeletal being, never taking her eyes off their so-called friend. "Take us home."

Grim turned to leave the shore, followed shortly by Billy taking a step back as Mandy took one last look at Max, closed her eyes and sighed, and turned around to join them still by his side. They gathered above the embankment amidst the dirty wet grass as Grim summoned his onyx scythe to his skeletal hands. Sighing, content that it was finally over he charged the reaping tool. Firing out a bolt of green energy before them it opened up into a glowing green portal through space, with the other end coming out at Endsville. They moved together to step through the ring, just wanting to get back home and start over.

They stopped, their eyes widening in concern when the perfect ring of energy flickered and began to distort.

"Grim what's wrong?" Billy asked as the portal wobbled, before it finally collapsed and the spectral energy dispersed before them.

"I don't know. Let me try again." Grim said, charging his scythe for another portal. The bolt of energy came from the tip again and began to flatten out into a disc, but whereas it had formed a portal in front of them before, now it just dispersed in a flash of light and heat without ever forming anything. Trying again he found the same effect of not being able to create any sort of ring through space.

"I don't get it." Grim muttered, bringing his scythe back to his side again, frustrated at the unexplained failure. "Someting must be disrupting me scythe."

It was while Grim and Billy continued to fuss over the scythe's inability to create a portal that the hairs on the back of Mandy's neck stood on end. She narrowed her eyes as she first sensed the change in the air, a mysterious feeling that there was something wrong. Though she couldn't put her finger on what, she knew it was there somewhere. She could somehow feel it, like it was part of her. As she thought about it the feeling rose from an underlying tingling sensation to one of a terrible, absolute cold. She found her breath drawing clouds of vapour in the night air as the temperature dropped to freezing.

She looked over to Billy and Grim, noticing their faces were formed into a visage of trouble as they looked back to her, acknowledging that they felt it too. Somehow she got the feeling they didn't feel it quite as personally as her. It was a strange sense of foreboding close to her, as if her body was warning her of some danger coming from her own flesh and…

She slowly turned back to look uncertainly on the body slumped by the side of the river. There she could sense what could only be described as a monstrous, black presence, suffocating the world around the body in its choking, hideous character. They could see the water around the body slowly freezing over into a flat half disk of ice, stretching out into the lake beyond, while the grass and rock around the banks froze over with a film of razor sharp frost.

The three began to inch their way cautiously towards Max's clearly deceased, lifeless body, each with the feeling that all might not be as it seems or logically should be. Stepping onto the gravel strewn river bank they felt the ice holding the rocks together crack and break apart under their feet, freezing again as they passed moments later.

Now that they stood before Max's body again, feeling more and more anxious by the second, they could see the water that had soaked his skin, dark hair and clothes not freezing, but evaporating in a heavy current of white vapour rising off his limp body. The cold aura around him, lacking both remorse or empathy and any form of joy or anger, felt very different now. Though it was still as cold and heartless as he was before, the sense of stoic calm and detached control was different, like there was some evil malice rising within that wasn't there previously, like a brutal billowing inferno under the bitter cold of the future wasteland.

The pail white skin began to retake its colour slowly, most of his visible surface retaking his original soft pigment, identical to Mandy's as the blood he had lost when he died began to become replenished from within. Yet there was something more unsettling about the state of his body and skin than the return of his natural pigment.

The group watched in worry upon the wound going through his ruined right hand. Right before their eyes the bones healed back together, and the ruined flesh began to replace itself in and around the wound. The only difference between the new skin and flesh from the original was the new was a sickly blue-black, spreading its way across the gap of the bullet hole, continuing on across the surface of the hand, over each side of the palm, down part of each finger, stopping its cancerous advance just past the wrist.

The three watched in growing horror as each of the wounds in his body began to close in a similar fashion, the black flesh spreading in large jagged blotches and seams under the dark shirt and slacks. Moments after Max's injuries had healed over in the ugly cancer-like mutations, his chest began to rise and fall as his slow, deep breathing became restored. The tainted, hateful presence ebbed and heaved with each breath, drawing out yet more of the perverse energy from within his reformed, deformed being.

Mandy backed away in abject dread at what was happening. The nightmare they thought they had escaped was beginning once more, only now it was of a far more terrible nature, as the real Max long since kept dormant and suppressed began to break through from his human form. Grim and Billy joined her in backing away down the river bank as Max's fingers on his blackened right hand twitched and flexed, movement coming back to him as he began to rise from the dead. With the strict self-control he had adhered to now gone, his only safeguard removed, the demonic power within him began to rise and take over, corrupting his system from within as moment by moment the energy radiating from his being increased in ferocity.

"Billy, Mandy, dere's a boatyard just down the river." Grim spoke while they each backed away, watching as Max began to twitch and flex as consciousness gradually came back to him. "Dere we'll steal a boat and make our escape." As Max breathed in and out they could almost hear a faint guttural snarl with every breath as his strength returned and his aimless flexing of limbs ceased, his control restored.

Grim looked back to Billy and Mandy, still largely frozen in place at the sight before them. "Kids get going!" He urged with force, causing them to snap out of their stupor to turn and run for the group of piers and the adjacent shed as fast as they could, spurred on by the hot terror inside them.

Grim stayed back to guard the two as they ran, continuing to watch the now very much alive body of Max before him. From his position sprawled across the frozen gravel he slowly drew back his arms to plant his hands on the ground beside him. Having seen enough Grim turned and ran to join the kids, intent only on getting as far away as possible from the monstrosity on the frozen riverbank.

Max drew his legs up under his body, taking a footing against the frozen ground with his left foot. He slowly bought his right knee up to his chest in the same way, planting both feet firmly onto the frozen ground beneath him. From there he pushed his body up with his arms, righting himself onto his legs, keeping his face downcast, and his onyx eyes closed. Channelling his raging strength into his repaired legs, themselves partly covered in the deep blue blotches of demonic flesh, he began to rise from his position against the gravel, drawing strength from the new source of unrestrained power he had found within him. As he opened himself to the new evil energy his lean, sleek figure rose up to near its full height, the power surging stronger and stronger through his body with each second, gradually changing the human cells into something far removed from the genetic form he'd inherited from his mother as the corruption began to take control.

Raising his head up to full height, squaring his shoulders up and back he silently reflected on the four years of failure he'd spent here. Four very long years, four years of tireless effort, all gone to nothing, all because that one girl simply would not die. On top of that there were the eight years he'd served her in eliminating her enemies, being everything she ever wanted herself to be, all for nothing. All twelve years of his life, and all his efforts and relentless pursuit, all gone to waste, because of her. His hands clenched tightly into fists at his side, while his face remained set and stilled.

Grim, Billy and Mandy continued to run for their escape, hoping beyond hope that they could reach a fast boat and get out in time. Mandy looked around to where they had come from, seeing Max standing straight and level, his shoulders back and his eyes closed, with his curled fists lying at his side. She could feel the demonic power overflowing through him even from this distance. Turning back to the piers ahead she urged herself to run faster still with Billy, reaching across to grasp and hold each other's hands.

* * *

Max opened his eyes. The black orbs instantly focussed on his enemies in the distance, his features contorted in a merciless, vengeful scowl.

For the first time in his life he unlocked his heart and willingly felt a strong emotion, a feeling that absolutely overwhelmed him and carried him away in its madness. It drove him to abandon all reason and control as he stared with murderous intent at the back of the blonde girl in the distance.

Rage.

'_Mandy…'_

* * *

**Whadaya think? Did I waffle on too much about the whole rising from the dead, corrupted by his own pride thing? I'd like to learn to build more suspense into my work. Tell me what you think.**

**Not much more to go now. Soon we'll begin to see just what kind of soulless creature Max really is as the corruption spreads and his real nature starts to come through, and we'll see just how he stacks up against our trio, in particular the master of life and death himself.**


	34. Corruption

**Hello boys and girls, welcome back to the crazy house! Got another short and fast one here for you, as we close in on the imminent final confrontation. God it's been so long coming. It's really satisfying to look back on all those months past and see just how far we've come.**

**But enough reminiscing, right now we've got the second round of the climax, the face-off against Grim and Max, and to everyone who's reviewed, congratulations, you've got front row tickets! Thank you, I love you!**

**The fight may not be as long as I would have liked it to have been but I did the best with what I had. In this situation feedback and suggestions, new ideas that I can work with, are very much appreciated. Also Easter greetings from the giant mutant bunny demon that haunts the hallways of my mind. Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

**Corruption.**

Together the three continued to make their desperate dash for the boatyard a hundred metres ahead. The younger two sprinted on out front while the immortal figure taking care of them followed up to the rear. Though they were putting more and more distance from their enemy with each bounding step, they could still sense the feeling of vengeful malice radiating from far behind them, bringing on a primordial terror as they fled. Even as they sped through the moist air coming off the great lake, the temperature started to drop around them, causing their breaths to draw vapour clouds. As the air temperature dropped the water molecules in the air condensed into a thick blanket of fog around the river, obscuring everything in a bitterly cold, dense veil, while the moonlight above cast the world in a pail blue haze through the thick, unnatural fog.

The boatyard ahead of them consisted of a large concrete slab that sloped down into the water, with a large shed-like building sitting higher up away from the water's edge. Looking forward they could make out the shapes of the dozen individual water craft spread across two wooden piers jutting out from the concrete pad, both turning at right angles towards each other at the end. A gap separated the two so the assorted vehicles could make their way in and out, bridged by a small aluminium ramp. They could see that most of the boats present consisted of fishing vessels and yachts, though they could make out one of what looked like a speedboat on the far pier.

"That one! That's our ticket outta here!" Mandy called as they approached the concrete slab the boatyard and the large metal shed sat upon before it descended out into the river. The first pier was now only a few metres away, and their salvation lay not much further after.

Turning to look behind them past Grim she could make out the shape of a human figure walking towards them through the fog. Though his stance suggested the same calm and control he always held, pacing towards them with the same smooth, precise gait as per normal, she could feel how beneath that thin covering of control Max was motivated by his new found desire to take revenge, to cause pain and suffering for her and her companions, far removed from his usual detached method. She watched him as she ran, his sleek figure covered in shadow advancing through the freezing cold cloud under the eerie blue glow of the moonlight. She caught a glimpse of his eyes under the faint light surrounding them all. The momentary connection gave her a quick glimpse of the insanity growing within as it began to make its way to the surface through the dark blotches now very slowly spreading across and throughout him.

"Grim, gimme my gun." Billy spoke as he turned around to face Grim and Max beyond, still clutching the plasma rifle in his left hand, though reluctant to use what little shots he had remaining.

Reaching into his cloak Grim drew the old Tokarev and handed it over. Taking aim at the shadow as he stepped out from Grim's side he fired one round, bracing his small hands against the shock as he took aim again. Caught by surprise Max staggered back slightly as the high velocity pistol bullet slammed into his left arm above the elbow, earning a small spray of red cellular matter and blood. Recovering from the impact he focused his energy into a field across his front, protecting him while his arm healed over. Billy continued to fire as they retreated, managing to do little with the seven bullets that came after, seeing them each impact and disintegrate in a bright blue-green flash against a transparent dome.

He lowered his smaller weapon and continued to run, catching up to Mandy and Grim as they made their way towards the nearby wooden pier while releasing the spent magazine and taking a new one from Grim, loading it up into the receiver and digging it into his back pocket as they ran. Max remained still for a moment, watching coldly as the deformed bullet was pushed painfully out of his arm, the flesh in and around the wound turning black, healing within seconds leaving another blotch that began to slowly take over his left arm. Turning back to the escaping targets he renewed his steady forward movement. He could see the boat they were going for to made their escape, and knew he would not get to them before they got to it and left. However he had no intention of allowing them to reach the boat.

Running carefully across the concrete, slick from the thin frost due to Max's malign presence, they stepped onto the rotting wooden pier, running down its length as it jutted out into the river. Thankfully the water hadn't frozen over here yet so the speedboat not far away would still carry them to safety, if they could get to it in time.

"Grim, do you know how to hotwire one of those things?" Mandy called back.

"Me scythe can unlock stuff like dat easy. So can yours." He responded as they reached the end of the pier, rounding the left corner to continue along the wooden path towards the bridge ahead. All they had to do was cross over the gap bridged by the ramp, and make their way down towards the other end to where the little fibreglass outboard lay waiting.

As they neared the aluminium ramp they did not see Max charging a shimmering blue-white bolt of plasma in a glowing orb in his fingers. Once he had built it up into a white hot ball the size of his fist he whirled his arm around and cast it out in a perfect arc towards the distant target he had selected.

As the group continued to run for the bridge ahead they managed to make out what appeared to be a glowing blue missile barrelling in from the side, plunging into the water not far away. The bolt continued to streak through the water, rolling around and up until it was directly under the aluminium bridge, upon which it exploded. Billy, Mandy and Grim fell back onto the deck from the force as an enormous plume of water blasted out from underneath the wharf, blasting the ramp and several pieces of both piers skywards. The nearby boats on both sides suffered catastrophic hull damage, the force on the water, which being a liquid did not compress, crushing and bursting through their fibreglass hulls from underneath. The ones nearest to the underwater blast, a yacht and two fishing trawlers, had plumes of spray and debris explode out through them, their hulls proving an easy path of least resistance for the explosive bubble beneath. The yacht was blown to halves, while the trawlers were blown to hundredths.

The three managed to get back to their feet as the plume of spray and pieces of wood, metal and hull rained out of the sky. Before them they could clearly see through the fog the ends of the wharfs were both blown apart. A loud splash to their far right drew their attention, and they saw the ramp currently sinking into the river fifty metres away. Despairingly they looked out across the gulf between the two jetties separating them from the boat at the end on the other side. The only good news was when looking down they saw part of their pier which had been blown off had formed a small platform floating on the water's surface, closing the distance between the two ends slightly. The gap between each end and the platform floating nearby was roughly three metres, still a tall order, and it would no doubt shift under their weight.

Approaching the broken wreckage between the sinking boats they thought wether or not they could jump the distance using the chunk of wreckage as a staging area, or if they should instead double back and go around the long way. It would be close either way.

Turning back to their foe they saw Max catching up now that they were blocked off, still at the same slow, composed pace, now stepping onto the beginning of the pier behind them. He advanced down towards the end through the thick haze from the powerful explosion and the chilling air, causing small eddies and currents to form in his wake.

Edging back worriedly as they watched him approach they turned their attention back to the gap before them.

"I'll go first." Billy said resolutely as he stepped back a pew paces, readying himself for the jump. Taking off at a sprint he accelerated up towards the end of the jetty, stepping off it to land one foot onto the platform floating on the water, springing off it and through the air towards the other side. He managed to touch down just at the very edge of the wooden structure, coming to a halt a few feet later as he slowed himself.

Turning back he could see the sizeable gap between he and his friends, and their enemy behind them as he continued down towards the end of the wharf.

Mandy took her turn, lowering herself ready to launch down the increasingly slippery wooden surface, a film of ice forming as Max got closer with every second. Taking off she pushed forward hard with her legs, watching and planning her route as the broken edge came closer as she powered on towards it. Taking the same route as Billy she touched down on the platform as it floated on the still water, leaping off it as she pushed herself towards her destination. Gritting her teeth against the threat of failure she only just managed to touch down on the broken wooden surface, collapsing and rolling on her side to Billy's feet.

He came down and helped her up as Grim easily made the distance from where he stood, watching him take off and soar through the air like a great black eagle to touch down before them. It was one of the few times they both realised just how extraordinary their loyal servant and companion really was. Turning back they could see now as Max reached the end of the pier and rounded on them, his face at last becoming visible under the moonlight. He stared ahead at them with a lethal intensity, his face set low with rising anger and malice.

Max watched the three, seeing Billy and Mandy staring back worriedly while Grim stood a firm guardian. He could sense their fear, the terror that they were struggling to keep down and stop from becoming panic. Fear of death, of him. Their stress was intoxicating, it satisfied him, yet his hatred and his hunger for retribution grew still.

As Grim looked into the eyes of the youth walking calmly towards them, seeing the madness that was rapidly taking over his once perfectly detached, level mind, he came to a realisation. This confrontation had been coming for a long time for him. He had been starved and waiting for this for so long, and now he was going to get everything he believed he had coming to him, and he would make sure his charge did too. Billy and Mandy were the last bastions of reason and sanity in a humanity that had become terminally ill with the same disease spreading through their dark counterpart on the other side. If Max won, and their lives were extinguished from the universe, then there would be no hope for the future. Above all else they had to survive. With that in mind he calmed himself; he knew what it was he had to do.

"Billy, Mandy, you two go on ahead. Just put the point of the scythe in de keyhole and turn. Start de engine and go. I'll catch up to you later." He brandished his scythe ready to block any attack that came. The two kids looked nervously between each other.

"Grim, you can't fight him alone. Even I know he's too strong for you." Billy said as they looked up worriedly to their friend-slave.

Grim smiled sadly, already knowing what the likely outcome would be for him. "I know. In dat case I guess I won't be catching up. You two have your own job to do in dis world. Dis is mine." He explained with a strange sense of calm purpose, as they stared at him in silence. "Go now. I'll hold him off as long as I can to give you two a chance to escape."

Billy and Mandy continued to gaze up at him, torn between the threat closing in ahead of them, and the friend who they would likely lose were they to do as he said. For all they had put him through, all the years of drudging humiliation and degrading slave labour, he had stuck by them time and again throughout it all. He had been there beside them when their world collapsed under the attack two months ago, had stayed by their side through the heaven and hell that followed, and now he stood facing what was very likely his own demise, all for the two rotten little brats who had made his life a living hell for four years.

"Grim…" Mandy began, unable to find the words to describe what they both felt for his selfless sacrifice.

"Enough talk, move!" Grim barked back as the threatening entity closed in, coming to a halt at the end of the broken pier, staring coldly at the reaper now blocking his path, and the two targets behind him. The water around him froze over into a thick sheet of flat white ice, bridging the gap between the two wharfs.

Turning at last towards their escape the kids finally left the reaper's side and ran to reach the boat.

"Thank you Grim." Mandy said quietly as they left.

But Max wasn't willing to let them escape so easily now that he almost had them. Reaching the end of the far jetty the two jumped into the low slung outboard speedboat, Billy quickly throwing off the ropes holding it in place, Mandy taking her position at the helm summoning her scythe to try to start the engine. Max locked his eyes on the weapon in Mandy's hands, the weapon that would make him utterly unstoppable, a god above all others the moment he took it in his grasp. As they took their positions ready to leave he withdrew his Glock from his belt. Taking aim with his right hand he levelled it past the reaper at the rear of the boat. Before Grim could react he fired off a dozen precisely aimed shots, perforating the engine cover and red plastic fuel tanks as Mandy turned the blade to start the wounded engine. As it started the broken combustion chambers sputtered flame and sparks out onto the rear of the boat, lighting the fuel spilt by the bullet holes.

Rounding on the rapidly growing fire the three saw as it encroached upon the fuel tanks.

"Uh Billy, run." Mandy suggested as the flames bellowed and roared. Leaping from the burning vessel back onto the wharf they took off at a sprint back towards the land. They barely managed to put enough distance between themselves and the boat to not get seared too badly by the fireball that erupted from the rear of the boat a second later as the tanks melted, letting the flames take hold of the fuel within.

Grim watched in alarm as the huge column of fire billowed up into the cold night air. The flames and black smoke, and the wrecked fibreglass hull lying at the end of the marina, added a new layer of destruction and hell to their already dire situation. That boat had been their only way out of here. He was somewhat relieved though to see the two making their way hurriedly off the end of the long pier, running across the concrete towards the door of the large shed. He smiled as they cut the lock off the door and pushed through, disappearing within, content that for now at least they were safe, but he couldn't relax yet. He didn't know if it was the right decision, to hide and wait it out rather than run as far and as fast as they could on foot, but either way without a vehicle or being able to create a portal away from here Max would catch up quickly. The only thing standing between them was him. Suddenly the stakes of his own face-off against the dangerous youth had grown far greater.

Max returned his gun to his belt and watched impersonally as they vanished into their hiding place, knowing they wouldn't get far. He could have just as easily killed the two with his bullets, but chose rather to let them live. He had no intention of simply killing them quickly and impersonally. He wanted to confront them both head on later, because there were a few things he wished to take from them in addition to the scythe, namely more of their fear, and their pain, to make them suffer for dragging him through this endless debacle. But before he could take it he had to deal with one more obstacle who would not fall into line. Turning back to Grim he stared him down as the old reaper stood before him, wholeheartedly defiant of his ominous presence. No matter how dark and unforgiving his piercing stare was, no matter how superior a demon he was, he continued to hold his ground against the tsunami of hateful malice, scythe at the ready. This puzzled him.

The fact that he refused to back down wasn't really that strange, after all people were known to be willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause. What puzzled him was the cause he was willing to sacrifice his life for. He had known Billy and Mandy well now ever since he befriended them four years ago. He had seen first hand how Mandy had kept Grim on a short leash, never tolerating any form of insubordination, controlling him like a puppet. Billy had largely done the same except he tended to simply annoy him endlessly, like a fly or mosquito that no matter how hard he tried, he could never get to go away. Why would he want to give up his own life in the hope of protecting two people who had kept him under their thumbs for as long as he had known them? He could not suppress his curiosity, and for a moment his rising anger and hatred moved to the back.

"I don't understand." He spoke in a low tone.

Grim perked up his interest as Max began to speak to him. He had previously thought Max would view him as just a minor inconvenience, something completely impersonal, and would simply attack at the first opportunity to try and dispatch him and head on towards his primary target. Yet here he was starting a conversation. "What?"

"Why are you risking your life for them? Those two offer you nothing of any value, and have oppressed you ever since you came into their service." Max continued to stare questioningly at the reaper, his hard features giving way to one of objective wonder.

Grim noticed a subtle change in his voice. Outwardly he sounded more or less the same as he always had for the past four years they had known him, or at least thought they knew him. He spoke with the same smooth, refined, almost charming note, if low and dark. Yet Grim could faintly pick up on something else underneath, another much lower, deeper, more gravelly tone than normal. It wasn't just abnormal, it was unnatural, and not something a living organism should be able to have. It carried a malignant sense of utter destruction and waste within its wavelengths, largely covered up by the sound of a normal twelve year old human youth.

Max continued. "And now here you stand before me, holding your ground against a far superior enemy. You know I will kill you but you still hold your ground, all to save those two. Why?"

Grim thought quietly to himself. He reminisced back to the days when they had him working like a dog for them. Days of going on their silly little adventures to other dimensions, run-ins with the underworld, and all while doing their washing and occasionally being a footrest when they wanted to rub it in. Back in the early days he had what was essentially a love-loathe relationship with them. He would save their lives time and again, all the while trying to get rid of them at the same time.

Following those days they had still kept him on a leash, yet they had settled down somewhat. He supposed it was during the days they had been fighting against the last of their threats and cementing a reputation for themselves that they had grown close to each other. Mandy and Billy had begun to develop greater affection towards each other, though they had not said anything of it until recently, and he had more or less become uncle Grim, an almost parental figure to them, especially now that he had been taking care of them for the past two months. He looked upon Billy and Mandy as if they were his grandson and granddaughter, and he couldn't be more proud of how far they had come together.

A smile graced his skeletal features as he thought back on the two, and despite everything a soft hearty chuckle escaped his mouth.

"Heh heh heh heh… You know Max, it's amazing. You managed to act like a real close friend so convincingly and for so long, but in de end you never really knew anyting about any of dat do you?" He watched Max become more intrigued, relaxing his stance as he looked on questioningly. Grim nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"You're right. I'll admit dey treated me like garbage most of the time, and that dey made my life a living hell. For the longest time I hated them for what dey did to me! Me, the Grim Reaper!" His righteous indignation at the two little tyrants surged, and fell away just as quickly leaving him smiling light-heartedly again. "But if you really cared to know them, if you really were de friend you pretended to be, instead of just using dem like pawns in your little game, you'd know dat dere's so much more to them than two little brats. You'd see the truth, dey actually want to protect de innocent more than even they would admit to themselves! They're the last best hope humanity has left!" He spoke passionately. He still remembered long ago the three prophecies of the dying mystic he had met in the cave, how in her final hours she had foretold that he'd be ensnared by two children, and that they would make his life miserable, but in years to come they would decide the future of all life. Since their trials and the personal upheavals they had experienced of the past few hours he knew not only that the old woman had been right, but that they would one day become the champions of justice and revenge the world so desperately needed.

"Being around them so long, I came to know dis, and I came to know them personally like de back of me hand, and I came to understand them, that there was a lot more to them than meets the eye. There's more to Billy than an idiot, and dere's more to Mandy than a vengeful tyrant. Dey have depth, empathy, feelings. Dey love each other. We trust each other de three of us, and we care for each other. It's more like we're a family dan friendship."

Grim cut away with a sad yet heartlessly cruel smirk, as he saw the abomination before him struggle to understand the concepts he spoke of. "But why am I wasting me time trying to explain this to a freak like you? You'll never understand Max, because you will never feel friendship, or love. And you know what, you should be afraid Max! You should be afraid because those two are gonna save the world from people like you! They're gonna cure the disease that you spread, that you have chosen to infect yourself with! Face it, you're doomed. You know if you weren't such a monster, I'd almost feel pity for a pitiful hopeless wretch like you."

Max seemed to freeze up from Grim's words. At once his eyes grew wide as he realised this weak, inferior being was mocking him, talking about pity for him, that he was doomed to fall to the people he was hunting, a being above and beyond all weakness. His outrage was all consuming, how dare he. How dare this lesser being insult him, when he had long since gone above and beyond anything his frail old enemy could ever be. He was the true angel of death, not this decrepit skeleton, and here the old fool was pitying _him?_ For Max it was an insult above all others.

Lowering his face he glowered hatefully at the reaper, all his wrath and fury burning into the other creature as he stood on guard. What had previously been a minor hindrance to be stamped out just became very personal. Through the frayed holes torn in his once pristine blue shirt Grim could see as the malignant black flesh began to slowly inch its way outwards again, the corruption in his right hand now beginning to work its way up the wrist.

"You just **killed your**self." For a mere moment his voice distorted, growing darker and gravelly as the strange undertone grew.

Grim only just had time to brace his scythe as Max shot across the gap towards him in a flash of dark blue. He struck with a powerful right handed blow that Grim barely blocked as he staggered back. Max did not relent for a moment, following with a chain of left and right handed punches and finger strikes each imbued with the force of his malign energy, causing his hands to glow with a silver and black halo.

He struggled to hold his ground under the blistering assault of the relentless rogue agent. He had to focus all his strength and concentration into holding back the blows raining down on him. Some he managed to stop, others he managed to divert, and a few managed to get through and make contact, if only lightly. Max continued his murderous assault, staring into Grim as he fought off each blow one at a time, making sure to not give any ground.

As Max continued his enraged barrage Grim saw that they were more or less coming all the same, all through the same routes for the same targets, one after the other, which meant he could prepare for them while he searched for a weakness. It wasn't hard to spot one, seeing as Max was so caught up in attacking that he had no defence. The moment he could put some distance between them he could strike back.

Grim leapt back suddenly towards the burning boat, surprising Max at the sudden movement from the previously stationary target. Before he could react Grim raised his left hand and formed a searing ball of fire the size of a basketball, casting it out at him as all the while he bought his scythe to bear, unleashing a torrent of green energy. Max watched as the flaming ball came at him and easily countered it, lashing out at it with an energized two fingered strike and blowing it apart in front of him, obscuring his view. When the flames cleared he was alarmed to see Grim's main attack coming at him from behind the first. The unnatural aurora surged towards his enemy unimpeded, blasting into Max's chest, arms, legs and head. He recoiled in shock and pain, struggling to stay standing as the energy surged through him, overloading his nervous system, burning him from inside and out.

He struggled to shield himself from the burning torrent of supernatural flame and electricity as Grim advanced on him, continuing his attack with the scythe as Max's body began to smoke. The pain and the energy burning through him accelerated the mutations taking over in corners of his body, the black blotches eating their way further through his arms, down his legs, and across much of his back and torso where the majority of the bullets fell. He could see tendrils of the fowl corrupting flesh beginning to curve up along the side of his neck as his anger rose and he continued to struggle to hold his ground and push back against the blistering attack.

Eventually he managed to regain control despite the searing torturous pain throughout his body. Connecting with the power within him once more he bought his arm up to raise another shield against Grim's attack.

'_Oh dis can't be good.'_ Seeing his attack being repelled Grim poured more power into the stream of ions, earning an enormous green blast from the tip of the weapon, crashing against the shield like a tidal wave. He knew that if he were to defeat him or even hold him off he would have to stop him from concentrating his energy again. He had to break down the shield now before he could recover and regain his focus. It was not enough for him to sacrifice himself, he had to stop him here. There was too much riding on this for him to fail now. If he was going to succeed in protecting his masters he had to get his opponent back off balance and keep him there.

Try as he might though the shield held, and as Max directed more power into it to hold off the violent force thrown at him it grew larger and more stable, forming a wall across his front that precluded any attempt to get around. Though Grim was pushing everything he had into the attack, Max could easily hold it back with only a quarter of his strength. Now that the elder reaper's advantage had been lost it became a straight battle of sheer might. There was no contest.

Grim continued to struggle valiantly, pouring everything he and his scythe had into an attack that would vanquish even the most powerful of demons. Yet what he was fighting was beyond even the concept of a demon. As he continued to pour out everything onto the reinforced barrier he felt himself weakening. The scythe was never meant for such extreme work, its powers were not first and foremost that of a weapon like those of his opponent, and it quickly took its toll on both the scythe and him.

Max only had to wait now as he felt the attacking torrent of occult power beginning to collapse. As the view slowly began to clear from the evil green blast he could make out the reaper sagging, like he was deflated, on the verge of falling under his own skeletal mass. Seeing now that he would be unable to fight back he made his move.

Focussing his combat honed reflexes he dropped the shield, pushing the energy used in holding it up into his left hand. Taking aim like his arm were a cannon he blasted the pulse of raw force down along the remaining stream of energetic particles being thrown by Grim. The blackened surge of the bolt streaking towards its target, accompanied by the ensuing detonation, blew apart most of the pier they were standing on, reducing everything forward of Max's aim to broken timber as the bolt struck home against Grim's ribcage, blowing through and destroying the already burning speedboat directly behind him. The instantaneous detonation caused an extremely powerful shockwave, blowing Grim back and away like a ragdoll, angled so as to crash down through the side and into the cabin of a family sport fisher to the left of where the speedboat had been. He landed roughly on his back against the other side of the fibreglass canopy. The remains of the shattered and burning pier rained down on the damaged boat.

"Ooohh…" Grim sagged in his spot pressed up against the corner of the cabin where the seat used to rise before he knocked it out on impact. He struggled to regain control over his body, feeling where the cracks were and what was broken. It was difficult to determine what was wrong and where exactly the damage was in the state he was in, the sheer waves of pain coming from every corner of his body indicating a better question to be what was still intact. He could make out that his ribs were mostly broken and destroyed, as were his arms and legs and various vertebrae in his spine. His cloak seemed to have been burned away across the front. At least his skull seemed to be intact.

Willing his body to heal he focussed on his spine, quickly forming the bones back together for a stable base to build upon. Moving on he started to fix his legs, arms and ribs, partially healing the various cracks and sealing each bone back where it was supposed to be.

As he willed his broken body to repair itself he did not sense the sound of the water around where the pier used to be freezing into a hard pathway. It stretched across the debris strewn water along where the pylons rose, coming up to the section of the pier left where the damaged fishing boat lay moored. The water froze ahead of Max's footfalls, allowing him an easy path as he stalked up to the boat where Grim lay sprawled within.

Grim was halfway through healing himself when he heard the sounds of feet planting on the deck nearby. Looking up he saw in alarm as Max stood looking down on him with open hate, as if he despised his continued existence with every ounce of his being for having denigrated him. He was going to take his time with this. To him he should have been no more than a cockroach, an insignificant little annoyance to distract him from his primary target, but for this broken old figure to mock him after how far he had come blew away any objective outlook he had about the reaper.

He struggled to rise, locating his scythe lying on the deck just a few feet from him. As he reached for it with a broken arm Max moved in and brutally stomped down on the crippled deity with his foot, crushing him back into the corner of the boat. The cold blue moonlight combined with the flickering fires of the burning debris served to cast the towering figure in an eerie shadow against the nightmare world he had created as he savagely bought his foot down again on Grim's skull, crushing it into the deck, cracking both fibreglass and bone.

Grim struggled vainly and stared up in horror as he lay against the broken deck, able to see his enemy only when Max lifted his boot from the side of his head. He looked up to see his face cloaked in a dark shadow, the flames from the burning debris reflecting off his heartless black eyes, as if the flames and mindless destruction were burning within his own soul. His thoughts were backed up when Max bought his foot down again on his skull with the force of a truck crash.

Stomping down brutally on his skull over a dozen times he continued to glower scornfully at the insolent reaper, revelling in the knowledge that the elder angel of death now lay beneath his feet, entirely at his mercy. Max didn't have mercy, or compassion, or remorse, or guilt, or worthless attachments of any kind, only the knowledge of his own supremacy. He was the ultimate manifestation of the power of darkness, and of the self, and had completely surpassed the weak sentimental old spectre in every way. Likewise the defeated Grim Reaper was now facing the very concept that eons ago had spawned his existence.

Out of his haze of mindless anger the memory of who his real targets were returned, and with his fading logic and sanity knew he had to move on, to finish the mission.

Tired of crushing his defenceless opponent under his foot Max bought his left shoe in under his ribcage, kicking him forcefully over to the stern. Grim crashed into the mounts for the outboard motor, where he again lay sprawled and broken between two large red plastic fuel tanks. Clenching his jaws in pain he willed his body to get up and away, but this time he could find no more strength left to bring about any response.

'_Is dis it? Is that all I could do? I poured every ounce of strength I had into dis, and I couldn't even hold him off fer five minutes.'_ He thought despairingly knowing the battle was over, and that his glorious last stand had been bulldozed over so easily. _'I'm sorry kids, I swear I did everyting I could.'_

As Grim painfully came to grips with his defeat Max turned his attention from the ruined skeleton off towards the weapon he had attempted to make a grab for not long ago. Reaching down he grasped the cold black shaft of the scythe, raising it up as he inspected it in his two hands. He felt the weapon's potential for power, noting that while it was indeed a tool of immense destructive capability, it was of no comparison to his own power, and that was when it was at its fullest. As it lay in his hands now depleted of energy it was of no more use than a sharp paperweight. Uninterested in the ancient artefact he dropped the useless tool to the deck once more.

Regarding the injured and barely conscious reaper one last time Max turned and made his way to the side of the boat, stepped over the side and onto the icy remains of the pier. Reaching over he grabbed the ropes holding the front and rear of the boat to the wharf, snapping them both with ease. Returning to the side of the boat he bought his foot up and pushed it out into the river, breaking through a thin film of ice binding it to the dock.

Watching the boat slowly float off out into the river he drew his Glock 17 for the last time. Grim struggled to rise once more as he took aim at the fuel tanks again, firing off the last five bullets into them, the slide locking to the rear at the end. Raising his free hand he flicked a slither of heat energy from his fingertips out across to the fuel spilt throughout the rear of the vessel. Grim's eyes widened as he felt the wave of searing heat and pressure erupt around him before the world became enveloped in a massive fireball. Max watched silently as the tanks exploded and the back of the boat blew apart, with Grim in the centre of it all.

He lowered the empty weapon as the boat burned violently. Seeing nothing moving from within the flames he took a moment to savour the brief satisfaction he felt, his anger temporarily sated, before turning his gaze down onto his dark long sleeved shirt, trousers and the scuffed and worn out black shoes. They were all showing varying degrees of damage, most notably the gaping bullet holes and blood stains. Focussing his occult energy on them he willed them all to burst into a mass of black flame. Once they were burned away the flames congealed around his body, dispersing to reveal a new set of clothes in the same pristine condition as they had been before the events of the last hour. This was nothing new; he had created all his clothes in this manner for years, including the ones he wore when he first made contact with Mandy.

Looking down again he turned his attention to the empty polymer framed weapon held in his hand, its slide locked to the rear, the only magazine he had for it now empty. He lowered it to his side again, dropping the useless weapon to the timber deck. The last of his weapons gone, and with one of his three adversaries now destroyed, he had now only to rely on his own abilities to hunt down and destroy the remaining two and take his prize. It hadn't stopped him before, and he wouldn't let it stop him now, not when he was so close. And to be able to kill them personally with his own two hands promised to be a satisfying end to twelve years of wasted time and effort.

Turning away from the wreck of the burning boat he looked out towards the large shed sitting up behind the concrete ramp. His last two targets were hiding somewhere within. This was the end of his long hunt, and the anticipation of finally killing them fed the growing storm of scorn and uncontrolled hatred building inside of him. For just an instant a pain struck his right eye and his dark iris flashed a very faint red before returning to its normal onyx, the black marks continuing to spread their way slowly over his body. With his features still set in a heavy scowl he calmly strode out along the pier back towards the land and the shed beyond, where Billy and Mandy lay hiding within, as little by little the corruption of his mind and body took over.


	35. Triumph of Darkness

**Hello readers. This is the end and climax of the main part of the story, and is where we find out who comes out of it alive and who doesn't. Like the title suggests it's the greater force of darkness that comes out on top, but who is the real master, and whose idea of darkness is true? Read on and you'll find out. Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

**Triumph of Darkness.**

The interior of the shed was huge, a good fifty to sixty metres wide, and further long. Little of that space was left empty through. At the fore end nearest the concrete ramp outside sat four large metal jacks and trusses, dry docks, holding up various boats to be worked on, from small trawlers to cruisers and yachts. The other two thirds of floor space beyond these half deconstructed vessels were hundreds of crates and boxes of parts, forming a complicated labyrinth several metres high. Above the workshop floor a high metal gantry supported a steel walkway lining the rectangular perimeter, all four sides coming together in a crossroads over the centre of the concrete floor. All this was lit under the pail blue glow of the moonlight coming in through the small windows, barely enough to allow the two people inside to see where they were going.

Billy and Mandy led each other hand in hand past the boats on the dry docks, past the metal stairs to the upper left walkway, towards the stacks of parts and equipment taking up the rear half. They had both listened to the sounds of the battle outside, now fallen silent. They didn't have much time left before he came for them.

"Billy, remember how you managed to hit him with the first shot?" Mandy asked him as they navigated through the dull labyrinth.

"Yeah what about it?"

"Remember how all the others hit the shield? You must have caught him by surprise with the first. He couldn't bring his guard up in time." She continued, seeing he was beginning to understand the plan before she said it.

"You mean if we can catch him by surprise…" He trailed off.

"If we just hit him while he's off guard, and hit him hard enough, we could stop him before he can do any damage. It's the only chance we have of killing him." She concluded as they searched for a suitable place to hide. Winding through the small maze of parts they selected a large stack ideal for a hiding spot. It was high and wide enough for both of them to lie flat on top, and walled in on the other three sides to hide them. It would also draw Max in close enough for them to attack from the flanks or behind as he searched for them.

"Mandy use your scythe, it'll stop him better than this." He indicated towards his plasma rifle showing twenty five shots left before it became a paperweight, switching it to single shot.

"No, we can't use the scythe close to him. Think, what would happen if he ever got his hands on it?"

She watched as Billy's eyes widened. If he ever managed to get his hands on it, there was no chance they would survive. He would tear them all to shreds for the satisfaction of it. In addition there was little chance that he would use the scythe's power and the authority it gave him with wise moral guidance now that he was slowly going mad. They could not let someone like him have such limitless power at his disposal.

"I understand." He replied.

Reaching up Mandy took hold of the top of the stack and pulled herself up with Billy following suit. Positioning themselves carefully, lying down perfectly flat against the wooden boxes so they couldn't be seen, they stilled themselves and waited.

"Mandy." Billy whispered quietly.

She looked across to him where he lay shoulder to shoulder with her, careful not to make a sound. She saw him unhook his weapon from his shoulder, handing it across to her.

"Take it." He said as he held the powerful weapon out for his partner to take, leaving him with just the old Tokarev pistol he had in his back pocket.

Facing him hesitantly Mandy took hold of the weighty weapon and held it across her waist, sensing the warmth of where Billy's hands had been as she looked down to it. He was leaving himself in a vulnerable position so as to give her a better chance. Turning back to him she watched heartfelt as he reached around and withdrew his TT, looking back into her with fear plain in his face, but ready to face it with her. Gently she leaned in and gave him a small, soft kiss on his cheek. Drawing back again she smiled softly as the boy's eyes widened and his face flushed red, before he himself smiled back at her lovingly.

Settling down together they listened to the sound of the shed door opening, and the first echoing footsteps within. They stilled their breathing, taking hold of each others hand as the air within the shed grew bitterly cold.

* * *

Max stood and scanned the dimly lit shed from his place by the door. Though he couldn't see much more than a few metres in any direction due to the enormous amounts of machinery and clutter and the general low light conditions, he could instantly sense the presence of his targets. Their life force was unmistakable after four wasted years spent in their midst, but he could feel the one he was most focussed on as if she was almost a part of him. He had been created from her genetics, so it was only logical he should be able to sense her so easily.

Closing the door behind him with a booming note that echoed throughout the metal structure he stepped forward into the mess of hiding places before him. First there stood several boats of various design and state of repair held in a number of metal frames. Walking calmly over to the first, a yacht with the cabin missing, he stepped up the ladder to the rear and peered in intently. Looking over the bare fibreglass interior, no trace of his targets present, he cast his stare across towards the boat next to him, a small trawler. Descending the ladder he walked over to check it. Looking in he saw it too had been stripped empty. The cruiser was in better shape and forced Max to step onto the deck. He checked every corner of the vessel, including under the flat deck and inside the bow, finding it equally deserted. Stepping out onto the flat bow he looked across to the next, another much larger motor cruiser missing the engine.

He jumped the few metres between the two, searching the last of the boats for any sign of them. He pushed his way through the various doors and cabins as he hunted for his target. Again he found nothing.

'_Further back, towards the boxes.'_

Making his way to the stern he stepped off and landing gently on the concrete below. Making his way around the side of the metal jack housing the small ship he narrowed his eyes at the stacks of parts ahead. His footfalls earned soft, sharp taps which echoed throughout the shed as he moved in for them. He relished the chance to slowly stalk his prey now that he was closing in on their position. He could feel, smell and taste them, even if he couldn't see or hear them. He knew they were there, and soon they would lie writhing at his feet as he cut them down with Mandy's own scythe, the weapon that was rightfully his. All he had to do now was find them.

He did not smile, though the black flesh continued to creep along his skin. The cancer-like mutation covering his right hand had extended up near his elbow as he continued to draw on and feed the anger and cruelty growing uncontrolled inside.

* * *

Grim struggled to pull himself up along the sloping deck as the flames continued to lick away at the fibreglass vessel. After the first few minutes immersed in the inferno the rear of the burning boat began to sink down into the water, its damaged hull burning away to eventually cave in to the water pressure. As it flooded in and doused him in its cold embrace he had regained his consciousness, awakening to a world of pain and delirious confusion. Pushing himself up from the water as the burning boat continued to sink he rested against the sloping deck as the waves lapped at his feet.

'_Dis must be what it was like for Mandy after her little episode in prison. How the hell did she make it through?'_ He thought, knowing her interrogation was probably a lot worse.

Blocking out the pain he again focussed the little strength he possessed into his charred bones. He groaned at the condition he found himself in. He had been burned all the way through, and the pressure growing inside from the fire had caused parts of him to break apart. He could feel a large crack going across his brown and charred skull where it had split from the force of the air pressure within.

He concentrated one by one on the many wounds, each taking more time than he had access to. Gradually as the seconds passed he could feel the water lapping further up his skeletal legs as the rearward listing grew worse.

Eventually the earthen colours in his shattered frame faded away leaving pure white calcium in its place as his bones reformed. He groaned and pushed himself upright to stand on his feet again.

Disoriented from the blast he stared around at the scene of destruction around him. He could see the charred remains of the boat he stood in aflame while the ruined rear quarter was now underwater. Arching his back he regained his focus, taking note that in his time unconscious he had drifted a good distance from the side of the pier where he had fought Max earlier. Looking across from there he could see the shed where Billy and Mandy were stuck with the monster.

He formed a new cloak to take shape around his being once more to replace the vaporised one. Turning down to the charred marine carpet he bent down to where his scythe lay after Max dropped it, half immersed in water. Taking hold of it he felt the surge of power it gave him having replenished partly over the time he had been unconscious.

"Hang on kids." He took off into the air towards the shed. There he hoped to make a surprise attack on their enemy before he could cause anymore hurt. It would take time to infiltrate the warehouse without being spotted, so he made his way through the air rapidly, leaving the boat to continue sinking in a pool of debris. "Just hold out a little longer."

* * *

Mandy tensed as the sound of the rhythmic footfalls steadily came closer. She and Billy kept so utterly still they could just picture the cramps forming by the seconds. Their breathing became stilled further as they tried to keep absolutely silent and undetectable to the killing machine closing in on them.

Despite their best efforts to maintain calm and stay in control the knowledge they were perhaps moments from death made their hearts race. They each tightened their grip on the others hand as Max drew closer.

His malevolent intent became more and more overwhelming the closer he got, as if it were driving them both mad with terror, making them want to just bolt for the door or attack now and get it over with. But they couldn't, they had to remain calm and under perfect control if they were to make it out alive. Just as Max had once said, right now was definitely not the time to surrender to their emotions. But unlike him they had each other for backup. They remained still, calming themselves and taking comfort and strength in each others close presence as they waited.

* * *

Max methodically checked over and through each and every isle of the labyrinth before him, sharpening his senses to detect any hint of his prey. As he stalked the gaps between the wooden walls he came to pick up on various very faint sounds and smells. He could sense what appeared to be heartbeats coming from nearby, but the subtle creaking and groaning of the shed under the influence of his cold presence made a positive lock on their location impossible. He could smell their breaths ever so faintly in the air, but that too was of little use to him, except to confirm they were close.

As he moved through the labyrinth the air around him grew cold, drawing any water vapour in the air to form clouds of mist. Standing silently he scanned methodically across the rows of parts, neither catching his attention, until he picked up on the thin clouds of fog rising from atop a high stack up ahead, the telltale sign of a person's breathing in cold weather.

His right eye twitched as he locked onto their position atop the row of wooden boxes on top of which they lay waiting for him. He had very nearly fallen into their trap. But now he knew, and could work this to his advantage. He decided he would make them come to him, surprising them instead. The trail of corrupt black filth continued to inch its way up his neck, nearing the left side of his face as he moved in.

* * *

Billy and Mandy both closed their eyes as they made out the sound of Max's footfalls coming in again, now approaching their position from just a few metres away. They both held their breath as they listened to his calm stride, knowing that in reality he was rapidly loosing his ability for any sort of control as the unrestrained dark spectral power began to manifest itself throughout his body and mind.

They knew full well he was now set into the killer instinct he had been created with, becoming the ultimate expression of the primal predator closing in on his prey. The feeling of being so close to the one that hunted them was one that made both youths break out in a cold sweat.

Controlling themselves they waited in absolute silence as just metres below Max approached, ready to attack anything that moved or made a sound. The time had almost come where they would have to either strike in an instant, or they themselves would be the ones to fall at his feet. Squeezing each others hand for comfort they remained silent, steady against the threat that he would suddenly attack without warning, as Max finally stepped right underneath their position not a metre above the level of his steely eyes. Should he momentarily look up now he would see them, and it would all be over.

Much to their relief Max slowly continued past without so much as glancing up at them, oblivious as he continued his methodical hunt of their surroundings. As he continued past, onto where they had planned to make their ambush, Mandy turned her head to look back to Billy, who was regarding her with the same questioning look.

He nodded that he was ready, preparing his small weapon.

She nodded in reply, readying her plasma rifle.

Turning back towards Max as he continued to search with his back to them they seized the moment, leaping out from their hiding place, taking aim as they approached the ground. Just before they fired they noticed Max stop dead in his tracks, shoulders back, with his fists clenched at his sides, almost as if he was…

"_BAAAMMM!"_

The combined blast of Mandy and Billy's weapons being fired together echoed throughout the chamber, their eyes widening in shock and despair as they saw the shots flash and disintegrate just before the back of Max's head as they impacted on the shield he had formed around his figure in a protective dome. Had they paid closer attention to him as he walked away they would have noticed the faint shimmering field he had set up around himself before he even approached their position. He had known all along they were there, and had stopped them before they even started.

They froze in anguish, seeing he had turned the tables on them so easily. The element of surprise lost, and their only chance at defeating him gone with it, they could do nothing more than stare in open dread at the vengeful dark figure standing before them with his back turned.

"Did you really think that I would let you take me by surprise again?" He spoke in a low, ominous tone as he bought his head around to look back at them with malice in his deep gaze. The two before him could pick up on the growing change in his previously smooth voice, the low undertone becoming gradually more pronounced, like one voice laid down over another, not quite covering it up. It unnerved them further as he turned around to stare at them. His gaze cut away at them like a scalpel, exposing their terror to him.

Recovering they opened fire again, the balls of metal and plasma blasting against the shield as he began to stalk towards them, approaching one step at a time. Billy took a moment to eject his spent magazine, reaching around for a new one as Mandy covered him with blast after blast of high energy gas.

Nothing she threw at him seemed to faze him in the slightest. Max just disregarded the flashes against the field and continued on towards the two, moving along steadily as he homed in on his targets. Mandy stepped back as he approached, Billy loading the new magazine, taking aim at the target only a few metres away.

Max bought his left hand up to swipe across the air, a wave of destructive energy blasting out, impacting his two targets. Mandy was knocked over and to the side while Billy was blown back against a wooden box behind him, falling to the floor dazed with the pistol lying just out of reach.

Moving in Max stepped up towards the young boy he had come to find extremely annoying, like an incredibly irritating itch that he could not quite scratch, until now. Billy looked up to see him approaching, with the old TT not far away. He reached out for it with his hand, but couldn't quite reach it before Max swept in and kicked it away. Leaning down he seized Billy roughly by the collar of his shirt, dragging him up to near eye level. Glowering down at the pathetic little scrap of flesh he whipped his arm around, tossing him with herculean strength down the isle. Mandy gaped as he slammed into another boxful of parts, splintering it as he impacted with a dull cry, before he slumped on the ground beneath the broken wooden surface.

"BILLY!" She had never felt such blinding terror over the state of another person before. She saw his body slump against the concrete, with a faint trail of blood welling from within his mouth.

Max moved in for the kill, his hands enveloped in a cloud of burning black magic as he stalked towards the unconscious figure. Mandy quickly raised her weapon to blast at him again. The white hot flash of the bolt exploding against the weakened field almost managed to penetrate deep enough to burn the back of his neck.

Releasing the energy from his hands he turned back around to scowl at Mandy, their eyes locking onto each other as at long last they faced each other alone. Mandy kept her weapon trained on him as he stared hatefully at her, burning with the desire to cause her pain for having caused him so many setbacks and trouble.

Mandy looked down to the display on the back of her weapon. It indicated she had only fifteen rounds left. Besides that she only had her 1911 in the back of her shorts, something she doubted would be of much use. Without being able to bring her scythe to bear on him she was facing an almost hopeless situation. Returning to Max she began to back away as he started his slow advance towards her.

She blasted at his face, the bolt bursting in a shower of sparks against the shield as he continued towards her. She began to retreat, back through the maze of boxes, making her way towards the front again, never taking her eye or aim off the vengeful rogue agent approaching. She continued to blast at him in an attempt to slow him, only to find he didn't even seem to notice as they burst over the large bubble he had projected around himself.

'_I've gotta surprise him somehow. I have to make him lower the shield. Maybe if I pretend this thing's out of gas he'll drop the shield, and I could get him when he's unguarded.'_ As she retreated she watched the count for the number of shots left dwindle to a mere ten more, all the while Max advancing steadily, keeping his cold stare fixed on her as he continued to follow her back at a slow pace.

Mandy made her way past the last of the crates, moving around towards the steel stairway she had passed earlier, leading up to the left side of the walkway suspended overhead. She turned away from Max to race up the steps, her boots making dull clanging noises as she rapidly bound he way up. Once she reached the top she stopped, turning around to watch as several metres below her Max rounded from the last of the boxes of equipment, staring up with a piercing stare from dark eyes once so much like her own.

She took aim at him as he slowly, steadily began to scale the stairs, keeping his eyes locked on her as his black shoes made sharp tapping notes on the metal grates. She kept count of how many shots she had left as she began to fire the last of the rounds down at the approaching form.

'_Nine… Eight… Seven…'_

Max didn't even flinch as the blasts burst across the field around his body and head. He simply continued up the stairs as if nothing was happening, never taking his hard angry eyes off hers.

'_Six… Five…'_

Mandy began to show desperation, backing away as Max passed the halfway point of the stairs, and she passed the halfway point of her remaining ammunition. Officially it was an act to lure him into thinking she was afraid, that maybe she couldn't stop him whilst she prepared to implement the plan. In truth underneath the act she was truly afraid like nothing else before as Max continued to advance up the steps unopposed as the bolts burst against the faint shimmering shield. She hoped it worked, because if not, no one was going to save her.

'_Four… Three…'_

Mandy stepped back away from the edge of the stairs as Max continued on up, sensing through her growing desperation that she was running out of gas for her rifle.

'_Two… One… Here goes…'_

She looked on as Max approached the top of the stairs. She lowered her weapon slightly as if almost admitting defeat. Seeing this Max decided now was the time to put an end to the pointless charade she and her companions had made him go through for the last four years. Sensing imminent victory he made the last few steps up the metal stairs, his eyes locked angrily on hers as he grimaced at her terrified expression.

Making the last step up to the top he stopped to stare at his foe as she gazed helplessly back, pretending to be overwhelmed by her imminent defeat and demise. Standing still, his target's weapon lowered in her hands, he finally saw fit to lower the shield.

"Mandy." He spoke up in a calm tone. "For as long as you and I have been together you have always spoken about the need to detach yourself from your own personal bonds. You said that emotions cloud logic and attachments chain us down to those around us, and that it is only through detaching from these weaknesses that we gain the strength and ability to control others. My entire life I have devoted myself to this principle, but you didn't even follow your own advice, and gave in to weak sentiments. You failed."

Mandy held off her attack momentarily despite having seen the eerie shimmer that had surrounded his body cease. Despite everything she had gone through because of him she had to know why, if only to stave off the fear that her last minute plan wouldn't work. She waited as Max stared coldly at her, his voice slightly softer though the strange gravely undertone could still be heard growing below. "I am willing to offer you a deal. If you surrender, I promise I will give you a quick death."

"… You'll what?"

"I promise you that if you surrender I will make your death quick and painless. I'll strike you over the heart like I did with your parents. It will be quick, it won't hurt, and it will be a dignified death." He stated calmly to her, letting her mill over the concept. "Just surrender, and it will be all over before you know it. You won't feel a thing."

Mandy thought it over for a moment. Though the concept of a simple, quick death really didn't appeal to her at all, or any kind of death for that matter, there was an unspoken threat she did pick up on. _'What will he do to me if I don't surrender, and I can't kill him? What if this doesn't work?'_ She thought it over for as long as Max gave her the chance.

"What do you mean, surrender?"

"You have something that I need." He spoke. Mandy understood perfectly. "Make your choice." He ordered her sternly, coldly, the same hard edge as natural to him in his voice and piercing stare.

Taking a few last moments to study his ruthless features and detached gaze, the cold gaze of the boy she once thought of as a friend, she instinctually found her answer. She would never give in, not after everything her friends had sacrificed, not when he would cause untold suffering to innocent people with it at his disposal. With a hard scowl Mandy seized her chance. With a flick of the wrist she bought the weapon in her arms up to aim at Max's face. Before he even had time to think, she pulled the trigger, blasting out the last round into his face.

"_BOOOOOOMMMMMMM!"_

Max recoiled as the bolt detonated against the left side of his face, flinging his head around to the side as he gaped in shock and pain away from the girl. Mandy looked on with a grim sense of success as he staggered back with his head kept turned away, his mouth hanging agape and his visible right eye open wide in horror at the mortal injury. She saw on the metal grate beneath his feet several streams and drops of blood beginning to patter down onto the grate from the hidden side of his face. All the while Max simply stared out away from her, the missing side of his head concealed behind the remaining half of his face contorted in abject dismay.

"Go back to hell Max." She spat as he continued to gape out at nothing, his body set rigid as stone.

Mandy relaxed seeing how she had landed a critical blow to their aggressor, but soon began to doubt as the same sense of foreboding began to rise again inside her, like all was not as it should be behind that turned face. She narrowed her eyes as Max began to recover, his face losing the look of having been struck by lightning as he lowered his head, still yet to face her again.

She couldn't help but pay attention to the trail of blood dripping from the side of his head. She noticed that drop by drop it was turning from the normal crimson to a darker red, before finally it turned to a foul almost black liquid that pulsated evil and corruption with every drop. Moments later the drops ceased coming.

Mandy knew what was taking place behind the side of his face she could see, now turned deathly pail with a heavy shadow under his right eye. She knew what the sound of the crackling of bone and flesh meant, having watched the wound on his hand heal over in the strange inhuman form. It had disturbed her the first time she had seen it, the cancer-like mutation extending across his body before her eyes. Then again, perhaps it wasn't so much a mutation as the real him beginning to break through.

Though she had expected it, nothing could have prepared her for when Max slowly turned his head back towards her. The left side of his face wasn't just covered in blue-black flesh, the muscles and bones had been grotesquely mutated into some form of hideous monstrosity shaped from all the world's worst nightmares. His cheek bone, eye ridge and jaw had been enlarged and drawn back, his mouth had grown wider, with heavy furrows and ridges running down the side of his forehead. Whereas his right eye was the same deep onyx orb as hers, his left was a horrid mix of a bloodshot blue-black cornea, while the iris was stained a dark red, deeper than that of normal human blood.

She froze in absolute horror at the sight of him, dropping the empty plasma rifle as he bore into her with his twisted gaze, and an unfathomable murderous intent manifested from all his hatred and loathing for the insolent little creature who dared attack him.

Slowly she staggered back in terror as this… _horrible thing_ advanced on her, bearing down on her like the living atrocity it was. She struggled to think, trying to overcome the terror coursing through her veins, rendering her inoperable as the corrupt black marks continued to spread along his body, inching across his face, so as to cover half of his… _its_ remaining human body. More crackling sounds emanated from its figure, as the bones in his right hand grew longer and the muscles and sinews in his hand and arm grew thicker, becoming more claw-like.

'… _The gun… Must… reach… around to… Gun… Shoot…'_

Gritting her teeth she forced her body to cooperate at last, causing her arm to reach around clumsily for her 1911. Struggling with the weapon she forcibly tore it out from the back of her shorts. Shakily she raised her hands to grip the weapon as she forcibly aimed, or rather pointed it vaguely in the direction of Max as he continued to advance. She couldn't stop shaking as she tried to pull the trigger, only for nothing to respond, deepening her descent into terror. All the while the monster steadily closed in, step by step.

Looking down she struggled to see the reason, finding the first round hadn't been chambered, the hammer wasn't cocked back, and the safety was still on. While she fought to load the first round, Max scowled down menacingly on the cowering figure before him. His former master and creator, once a dark and powerful, and above all strong willed young woman, had been reduced to a terrified little girl just at the sight of him, and of everything she herself had once advocated. He moved his chilling murderous gaze from her to look back down to the door, somewhere beyond which the Grim Reaper lay burning. Content that he was no longer an issue he moved on towards the piles of crates where Billy laid slumped unconscious. Neither of them were able to fight back, leaving just Mandy and himself. No one was there to stop him this time. This time he was going to come out on top, like he was supposed to all along, as the true master of the forces of darkness. This time he would get the power that was rightfully his.

Urging the slide back Mandy chambered the first of the powerful forty-five calibre rounds. She already knew they would be of no use; after all, he had survived having the side of his face blown off by a plasma rifle. Yet still the feel of the cold, heavy steel weapon in her hands gave her the strength to fight back, even though she knew this was likely her end.

Raising his deformed face up to glower darkly at Mandy again, staring down his prey through his icy gaze, he moved in for the kill.

Mandy couldn't bring herself to back away anymore as she focussed on disengaging the safety. Looking up she saw Max rearing back ready to put an end to it all. Summoning all her remaining courage and control she levelled the gun at his face again ready to fire. In a flash of speed and might Max bought his hand up, gripping the slide in his palm, crushing the weapon in his mutated hand without any effort at all. Mandy's eyes widened in terror as he tore the broken weapon from her small hands grip, tossing it out into the warehouse below.

For just a moment they regarded each other in silence. Mandy looked fearfully into the eyes of the person she had once almost considered a brother, realising now that she was defeated. Max looked into her, the person he had invested so much time and effort into, who had caused him so many setbacks, and wasted all twelve years of his life. Hatred flared within him, and in an instant he struck out with his right arm, to clamp his hand down hard around Mandy's throat.

Mandy shut her eyes against the pain as she felt Max at last have her at his mercy. Struggling to breathe against the inhuman claw holding her she bought her hands up to try and grasp at Max's wrist in a vain attempt to free herself. She opened her eyes slightly as the pain subsided, and she finally began to see just how far from human Max really was, the hideous blackness and demonic orange-red glower in his eye speaking of all the deepest horrors of hell. He continued to bore mercilessly into her as she writhed and struggled in terror against his iron grip. He didn't choke her, he only held her still so he could get what he needed from her. Though he had at last his ultimate goal now completely helpless before him, able to end her life as painfully and gruesomely as he wished, there was one more thing he needed from her before he could kill her.

"**Give me your scythe."**

Mandy shuddered inside at the sound of his voice. The natural human sound she had grown accustomed to was now being eclipsed by the deep, unnatural and wholly demonic voice. Though both could still be heard, the latter was winning out.

Turning her attention to his demands she remembered that no one else could summon her weapon from its place in the underworld. Without her he wouldn't be able to get his hands on it. For once she had at least a certain level of power over him, and she intended to make use of it before the painful death she knew she was about to face regardless. She knew he would hurt her, and she was afraid, but no one did this to her and her family and got away with it. This way she could eternally punish him from beyond the grave.

She clamped her mouth shut as she glared defiantly at the grotesquely mutated face. He continued to wait, gripping her tightly around the neck as she steeled her courage for what she knew was about to happen.

"**No more games. Give me your scythe." **Max spoke forcefully as Mandy continued to remain defiant. Drawing a stream of power into his arm he sent it down through his hand, forcing it through Mandy's body.

Screwing her eyes shut she arched her back as agony exploded inside her.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The foul energy coursed through her muscles, causing every nerve in her body to sear with a blinding pain. She tensed up as best she could, a desperate struggle to ease the pain while she continued to scream out. Somehow, throughout the haze of endless pain, she managed to take hold of her indomitable defiant will. She thought of the people close to her, of everything they had sacrificed and suffered to get this far, and despite the pain forced herself to remain strong, to endure the awful hurt without giving in to her treacherous agent as he continued to torture her mercilessly, revelling in her screams. She thought of Billy, the one person she loved above all else, knowing that though he was still unconscious he was at least alive. _'If I can just… hold out a little longer, maybe… he'll wake up and… be able to escape.'_

Continuing the torture for another few moments Max saw the girl gritting her teeth, the strength of her courage and will winning out against the excruciating pain. Mandy continued to cry out as the twisted energy seared her insides, yet remained defiant and unmoving no matter how much it hurt.

Seeing the torture failing Max relented at last, allowing Mandy to open her eyes again as she heaved several deep breaths as she glared at her enemy. She knew she was going to die shortly, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of the scythe or having broken he will or her pride. Max's distorted eye twitched in anger at her defiance, yet another failure, _another_ insult to his superiority.

"**I was everything you ever told me to be and more. I followed what you taught me to the word, even when you failed to follow your own teachings. I have become everything you yourself ever wanted to be, but it was never enough for you. Mandy, you and your companions have set me back constantly after four long years of endless hard work. I wasted eight years serving you as your subordinate, and four years befriending you, so you have wasted all twelve years of my life. You have defied me and humiliated me at every turn, and even now when it is clear that you are defeated, you continue to defy me. You hypocrite, you gave in to the same weaknesses you told me to remain above. You don't deserve to rule. That is why I am going to take that position from you. I will take over myself, and build a new orderly society the way it was supposed to be, and it will be free of the weaknesses you allowed to grow up within it. I am superior to you Mandy, and you are weak, and defenceless, and now live at my mercy. There is no reason for your resistance anymore. Accept what you have known all your life."**

Amongst the haze of hurt and fear she began to notice the hateful wrath in his voice begin to relent.

"**Mandy…"**

At last Max's face lost the scowl he had drilled into her with, along with the demonic edge to his voice. His face, half mutated and deformed as it was from his corrupted mind and body, relaxed as the opposite side morphed into the same kind hearted, good boy smile he had shown her when they had first met so long ago at the park, where he had complimented her on her choice of ice cream.

"Give me your scythe."

Seeing Max's face in that fake smile again, his demonic voice hidden completely under that of a normal human boy, all the while the reality of him was plainly displayed for the world to gasp in horror at, she realised that everything he had stood for, his complete calm and control over emotions, had all been abandoned. Though he could hide the demonic voice he could not hide the mutations gradually taking over his body. They were now out there for the whole world to see him for what he was; a mindless depraved monster. She smirked, a snigger escaping her teeth as Max looked on, bewildered at her sudden change in attitude.

"Max, remember how you always talked about being in control of your emotions, about keeping control of that power inside, and not letting it take over you?" She smirked again as Max's eyes narrowed and then widened in a sudden shocking realisation, looking down at the freakish claw-like hand he held her throat with. "You lost control over yourself. You have abandoned everything you stood for, all for you to give in to your wounded pride and anger, and your _overwhelming_ arrogance."

Max listened in horror, the mention of his being arrogant, having decided to toy with his prey instead of focussing on his objective, talking about being a superior being, of being a god, going against the very principles he had sworn to live by. He had dedicated himself to never letting pride take hold in his mind, and now, because of his frustration having turned to hate, he had abandoned them, resulting in the irreversible corruption that had taken over half his body. What was worse, because of the extent the wholly irreversible corruption had reached, his ability to pass for human was now permanently destroyed as the evil flesh took over his being, turning him into as much a monster on the outside as he was on the inside. He had willingly abandoned all the safeguards to his power, and because of it he would never be able to gain people's trust as he had done so easily before.

He wasn't going to get her scythe, and now that he was this monstrosity, he wasn't going to be able to take over on his own either. It was over. He was never going to be a ruler of anything.

He had… He was…

"Max, my abominable creation." Mandy smiled mockingly as he returned his horrified gaze to her. "You are such a disappointing failure."

That was the final straw that destroyed what was left of his sanity. Max glowered at her, all his hate coming over him as she smiled back, mocking his entire existence. His face twisted into a low, murderous scowl as he shuddered with the bloodthirsty hate that took him. As he held her Mandy could make out the right eye beginning to turn a faint red as he gave into the madness completely, the right side of his face beginning to show dark veins and blotches spreading underneath his sickly pail skin.

Raising his right arm to waist level he charged his hand into a black blade, intent on disembowelling her while she was still alive to feel it. He was readying himself to impale her when a blast from the left side struck him, knocking him off balance as a blinding pain swept through his body.

He let go of Mandy, letting her stagger back as he fought for control against… _**'Grim's scythe?'**_

Looking across he could make out the shape of the Grim Reaper, complete with cloak and pristine white bones, blasting away at him with his scythe, as at his side the boy previously unconscious rounded on him from the stairs, firing several high velocity bullets into his back, arms and shoulders.

"GET AWAY FROM HER YOU FREAK!" Billy roared with protective fury as he stormed up the stairs towards the mutant form frozen in place. Max could only barely manage to turn himself around in amidst the haze of pain and severe wounds to see Billy lash out with his foot, kicking him roughly past Mandy as she lay on the floor, on towards the back of the shed. She watched from her position as she lay against the metal grate as Billy stepped in and landed a savage knuckle blow into Max's face, forcing him back further as Grim continued to blast away from below with the scythe.

Staring murderously at the mutated creature Billy moved in and with a roar of rage kicked him in the legs, bringing him down painfully to his knees. Growling hatefully he punched him as hard as he could in the face, cutting his fist in the process, again across his mutated jaw. Pulling him up he landed a blow in under his ribs, doubling him over, and struck him again in the mouth, causing black blood to spray from his lips. Max could barely mount a defence against him due to the blinding pain burning his body from Grim's attack. Struggling to fight back he raised his left hand and struck him back handed across the face, though by this stage Billy was so livid he didn't notice. Clamping down on the same hand he pulled him in and headbutted him in the face, drawing him back in so he could continue beating him with his fist.

"YOU FUCKING TRAITOROUS BASTARD! I WOULD HAVE DIED FOR YOU! AND ALL ALONG YOU WERE PLANNING THIS! I'LL KILL YOU!" Billy screamed in his face as Max squinted his eyes and tried to shy away from the bludgeoning blows.

"Billy get out of de way!" Grim called as he floated on up the stairs to Mandy's side. In his livid frenzy Billy hadn't noticed the blast from his scythe was burning into him as well. Struggling to push him away Max reached for him with his distorted right hand intent on slashing at his face. Billy caught it and bought it in to his mouth where he bit down on it with all the strength in his jaws, tearing open the skin around his blackened thumb. Max opened his mouth as if to scream in agony as Billy twisted and shook at the flesh trying to tear off an ever larger piece as his mouth filled with dark blood. Ripping open the skin around his thumb and one finger he let go, clamping both hands around Max's deformed face to pull him in close so he could drill into him murderously eye to eye.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAA HA HA HAA HAAA!"

Grim and Mandy watched the display of insanity with awe, seeing how Billy's livid fury actually had Mad gaping up in fear at him, before a twisted smile formed on the red head's face and he began to laugh madly at his enemy's terror.

"Billy!" She called to him. The sound of his partner's voice instantly snapped him out of his insane frenzy, and realised from the sudden flaring pain he was gradually blocking Grim's attack with his own body.

Billy ducked and backed away from the battered and badly wounded creature and out of the burning stream, allowing Grim to continue to blast away from his spot on the walkway high above the concrete floor. Keeping his head low he returned to Mandy's side as she sat with her back propped up against the metal wall. As his unconscious state had begun to wear off he'd thought he could hear her screaming, and when Grim had come in and awoken him he had looked up in alarm to find her writhing in pain as Max, or whatever that thing was, tried to break her resistance. He knelt down beside her as she stared wide eyed back at him.

"Are you alright? I saw what Max was doing, are you hurt?" He asked in a caring tone that made her feel warm inside, placing his hands on her arms. Searching throughout her body she could find only minor aches and pains, nothing broken or bleeding as far as she could tell.

"I'll be alright." She managed to breathe out softly.

Looking back to the scene of violence nearby they saw Max struggling to heal the bullet wounds and blows from Billy's fists while Grim continued to fry him with the blue-green power surging in waves from the scythe. He staggered back under the relentless assault, unable to create any sort of shield or make any attack in his battered condition, made all the worse by the frayed state of his mind. Narrowing her eyes she stared menacingly at her enemy, seeing him really loosing the fight for the first time. Reaching up she put her arm around Billy's shoulder as he helped her rise to her feet once more.

Looking over she found Max was backing away to his right away from the wall, out onto the railing suspended horizontally in midair above the floor, continually trying in vain to shield himself as he made his way out towards the crossroads in the middle. She looked past him to the path Grim and they were on, bolted into the right side wall. It ran around the entire perimeter of the shed, with both sides coming together in a cross over the centre towards which Max now staggered under Grim's attack. With all of Max's attention on the reaper attacking him to his left he would be unable to counter any attack made from behind.

"Billy, you join Grim. I'll come around from the rear. We'll get him in the centre." Mandy barked as she pointed towards Max as he began to resist the attack.

Billy nodded, raising his weapon to join Grim as they continued to attack the freakish creation. Billy fired again and again with his old handgun, thankful for all the practise they had received and for Grim's tutelage as he continued to blast his darkening torso with the pistol bullets. Max kept trying to focus on healing each of the deep wounds left by the bullets as they blew gaping internal tracks through his organs. This in itself wasn't too hard, except when he had to continue to shield himself from the combined attacks of a scythe and an automatic pistol. He continued to try though, managing to stop most of the bullets before they struck him, while concentrating on recovering from the wounds the ones he missed caused, all while struggling to survive the constant searing blast of Grim's scythe as it burned his cells from within. To deal with one alone would be no problem, as he had done so with Grim outside, but to struggle against all of them was a loosing battle.

As he continued to try to defend himself against the unending attacks he did not notice Mandy running across to the back, turning left down the railing as she prepared to make her move. Extending her hand she summoned her scythe one last time, feeling its shaft materialise into her grip, ready to put an end to the nightmare they had been put through.

Billy loaded the second last of the eight round magazines as Grim continued to distract Max with a swing of the scythe, blasting out wave after wave of green energy, knocking Max back further towards the centre of the rig. Once again though Grim could feel that after so long of continuous firing the scythe was beginning to overheat and wear out. _'I hope Mandy can come in so we can finish him off soon. If not den we'll be de ones to get finished off.'_

Max fought back against the repeated waves thrown from the blade as he stepped back into the centre of the rails that crossed the air above the boathouse. He dug his heels in as he began to solidify the field ahead of him. He could see the blasts of Grim's scythe and the renewed shots ringing out from Billy's weapon as they impacted against the field as he started to push back successfully. He turned his eyes up towards them again furiously as he focussed on wearing them down and then killing them once they couldn't fight back. Looking back to where he left the accursed girl who had ruined him however he was startled to see the spot empty.

"Max!"

He whirled his head around to look behind him at the sound of the familiar angered voice. His eyes widened as he laid eyes on Mandy, scowling wrathfully at him, with her ruby red scythe glowing in her hands, holding it aimed in his direction. Now it was his turn to feel terror.

Max barely had time to shift all the power from shielding himself from Grim and Billy to raise a shield against Mandy, before he was met with an enormous surge of vengeful red force. He fought desperately to hold the shield, ignoring the impact of more bullets and energy from his side which were mosquito bites in comparison to what he found himself confronted with. As Mandy concentrated the blast of vengeful ruby force on the target the beam arched up and grew out in the middle, splitting to form a trident with two pointed outer heads taking aim down on him. They both struck the shield at the same point as the centre shaft. Max didn't have a chance, the newly focussed attack punched straight through the front of the field, the centre blast refracting and impacting him all over his body while the outer two struck him physically knocking him back.

Max barely managed to put one foot behind the other as he staggered back, all his defences now completely overwhelmed by the combined attacks from Mandy to his front, and Grim with Billy to the right, burning him with two constant, endless blasts of unimaginable intensity, while Billy continued to blow bullet tracks through his limbs and organs with the last few bullets in the gun. His muscles spasmed uncontrollably, tightening every feature of his face and skin. His remaining left hand, already mostly taken over by the ugly black flesh, became distended and twisted like the right as the demonic power burned through him.

Mandy closed the distance to her target, making her way towards the centre crossroads while Grim and Billy held their positions, not wanting to get hit by the not so friendly fire. As she moved in Max began to lurch and stagger in his retreat backwards under the devastating forward assault, his body angled low so as to try to cover himself up with his arms, all the while trying to hold the ruined shield up to at least lessen the impact and the successive body blows from the outer heads, and heal the wounds left by the bullets as they blew through him. Billy ejected the spent magazine, reaching for the last one before he became useless in the fight, loading it up into the receiver and chambering the first round.

The remaining half of his pail white skin, once the same shade as his creator, had begun to smoke and smoulder in places. His body hair slowly began to burn, his eye lashes and eye brow on the remaining right side of his originally handsome young face now scorched and crackling with the heat and radiation. The short dark hair atop his head escaped being burnt off, though where it was once fixed into a well groomed short back and sides, it had now begun to fray and char badly, as if it too was showing his slow collapse under the relentless, agonizing assault.

Mandy made her way out into the centre, at last giving Billy the chance to run around behind her to take his position on her right, while Grim stood by her left. As they each formed a last united front against their enemy as he continued to writhe and collapse, they each struck fourth with a powerful last offensive, Grim and Billy pouring fourth the remains of what they had left as their weapons ran out.

Max struggled vainly to fight back with all his strength as they poured fourth on him. He shut his eyes against the sheer uncontrolled agony coursing through him, struggling to maintain some sense of control now that he was the one fighting for his life against a far superior foe. Right now, for the first time, he could feel his enormous reserves of demonic energy were beginning to wear out. He still had enough to destroy a hundred enemies of Grim's calibre, but against Mandy, he knew it was only a matter of time before he collapsed completely. Despite the fact that he could feel Grim's scythe running out of power again, and knowing Billy would have to be on or close to his last magazine, in his state there was no way he could hope to go up against Mandy and even hope to live let alone win. As they continued to pour fourth everything they had into destroying him, they saw his skin beginning to char, the power surging unabated through him. He was burning alive.

Billy fired out the last bullet, leaving his venerable old Stalingrad era Tokarev with its slide locked to the rear. With no other way of attacking Max now that his last weapon was exhausted, he released the slide and lowered the gun to his side, watching on now that his part was finished. He watched from the side as Grim and Mandy continued to blast away, both aware that it was now two on one. And soon it would be one on one.

Mandy looked across, seeing Grim begin to weaken as his scythe once again began to run out of power. The stream of charged particles coming from the scythe was beginning to lessen, becoming little more than a trickle. She figured that it was best to use the last dregs of Grim's power on some critical tactical move.

"Grim, bind his legs now!" She ordered as she continued to fight on, Max still unable to fight back as he lurched backwards slowly against the burning torrent and the two prongs that battered him one after another.

Grim nodded, cutting off the stream of toxic power to point the scythe at where Max's feet stood against the grate. Channelling the last of the scythes might he blew a ball of thick green energy out towards his feet. Upon impact with the floor it formed a dark green pool of supernatural sludge. Max managed to look down in time to see several black vine-like tentacles reach up to seize his feet. Though he saw them, he couldn't dodge them, finding them twisting up around his calves up to his knees, binding him solidly to the supernatural sinkhole he stood on.

"You're on yer own child, now go for it!" Grim called as he lowered his scythe now empty of all energy and joined Billy in watching from the sidelines, as the two great bastions of darkness fought one on one for the right to shape the future of humanity.

Mandy advanced on Max as he burned away from within, trying desperately to push back the threat he knew was coming to end it all, the two battering spearheads withdrawing back into the searing red torrent. He fought back with everything he had, but having to heal himself from the ever worsening damage taxed most of his remaining power. There was little he could do to stop Mandy's forward movement, as she slowly closed the gap between them, pouring fire onto him with every slow step.

As she closed in on him, reducing the distance from five to four metres, he began to realise again that whereas he was lucky enough to receive a second chance back at the river, there would be no second chance here. All his chances were used up. Now it was just a straight fight to the death between the two of them, and he was on his last legs.

At last, as Mandy closed the gap to three metres, Max's legs buckled under him, leaving him to fall to his knees still bound by the vines. He lowered his face, his arms held up desperately trying to push away the attacking force bearing down on him. He shut his eyes as his struggle to survive was lost against the flood of demonic wrath from Mandy's scythe, the hammer of a vengeful overlord who he made the mistake of trying to manipulate and then betray. Mandy did not feel remorse, and she did not contain mercy. Through his quest to infiltrate, deceive, enslave and destroy, he had incurred her wrath, and therefore he wouldn't live to see the perverse new world order he had planned on forming.

"You betrayed me Max! You lied to me, you tried to kill me, and you took my family from me, and you still call yourself superior! Now you're gonna pay for it!" Mandy roared in all her fury at the once cold, dark and powerful figure cowering beneath her. "You shouldn't have crossed me Max. You should have known from the first day this was gonna happen. You were arrogant, and stupid, and now it's all over!"

She cut off the constant blast as she stopped before him while he writhed in pain. The heavy smoke of burnt flesh continued to rise in wispy trails from his hands as he bought them in to cover his head, trying to shield himself from the imminent killing blow. Mandy reared back, raising her scythe over her head as she scowled down at the boy who had been so much like her, now half covered in a hideous black mutation, the other half cracked and burned from the inside out.

"You wanted my scythe? Take it!"

She bought the blade down with all her strength towards the cowering Max. As she swung the weapon Max opened two demonic red eyes, locking his gaze on the weapon.

"_Snap!"_

Mandy's eyes widened as Max latched onto the shaft of the scythe with his right hand, stopping its downward movement in an instant as he bought it under his control. She could do nothing but stare in shock at how, even when he was on deaths door, he had levelled the playing field.

Max bought his distorted, burned face up to look at the girl he had surprised so abruptly. She and those behind her gaped in horror as he rose to his feet once more, the vines charring and burning away to nothing as new power surged through his ruined body, burning away the portal beneath his feet back to the bare metal grate. He channelled his strength into his mutated left arm, bringing it forward to slam his open palm into Mandy's waist. She didn't have time to comprehend what was happening as the impact slammed into her, sending her sailing backwards, crashing to the grate at the feet of Grim and Billy. As she struggled to draw breath she felt them taking her by the arms, helping her upright again as she found control after the impact. As her ability to think returned she focussed her attention to the scythe in her hands. Her eyes flashed open upon finding her palms empty. As she struggled to her feet she looked down to her empty hands, then up to the rising form she had been so close to finally vanquishing.

The three watched in shocked silence as Max arched his back up straight, squaring his shoulders as he rose to his full length, the blood red scythe clutched at his side. After he had risen he lowered his wounded face to the floor, away from their view as the remaining half of his charred natural skin was, in a matter of seconds, completely taken over by the hideous black flesh. As the transformation completed itself, the corruption taking away the last remaining vestiges of Max's humanity, the structure of the flesh and bone beneath changed. They watched his already distended hands transform even further into grotesquely gnarled claws, his legs transforming into deformed masses of muscle and bone. His body warped into a twisted black mass covered in a furrowed leathery hide, exposing him at last as a completely undisguised monster.

They each remained frozen in silence as Max bought his vacant left claw up, examining the powerful new limb in his downcast vision. His face was still wholly unseen with the exception of his hair, still swept up in the simple combed back stance, now having turned a dark grey from the body wide mutations. Turning his head to the side slightly he now studied the weapon he had possession of in his right appendage. He could feel the limitless power of the scythe as he held it between its claws, marvelling at how unimaginably powerful it had made him to simply lay hands on it.

At last he had it. He had the ultimate weapon at his disposal. He had the power to level entire cities at a whim. The power to crush armies with all the effort of a blink. The strength to annihilate millions, billions of people, and to keep the survivors living in constant fear of his divine wrath.

Divine…

He had become divine.

'_**I am a god.'**_

Max lowered its scythe to his side once more. Grim, Billy and Mandy stared in open horror as it bought its face up to stare hatefully at the three of them. The skin had turned an ugly dark blue, with the muscles and bones pulled backwards to form a constant, malice-filled scowl. His eyes, once a deep onyx with their own dark beauty just like Mandy's, had both turned black and red, both sunken into their sockets as if they were dead. His once handsome features were gnarled and, ultimately mutilated by the deep ravines and gouges crossing his face from the bones underneath. Gone was the human form he had once used to charm his way into others trust. Now all that remained was his true self, a ghastly, abominable nightmare the likes of which neither the world nor the underworld had ever seen.

As it looked at the three gathered in terror before him, all defenceless, with their ultimate weapon in its grip, a sudden new change overcame him. He was overwhelmed by a new emotion, the likes of which he had never felt before. He knew what it was though, the feeling of all its sick desires being fulfilled.

Grim, Billy and Mandy stood together as they watched as Max's loathing scowl twisted around. The corners of his mouth warped as they were pulled upwards, past his sadistic eyes, as he stared at them with the first sensation of joy he ever had. His face twisted into a disturbed smile as he marvelled at how he had just achieved his ultimate prize. Now that he had Mandy's scythe he was going to dissect them all piece by piece, keeping them all alive to see and feel each of their organs coming apart before their eyes. And after that he was going to advance on each of the worlds major cities and level them all just for fun, after which the nations of the world would beg for mercy at his feet.

At last, after four long years of wasted time and effort, and twelve years of subservience and having to hide his true intentions, it was over.

It had won.

"**Heh heh…"**

The three simply couldn't move through the flood of terror coursing through them as Max leered at them sadistically. He stepped forward, moving in towards them as Mandy moved quickly into Billy's side, each wrapping their arms around each other for the horrors they knew they were about to face.

As the abomination moved in it was supremely elated in the inevitable victory it was about to carve out of their bodies, tightening his massive grip around Judgement's staff, welling up a flood of heavy red force that formed a haze around the blade. He smiled evilly, until he felt a sudden, unexpected surge of strength from the scythe. Looking down to the weapon he watched perplexed as the thick smoky halo coming off it grew larger and stronger despite his willing it to subside.

Grim, Billy and Mandy gazed on as the glowing scythe blade let out a stream of thick ethereal smoke, Max turning up to follow it as it formed a stream up over his head, arcing around to collect in the air behind him. He felt a familiar presence. He never expected to sense the aura of that one person again, ever since it had left his world four years ago. Immediately his face turned to shock as he realised who it was.

The three before him looked up at the sight forming above the platform behind Max, as the red cloud of vapour forming out of nothing in midair above him. Together each of the groups eyes widened as the cloud coalesced into a familiar form. They all watched in stunned silence as the deceased future ruler materialised in a semi-transparent spectral form. She gazed down at the monstrosity with soft, sad eyes.

"_Max, my son…"_ She spoke in a calm tone. _"I had such high hopes for you. It breaks my heart to see what you've chosen to become. I created you. I gave you life from my own body. I gave you the power to shape the world around you for the better. I taught you how to remove your own emotions so you could use your powers to the fullest to enforce justice and order in everything around you. And I gave you love Max. I loved you as much as I could love another person, as my child. I loved you as much as I loved Billy. All the love I would have given him, and all the love I wish I had been given, I gave to you."_ Her tone changed to something more sombre.

"_But you never returned my love. Though you smiled at me, and held me back when I held you, I could always tell that you never really cared. I gave you the greatest and most important responsibilities, to help you hone your abilities for what lay ahead. I gave you everything you needed so that we could rebuild the world back to the way it once was. And Max, I looked forward to the day you would inherit the new reformed empire from me, and the world would bow down before you as my rightful successor."_ She watched on as Max's hideously mutated eyes widened at this, the ancient Empress' final revelation. _"Yes Max, you could have had it all. You would have been Emperor had you simply returned the affection I gave you."_

Mandy's face chanced to look upon him with sadness and regret for what could have been, but now could never be, all because of him. _"But know this. Though you never returned my love and affection, no matter how little you cared about me, and no matter how badly you twisted what I taught you to suit your own selfish ambitions, I still loved you. I failed you. I'm sorry that I couldn't have done better for you."_ Her voice contorted with the pain of an eternity of heartbreak. _"I loved you Max, my child, and I did everything I could have for you. And I trusted you."_

"_**AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME!"**_

The Empress' face twisted in an unholy fury unknown to the world, her spectral form surging into a violent red inferno as she snarled at the treacherous abomination. The mutant form beneath her became shaken by fear as her malice and hatred ravaged him. Billy and Mandy were shocked at the sudden fury that had overtaken what was lot long before an emotionless broken shell of a once powerful human being.

"_I've seen the things you've done you conceited little bastard! I saw in the scythe how you deceived and manipulated me with lies of friendship and amity, all the while planning on how you were to use me for your own power. You murdered my family! You tried to kill me and my companions! You took everything from me, and all for your own benefit! What were you about to do to me just now Max? Torture me? Mutilate me? Well you're going to face the consequences for your actions soon."_ Her gaze hardened into one of control and authority, as if she were a judge scowling down disdainfully and mercilessly on a criminal, about to send the creature to its doom.

"_Normally I would be going to hell to serve my eternity taking revenge on the depraved scum who do evil to others for their own amusement, but there has been a change in plans. It's not just any corrupt soul that I'm going to see punished for their crimes."_ She clenched her hands into fists as she directed all her wrath on her creation. _"But that's more than I can say for you. As my last act as Empress, Max, I condemn you, __**TO HELL!"**_

The Empress' spectral form collapsed into a blazing mass of supernatural fire, and shot down straight for her treacherous prodigy. Max barely had time to comprehend what exactly his creator had planned as the red surge streaked directly towards him, unable to do anything in his state of shock and fear but stare as the flames dived into him, the soul of the Empress disappearing completely into Max's monstrous body.

Max staggered back, reeling with the shock of what had just taken place. The woman he thought he'd left behind had returned by combining herself with her own scythe. And now he stood hunched over, frozen as he comprehended what exactly she had done. He could already feel her presence inside his body, assimilating into him, taking control of the demonic energy engrained within his cells.

He let go of the scythe, letting it drop to the walkway at his feet, and turned back to face the three targets he had spent so much time and effort and struggle into killing. Grim, Billy and Mandy all stared at him in silence, all too overwhelmed to think straight. Mandy couldn't help but freeze over as the twisted creature locked its wide eyed gaze onto her. The two foes stared into each other completely still, Mandy facing the product of all her fears and failures, Max staring at the one person who he blamed for ruining it all. As the seconds passed Max could feel the swirl of power within him growing slowly, indicating that the spirit's attempt to take control of the energy she had gifted him with was gaining ground.

The monster's horrid face morphed from one of stunned silence to twist in all the rage and hate the being could possess. His thin blue lips opened to reveal rows of discoloured sharp teeth, all clamped together forcefully, his ugly black eyes contorting to glare hatefully at the one girl who had ruined it all.

"**Grrrrraaauuu…"** Mandy inwardly shuddered as it let out a low guttural growl deep with uncontrolled killing aggression. Mandy stood rooted to the floor beside Billy and Grim as the demon who she once thought of as almost a brother snarled murderously. Max channelled all the monstrous power he could into his muscular claws, earning a sickly black flame to envelop them both, and rushed for her in a enraged charge to tear her and her friends limb from limb.

As it closed the distance it bought its right claw back, intent on not just striking her over her heart, but of tearing it out for her to see, before it followed with the rest of her. Neither three could do anything as it charged, each frozen in terror at the sight of the sheer mindless frenzy in the twisted things eyes.

Max accelerated on towards its prey, closing the remaining metres in almost an instant. At last as it reached the pink clad girl it hated so much, it slowed to a halt froze thunderstruck, its eyes open wide with dismay.

Mandy came to find control in herself again upon seeing Max suddenly so terrified by something they could not see. They each watched in silent distrust as Max staggered back again, raising his open claws before him to examine them both. The dark flames of fowl power emanating from his hands were growing larger and stronger against his will. He could feel it rising from within, a swelling tide pushing up and out against a dam of sand bags. He tried to fight for control over the growing tainted energy escaping through his hands, only to find he no longer had any control in the matter.

It opened its jaw as if ready to cry out as the seething energy made its way back under the surface of the skin, no more than a thin silver-white halo left to flicker on the surface, illuminating it as it began to spread up its arms from underneath. Max fought to contain the power as it slipped beyond his claws iron grip, the pain in its grotesque body increasing as it worked its way through the arms, up over the shoulders and throughout his torso and back. The three targets watched on as the faint aurora of white flames spread over Max's head and down his legs. As it completed its takeover of the monstrous form the faint aura dissipated as the power shrank back inside, building up like a dying star before supernova. Max bought its face up to gape in horror at its one time master, friend and enemy as the power welled up inside him and…

"AAAAA**AAAAAAAHHHHH**_**HHHH!"**_

Max exploded into a maelstrom of black and silver flames, his scream starting as that of the boy they once knew, through the monster they had come to see him as, to now; a complete and utter freak.

The three had to shield themselves from the blast of hellish power unlike anything they had experienced. As they looked back to where the monster Max had stood, one thought crossed their minds. For one of the group it was a familiar notion.

'_This isn't Max.'_

The horrible thing that swayed unsteadily before them like a strand of chewed up liquorice was a warped and twisted, billowing, boiling mess of black sludge. The things mouth was torn open two feet wide, a cavernous empty hole, from the maw of which a piercing shriek emanated. Likewise the things head was torn and wrenched out of shape, as were its arms and legs, all splayed like sticky and gnarled tar spires as it struggled to support itself against the billowing silver and black flames boiling out of it. The hellish eyes were now no more than two glowing red balls sunken into the molten skull. They stared out openly as it shrieked and groaned, before another blast of demonic force consumed it from within.

"_**UUAAAEEEEEEIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAA!"**_

Billy, Grim and Mandy watched with a certain satisfaction as the festering ball of slime twisted and mutated, waving its gangly arms around in agony, if they could be called arms, the warped and bent strings of seething scum bearing no resemblance to the original limbs. Bubbles burst all over the surface of the creature as it boiled from inside, the soul of the dead Empress wrenching and distorting its own power in order to tear it apart from within. The energy blasted out in torrents, like dark solar flares bursting out of the thing's molten mass, each blast earning yet another shriek of agony as it flayed around on the deck.

As the process continued and the power kept blasting out like a volcano through the blob of black soup, it began to loose control of its own body. The bursts of energy caused small spikes to spurt out from the sludge as it shrieked and flailed about in a fruitless attempt to control itself.

Mandy remembered back to everything this freak had put her through, and everything she had lost to it over the past two months. And in the end what was it all for, because he considered her sense of justice to be a weakness? Because he thought he was inherently superior for his lack of compassion? She and everyone around her had lost so much because of him, and it had all been so unnecessary. She held no compassion as the creature suffered its slow and gruesome demise, torn apart by its own evil power.

'_This is for my mom and dad.'_

"_**IIIIIEEEEEEIIIIIIAAAAAA!"**_ The creature maintained its chorus of piercing shrieks as the explosive energy grew stronger. The needle-like jets of sludge grew as the liquid boiled, earning huge craters to blow out through its sides to immediately disappear back into the dying creatures form. Long bursts of fluid formed huge projections akin to tentacles throughout its surface, almost taking the appearance of extra arms. The original arms, like the legs below them, looked like a black, semi-liquid branch from an old warped and gnarled tree. There was no chance it could reform itself into any stable form with so much force blowing out its surface, turning it into a boiling cauldron. And yet the merciless woman tearing him apart inside him could feel that at this rate her creation would run out of power before it was destroyed completely. So, having made Max suffer enough, she chose another method to ensure the thing's demise, turning the energy inwards, towards his cells.

As the freak continued to scream and shriek and struggle, the black flames quickly began to die down, fading away to a faint glow surrounding the mess, to nothing as they retreated back inside the thing's body. As they faded the inhuman cries of pain died away with them, and the black pool of plastic sludge ceased to boil over, cooling into a solid again. The warped arms and legs straightened out and began to coalesce back towards their original shapes, as did the body and head, losing the torn apart visage as it regained a more human form.

The filthy matter came together, taking the shape of a youth Billy and Mandy's age. The outermost layer of the onyx sludge began to take the smooth surfaces and sharp edges of a familiar set of dark clothes. The top of the plastic head formed strands that stood up together into a perfect crop of blue-black hair. The red eyes sunken into their sockets began to reform back to the striking onyx orbs of limitless depth they had once been. And throughout the formless black mass reformed back into the body of their old friend Max.

They each stared mute as their old friend stood before them, exactly as he had been before he had destroyed everything. He stooked quietly shocked, and looked down at his reformed body, his dark eyes wide as he looked at his wholly human hands, completely devoid of the corruption that had taken over him. He had been on death's door a moment ago. Why had she stopped so suddenly? Reviewing his situation with his usual cold calm he remembered his objective.

Turning back to Mandy, Billy and Grim he scanned them with unfeeling detachment. He could see Grim's scythe was still very low on power, not enough to fight him off, and Billy and Mandy were now wholly unarmed.

Mandy departed from Billy's close company to stand before them, facing him on her own as the feeling of absolute cold returning to her foe's gaze as Max's features froze over into the blank, emotionless visage he was created with. Mandy was reminded of the time back at the Doolin Mansion, where Max had showed his true colours to her alone, where she had looked directly into his deep, dark eyes for the first time. They had been both terrifying in their coldness, and captivating in their sinister depth all the same. She knew her counterpart inside him was not finished yet, and she guessed this would be the last time she saw him in his true element.

Max moved in towards the group once more in a calm, steady gait, ready to end their lives in a simple and effective manner, neither sadistic nor merciful; a strike over the heart.

Grim stepped forward with his scythe raised, until Mandy waved him back as she stood still, watching the stoic covert demon walking towards her. Mandy was finished showing him fear. If this was his end or hers she would face it with dignity and order.

As he closed the distance Max could once again feel the force building within him. It built far beyond what it had been previously, encompassing every miniscule measure of the apocalyptic power inside him. As it came to take over him from within he found his body start to grow more and more rigid as the energy welled and surged within every cell, building in pressure by the second. Max took awareness of this, and of the gradual seizing of his muscles and joints, disregarding them as he continued to force his way forward towards his objective. She was so close now. His gait lost its fluid precision as his steps became more and more laboured, having to struggle to put one foot in front of the other as his body ground itself down.

Mandy stood steadfast, not showing an ounce of fear as Max struggled towards her, single-minded on his task of killing her. She scowled at him, her punishment for his betrayal as he began to realise she was mocking him. Max could see it in her cruel face, the knowledge that he was never going to reach her, the knowledge that he was about to be destroyed from within. As he closed the distance, now mere steps away from his prey, the seizing of his body grew greater, to the point where he could barely force his rigid body to move at all.

The cold, stoic calm and control he possessed slipped away as the fear of death and the desire to complete this one most important task swamped his mind. His dark eyes went wide as he took the last step towards his target before they seized completely, feeling as if on the inside they were no longer actual flesh and bone but something hard and brittle. Desperate to end the life of the one he had set out to destroy if only to accomplish his one final mission he reached out with his right arm, extending his slender fingers as far as they could, not towards her heart, but to her face in the desperate hope that he could just touch her. His face showed a frantic last attempt to strike down his target as he strained himself to reach out and touch her, his eyes wide and his mouth agape as if to cry out to her. No cry ever came though.

As Max struggled to close the distance, his fingers coming within a centimetre of Mandy's face, his features morphed into a silent wail of despair as he felt it happen. His mouth opened out to give a silent howl of anguish as his eyes turned black from the inside out, the skin of his body, his hair and clothes all turning to a dark grey. A network of fine cracks spread audibly throughout his being, auditing a sound similar to brittle charcoal breaking apart. From the cracks the silver-white glow of corrupt ether radiated out, spewing fourth throughout his body, extending the cracks, breaking the large pieces apart into smaller and smaller pieces the size of pebbles and granules. Max retained his visage of despair as the black flames burst fourth from within him, breaking him apart into thousands of tiny pieces which broke away from one another, burning and breaking down further into the black and white maelstrom. As the millions of tiny pieces of ash billowed upwards from their place on the walkway, Max's form disintegrating into a cloud of particles and supernatural flame, they each burned with their own power, the flakes reducing themselves to dust. The dust reduced itself to gas, which ultimately burned out completely, leaving the black flames to quietly fade away, leaving not a single atom of supernatural matter left.

Before Mandy, where once a dark and powerful youth by the name of Max had once stood, now nothing stood at all.

* * *

Grim, Billy and Mandy stood and stared at the empty space in front of them. Not even a fine film of dust had been left of their enemy, his entire mass having dissolved into nothing. Turning her eyes down towards where her scythe lay abandoned on the metal walkway Mandy made her way over to it. Bending over she grasped the cold staff in her hand, bringing it back to her side as she straightened up, looking back to her friends behind her.

Neither of them found anything to say as they regarded each other sombrely. At last their constant string of losses and struggle was over. They could finally relax, and stop worrying about the living shadow that had hunted them across the country through hell and back.

Turning away they made their way back down the stairs, continued on past the boats loaded in their racks, opening the door and stepped out into the cold night air. Surveying the boatyard they could see the burning boat Grim had been dumped in now having drifted far off, its bow the only part of it above water as it continued to burn and sink. The speedboat had disappeared from the waters surface altogether, resting its broken hull on the bottom of the river, along with a number of other vessels destroyed by the living calamity, the water strewn with pieces of still smouldering debris from the pier.

They each stared in quiet reflection at what they had survived, now over, and suddenly the night seemed to sigh a deep calm despite the debris, before they disregarded the scene of destruction completely and turned back towards the road. Making their way along the rocky banks of the river they could feel that though it was cold with the night air, the terrible bitter chill had left it. The ground was no longer frozen over in a thin sheet of ice, and neither was the water. Now there was just a calm black river running under the wide concrete bridge, shimmering with the pail light of the full moon shining down from above in serene silence.

Turning off from the river bank they each walked up onto the grassy embankment leading up to the deserted road. Coming up to where they had stood before when they tried to return to Endsville, Grim reached into his coat and withdrew Mandy's backpack. It looked the same as it did when she had retrieved it from its place in her bedroom on that fateful night long ago. Its emergency contents had been largely emptied in the ensuing two months of running and hiding and fighting for their lives. Yet, as Mandy reached out to take the bag by its handle at the top, it still felt familiar like it did so long ago, if with a few alterations. Just like its owners.

Mandy turned back to Grim. No words needed to be said as he levelled his scythe at the empty air, forming a swirling green vortex back to Endsville. Without hesitation Grim stepped through. Billy looked to her calmly, and followed him away from the strange distant place. Mandy turned back to take one last look at how far they had come, taking a moment to reminisce on their not so little adventure. Turning back to the portal she stepped through, arriving back at Billy's house.

Standing out on the overgrown front lawn they saw that Billy's house was still largely how they had left it, the night sky darkening their surroundings as it approached midnight in their corner of the country. As the portal closed behind them Billy reached into the backpack in Mandy's hand, withdrawing a key. Taking the key he marched up to the front door, sliding the key in, turning and unlocking the door with a loud 'clunk'. He opened the door out to step back into his house, remembering how the last time he had gone out that door was on one ordinary Friday afternoon to go to the mall with Mandy. Holding the door back he allowed said girl to step through the doorway followed by Grim, before he joined them inside, closing the door after them.

Mandy reached across to the wall beside the door to the light switch, half expecting the power to have been cut off. Flicking the switch she found the lights come on in the small hallway leading to the stairs and other rooms. Mandy set the backpack down beside the door as they each removed their shoes and made their way through the bottom floor and up the stairs.

Billy made his way into the kitchen. He immediately noticed the mess of papers and letters strewn about the floor, and the draws having been gone through thoroughly.

"Looks like someone's been here since we were gone." He called out to his friends.

"Dere's more mess up here. Max must've paid your house a visit. He had probably been looking for evidence of where we might've gone. He's probably done de same with Mandy's. Dat must be how he found de cabin." Grim called down from the study, looking in to find it trashed as well. Following onto Billy's and his parents' rooms he found them to have also been searched.

Mandy soon followed up the stairs to investigate. Passing by the bathroom she locked her eyes on the broken window, the shards of shattered glass strewn throughout the room, testament to the force that broke it. She was soon accompanied by her best friend as he leaned in through the doorway, placing a hand on her shoulder as they stared at the sign of Max's handiwork. She did not shrug it off, taking comfort in his presence.

Grim approached from the side, peering in to see what they were looking at. He also noticed the particular way Mandy seemed to react fondly to Billy's close proximity, moving in slightly to be closer to him. He smiled softly to himself, seeing now that the two really were going to be alright.

"I'm gonna go on downstairs to the couch. You two get some sleep. We're gonna be busy tomorrow." Grim spoke as he turned down towards the stairs, leaving the two youths alone together in the top floor as he turned off the lights and lay out on the couch before the old television. He didn't bother turning it on, just relaxing out flat, dozing off in moments after the nights stresses.

Billy and Mandy both turned towards each other quietly, leaving the bathroom to turn out the lights and step into Billy's bedroom. Billy pulled back the sheets to make his way into the right side of the bed, turning back to Mandy as she gazed down hesitantly, silently hoping he would allow her to share the bed. Gesturing for her to hop in she too made her way under the covers beside him before he pulled them back up to their shoulders.

Mandy lay her head down against his shoulder as Billy wrapped his arms around her waist protectively. He smiled softly to her as she lay against him with her eyes closed, turned out the bedside light and closed his eyes with her. They both dozed off together without a care in the world, content that at the end of it all they could be together.


	36. A New Beginning

**Hey ladieees!**

**I'm about to go for a three day bike ride, so instead of delivering the fic a day late I figured I'd deliver it early! That's obsessive-compulsive for you!**

* * *

**A New Beginning.**

The following morning after the three not quite heroes arrived back in Endsville, two people, a wife and her husband, sat at a table within an underground chasm occupied by one human, one demon, and one half demon youth. They had the dubious honour, or more precisely outright displeasure, of having to play a certain demonically possessed board game for the one hundred and fifty sixth time since they had arrived an eternity ago, one hundred and fifty seventh as of this morning.

"… five, six, seven." Gladys groaned in a deadpanned fashion as she moved her little game piece, a little white knob hewn from a human finger bone.

"That puts you in…' Nergal Senior gasped excitedly, "the Hall of Endless Screaming!"

"GUA HAH HA! HAH AH AH! AH HA AH!" Harold spluttered and racked with his incessant mindless laughter. He had continued to react this way even after all one hundred and seventy six… seven times playing the game.

Gladys dully dropped her piece into the hallway-like projection on the board, earning an irritating shrieking sound that she had come to loathe since she had first played the game. Almost two months in since they had moved into the Nergals' abode with them without once being able to leave the entire time, or being able to contact their son or Mandy since, and she was about ready to have a brain explosion. It wasn't just the constant stress of worrying for her son's life, she could handle that knowing he, Mandy and Grim were an unbreakable combination, and it wasn't being cut off from the rest of the world, television told them all about how it was going to hell. The real irritation factor came from having to do the same repetitive crap from one blurred day to the next. And in all honesty, it wouldn't have been half as bad if it weren't for this accursed board game.

'_How do these people endure this time after time after time? They even enjoy it! It's-IT'S HORRIBLE! THEY'RE NOT HUMAN…'_ As she continued her mental ranting and raving she couldn't help but notice the other four occupants of the table looking at her worriedly. Add to that she could feel a faint tingling in and around her mouth, as if she had just shouted. _'Wait, did I just say that out loud?'_

"Yes honey, you did." Harold answered her.

"Quite loudly in fact." Junior commented in a bored tone.

Gladys remained quiet in her irritated madness for a great many moments, the dull silence broken every few seconds by the screaming sounds emanating from the board game. The distant sound of a cell phone ringing broke the redhead out of her dark musings. Twisting around in her seat she looked over to the kitchen and located it sitting vacantly atop the counter next to her handbag where she had left it weeks ago.

Getting up she made her way over to it silently eager for any news, Harold and the Nergals all waiting eagerly at the table. Not one call had come her way since she had last spoken to Billy long ago. She had been waiting in anticipation for so long now that she truly felt she would scream if it weren't him. The irritation of being subjected to that board game was non existent in comparison to that of worrying day in day out for weeks on end for her son. Billy could well be long dead for as much as she knew. Despite the fact that it was obviously better to stay level headed, and to have faith in her son's ability to survive and would soon be back in her arms, after having done so for so long and still heard nothing the possibility of it not being him was driving her insane. But she needed to do this.

Reaching into her bag she pulled out her phone as it continued to ring in the crude generic tone. Flipping out the screen she answered it.

"… He-Hello?"

"_Mom. It's me."_ Came the voice she wanted to hear above all else.

"Oh Billy!" She keeled over with emotion and had to grab the edge of the bench to avoid falling. Tears of relief welled in the mother's eyes at the sound of her boy's voice, the knowledge that he was alive lifting an enormous load off her shoulders.

"Gladys what is it? Is Billy safe?" Harold called as he rose swiftly from his seat to take his wife's hand. She took support against his side without answering as she continued to focus upon the phone in her hand.

"Billy are you alright?" She asked in a desperate pleading tone as tears made their way down her cheeks.

"_I'm fine. Me and Mandy and Grim are all fine. It's over, we're all safe now."_

Gladys collapsed back into Harold's arms as she finally had the knowledge she had been waiting so long for. "Ohh… Thank god you're alright." She groaned into the phone as if she was about to pass out in her husbands arms. Around the table behind them Nergal, Aunt Sis and Junior all stood looking to the couple expectantly.

"Billy! Can you hear me son?" Harold called out to the phone in Gladys's hand.

"_Dad?"_

"Billy I'm so glad you're okay! I'm here with your mother. She's so happy she's practically fainted from hearing you."

"_I know. I can see you."_

"… can see you. Right now." Came Billy's voice from just behind them.

Gladys and Harold's eyes widened in surprise. Forcing themselves past the shock they turned around to face the entry to the living room where they all stood.

Before their watery eyes stood the rusty red-headed youth, a small crooked smile on his face, closing a cell phone held to his ear as he gazed at the family he hadn't been with for so long. Stepping out from behind him by the entry came Grim, with Mandy at his side, each regarding them like weary travellers come home. Billy let out a small laugh as his composure quickly began to break down at finally being with his parents again.

Gladys moved out from Harold's arms as she ran to the boy as he stared up at her with his own tears in his eyes. Bringing her hands up they both wrapped their arms tightly around each other, as Gladys began to cry and sob with joy. Billy buried his face in his mother's neck and let out tears of his own, closing his eyes tight as he pushed himself into her reassuring embrace. They hugged tearfully as the mother was reunited with her child at last.

"Billy… Oh I missed you so much." Gladys spoke in little more than a whisper.

"I missed you two." He answered her in the same soft voice as he embraced his mother.

They parted after another few moments of joyous reunion, upon which Billy was reunited with his fathers crushing hug. As Gladys let go Harold grabbed hold of his son, upon which he began to compress the boys ribcage and lungs wit his ex-SEAL arms. At first Billy laughed and enjoyed the manly reunion, but despite the fact his father hadn't been a particularly good operative, and his muscles had largely wasted away since his discharge, he could still smother the boy to a dangerous degree. He quickly began to wheeze as his body was constricted.

"Too… much… _loving…"_ Billy gasped out. The pressure on his face from below was so great it caused his nose to pop out back to the size it was years ago. Eventually Gladys stepped in to prize apart Harold's fingers clasped around Billy's back s to release the boy.

"Come on Harold, we wouldn't want to lose our boy just after we got him back." Gladys spoke as she laid her hands on said boy's shoulders.

"Geh heh, sorry. It's great to have you back son!" Harold chucked sheepishly as Billy's bulbous nose the size of his fathers deflated. Sniffing back through his deformed snout he pulled it back into its appropriate shape on his face. He blinked confusedly before a cheesy smile broke out across his features.

Nergal and his family each rose to greet their guests as Billy, followed by Grim and Mandy filed in. "Billy, Mandy, Grim, it's so good to see you all again." The patriarchal demon announced. "Billy you're parents couldn't stop worrying about you the entire time. Day and night they could only ever think about you."

"I figured." Billy said from his parents embrace as they continued to fuss over him. "I thought about them all the time too."

Mandy remained silent and still throughout the joyous reunion. The sight of Billy so happy with his family each crowded around him stirred bittersweet sentiments. Though she was glad to see he partner back with his parents, the sight bought up painful thoughts and memories. _'I wish I hadn't terrorised my mom and dad like I did. I can't remember ever being held like that. Looks like I never will now.'_ She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot on her spot off to the side of the group though she tried to appear impassive. _'I wish I could be held like that.'_

Breaking her hold on the boy Gladys turned her attention to the girl standing nearby beside her not exactly friend Grim. She could sense a certain discomfort coming from her as she looked back with a blank expression, her arms folded before her in a distancing act.

"Mandy, I'm so glad you're alright." Gladys spoke as she approached the girl to stand before her, a soft smile on her face, a gesture of motherly care.

"It's good to see you too." Mandy replied in a relatively dull tone. The slight blush on her face at the motherly presence told otherwise, that she was silently somewhat relieved to have been offered her care.

"How do you feel?" She asked in a concerned tone, always showing the soft care and attention a mother would show to her young.

Mandy thought back on the long blur of events that took place between this morning and that afternoon where they went to the mall together months ago. At the time she had gone with the intention of putting some distance between her and Billy, with the ultimate long term goal of getting rid of him altogether. Now she couldn't bear the thought of being without him. The experiences of going through utter hell and back had changed her. She had grown older in the space of time they had been away, she had lost so much, and she felt world weary. The girl who set out to the mall after school one afternoon wasn't quite the same girl who stood here now. The past two months had bestowed some heavy burdens on her small shoulders.

"I'm just glad it's over." She breathed out with a sigh.

Billy watched as Mandy and his mother talked. He felt thankful that they had made it through just to be back here with their family. Mandy had essentially been almost a member of the family since the beginning. The two families had become closely interrelated over the years through the two youth's friendship. Now that closeness between them would be needed to begin the process of rebuilding.

Harold held the boy's shoulders from behind, observing as his son stood watching out for her. A smile came to his features. "You took care of her." He patted Billy's rough red hair as he smiled down proudly at his son. "That's my boy." Billy lowered his face as he smile at his father's praise. He really had taken care of her throughout every trial and hardship that had faced them. For so long it had been Mandy watching out for him, now he was able to do the same for her. He now held the same inner fortitude and strength as had made Mandy so strong. "I always knew one day you'd become more of a man than I ever was. I never would've thought it would be so soon."

Billy laughed softly. "Thanks, but what do you mean was?" Harold thought for a moment.

"I don't know, what do I mean?"

"Well you said more man than you ever was so when did you stop?"

"I never stopped, when did I ever say that I stopped?"

"You never said that specifically I'm saying it was implied!"

"When?"

"I dunno I thought you knowed!"

Gladys, Mandy, Grim and the Nergals all looked questioningly upon the odd father and son conversation. They dismissed it as another case of Billy and Harold resorting to the side of their brains responsible for shutting down the other sides. Nergal turned his attention on all three of the returned survivors standing before him and his family.

"Freinds, it's so good to have you back with us! The family and I thought about you constantly. I knew all along you were all going to be just fine." He beamed at them with a smile that looked ever so slightly plastic. Each noticed a tentacle project from the demon's back, extending towards his son, a wad of cash held in its grip. Nergal broke out in a cold sweat, continuing to smile like an idiot as they each regarded him with a death stare that made his insides loose form and devolve back into a shapeless mass of green slime. Junior smirked back and forth at the confrontation, just thankful that he got his money, and that his friends were okay after so long.

And that he got his money.

"Let's get out of here." He spoke, seeing his father beginning to loose his structural consistency and turn into an undisguised shapeless blob like him in his real form.

"Yeah let's go home." Harold added. "We've been down here for two months now and there's no air circulation. When you fart it just builds up in the air. You get used to it though."

Mandy gave a look of horror and began to gag.

While the Nergals, Grim, Billy, Harold and Gladys each made their way out towards the chamber where they kept the drill car, Mandy struggled to hold her breath until they escaped the giant toilet. She choked on the toxic air in her lungs and held each breath until the car started to tunnel its way out towards the surface on a shallow angle, at which time she gasped and took several heaving breaths.

"Guh… Hnnn… hnnn… hnnn…" She panted in distress, renewing the oxygen depleted air in her lungs. Billy looked across to her as she sat on the opposite side of the seat.

"Are you alright? Do you need an oxygen mask or something?" Mandy took a deep breath and returned her composure.

"I'm fine. I…" She paused. Now that she was trapped in the car as it tunnelled through the ground she took a whiff of the air inside the vehicle. In an instant her face turned to a look of disgust. It was worse than the same air as in the giant chamber below.

"GAAAAK…"

"Oh yeah that reminds me, I just farted." Harold added. "Sorry bout that."

The others in the car didn't even bother to hold their breath against the sickening smell, knowing that even if they did half the gasses he was holding in his lungs came out of someone's ass. Grimacing they all waited it out, while Grim smiled cruelly at their expense, seeing as he was a skeleton, and didn't need to breathe. Mandy meanwhile choked and coughed in distress, dry retching as she hoped and prayed the journey to the surface would be short.

* * *

Half an hour later.

The ex-General Reginald Scarr was quite content as he was, sitting comfortably on his lounge with his eyes closed, thinking only about the air going in through his nose, and the air going out through his nose. He could smell the vanilla scent from an oil evaporator nearby, but as pleasant as it was he merely observed it and continued to simply focus on his breathing.

He felt the ground beginning to shake beneath his feet. Opening his eyes he looked around his living room as the tremor grew, and a sound like rock breaking came to his ears from somewhere out front. Standing he moved to open the front door, and watched baffled as an enormous rotating drill bit tore its way up through the surface of the road in front of his house. The drill rose up to its full height almost vertically, before it creaked and fell onto its side facing him, continuing to dig its way along the surface until it cut apart a row of hedges and several metres of grass. Once the car part behind it emerged from the gaping hole in the road the drill ceased.

The rear left door opened and out fell Mandy, looking more dishevelled and sick than he had ever seen before in a person. Choking for air she crawled her way across the lawn for a few steps and paused.

"… PLUUUUURRRHGGHHH!"

Scarr watched on with mild revulsion as Mandy violently emptied the contents of her stomach on his once pristine lawn. She continued to cough and wheeze and gag as she writhed on the perfect grassy surface as each of the others made their way out of the smelly auto… drill… thing.

"You alright Mandy?" Billy asked of the girl as he made his way hurriedly to her side. Her face was a shade lighter green than that of the grass.

"Guaaauuuugh…" A frothy green bile began to rise from her mouth, spilling out onto the lawn.

"Oookaaayyy."

Spitting out the horrible taset in her mouth Mandy began to recover a few seconds later, in time for both to see Scar storming towards them with an enraged look on his disfigured face.

"Look what you delinquents have done to my beautiful lawn! Do you know how much time I spent on that? You people think you can just come in here, and chew up part of my front yard, and then see fit to dump toxic waste! Get out of here before I… call…"

He cut away as a certain red-headed boy stared up at him with a twisted, sadistic grin that promised untold pain and madness if he continued.

"You'll call who? The cops? Ghostbusters? Go on, do it! Let's see if they can get here before you're just a red smear across your precious lawn!" Billy asked in a mocking tone. He had learned much from Mandy, which she realised as she managed to spit out the rest of the disgusting bile in her mouth. Looking up at him she could make out the pulsating aura of doom and malice in his vengeful stare and mad grin. The only difference between his own brand of darkness and hers was Billy's grin held an extreme predatory instinct and ferocity, as if he desired to taunt and toy with his prey, taking satisfaction in their terror before he annihilated the moronic little lowlifes. Grim almost felt sorry for the poor man, as the others behind him, his family and friends having not learnt of what was lying underneath the cheery boy, found themselves shocked and gaping at what they were seeing.

"Well, what's it gonna be, wormy little maggot?"

"… I'll… I'll just… go inside." Scar said nervously, upon which he made a very hasty retreat back to the safety of his suburban home, where once within its walls he set about arming himself to the teeth, desperate to achieve some sense of being able to defend himself against the threat of that psychotic little maniac. The predatory gleam in Billy's eyes remained stuck in his mind. What the hell had happened to the boy in the time they had been gone to turn him into such a… a _demon?_ Plus the fact he was friends with the cold-hearted and terrifying Mandy, and had two supernatural scythes at his disposal, and he soon found himself cowering within the basement walls, guarding the door with a machine gun.

Outside Billy knelt down to offer Mandy his hand. She took it and he hauled her gently up to her feet once more. They each made their way from Scar's front yard towards the heavily overgrown, newspaper strewn yard nearby. The slightly neurotic perfectionist Gladys looked on aghast at the less than pristine condition of her house, with Billy coming up and dragging her by the hand on towards the front door. Harold looked upon the piles of brochures with a different perspective.

"Ahhh, looks just like we left it." He sighed lovingly for the bogan front yard. The Nergals looked at him questioningly while Mandy stayed relatively unfazed.

"Actually if you remember correctly, he's not far off." She commented as she followed Billy as he dragged Gladys towards the front door.

"Mom I don't want to alarm you," Billy spoke in a calm and controlled voice, "but the inside's been trashed."

"WHAAA?"

Unsurprisingly this did in fact alarm Gladys substantially. She made it known through the loss of all colour in her face as Harold opened the door to their home for the first time in months, for them at least. As her rigid form was dragged on through the door she relaxed somewhat upon seeing it wasn't the gatecrasher aftermath she had anticipated. All up save for some mess it wasn't so bad. Looking around Harold and her could find no gaping holes in the walls, and no offensive slogans sprayed here and there. She had seen far worse from Billy and Mandy when they was younger.

"Mandy and me slept here last night." Billy piped in, remembering how it felt to hold her so close. He felt a blush rise across his face as Mandy quickly made her way in through the open door with her face turned away, suppressing a similar blush on hers.

"The guy who was trying to kill us broke in through the bathroom window." Mandy explained to the woman as she made her way to their side. "He turned the place upside down looking for any indications as to where we might be hiding, lists of contacts, friends, relatives and documents like that. Don't worry; it shouldn't be more than a day's work for Grim to clean it up."

"Hey! Grrr, stupid mortal-"

"Grim, remember what happened last time you disobeyed a direct order from your commanding officer?" She spoke, aiming a deadly stare at his skeletal features. Grim felt is insides constrict in mindless terror.

"I'll get to work!" He squeaked as he hurried into the kitchen to begin cleaning up. Mandy watched him go sternly and let out a satisfied smirk.

"Still got it."

As Grim got to work filing everything back into its previous positions, with the exception of bedrooms and anything private, Harold made his way to the dusty couch. Sinking into his favourite arm chair he let out a sigh of satisfaction as he turned on the television and began cycling through the channels onto an old British comedy, glad to be back in his perfect little element. Before long Nergal and Sis joined him for lack of anything else to talk about after their three month stay. Gladys made her way up to her bedroom and began to pack away everything that had been strewn about the floor. It relaxed her a great deal to be able to finally return to her own perfectionist state after so long. Going back down below she started taking stock of what they needed to get, as well as what needed to be thrown out. Soon after Grim was taking several large bags full of foetid food and milk out to the bins, grimacing in disgust whenever it came in contact with him. As soon as he was finished with the last one and turned to go back inside he recoiled in outrage as a blast of cold water his him in the face, working its way all across his bony structure. Peeking out through the drenching assault he frowned at the sight of Billy standing with a smile on his face and the hose in his hands, with Mandy on his left and Junior on his right.

"Take it as an exercise in humility bitch!"

Shutting off the hose the three left him drenched as they made their way up the stair and into Billy's room. There Junior and Mandy both sat back and watched as he got to work on his own space. Mandy in particular observed him with mild interest, seeing the kind of orderly chaos he lived in. There were the usual piles of mess and clutter, but they were each confined to their own area for later sorting, which of course never happened. It was also clear he was going to extra effort so it would be presentable for her and Junior.

"So what have you guys been doing while you were gone?" Junior asked them as Billy finished and he and Mandy turned to face him.

Mandy thought for a moment, considering the sheer scale of what they had been through, as well as some details which would be personally important to him. "There's a lot to talk about. Billy and I'll tell you everything later."

Billy leaned back against his door as Junior sat in thought. "But we're not the only ones who've been busy. What happened here while we were gone?"

Junior lowered his face as a heavy scowl formed on his features. Mandy and Billy each noticed the sudden change with worry. "I'll tell you later."

* * *

A few minutes later each of the group were gathered outside as the Nergals bid farewell to their guests of the past few months.

"Again we're so happy to see you back and that everyone is okay… even if I did loose three hundred dollars because of it.' Nergal spoke glumly. Again they regarded him with a displeased flat stare.

Nergal Junior turned towards his friends again. "Today's Saturday. Will I see you tomorrow or at the bus stop on Monday?" He asked the two, knowing that they did have a lot of work to do to put their shattered lives back together, and he needed to fill them in on some of the changes that had taken place while they were away. Also he did want to hear the stories they had of their time on the run.

"I don't know, we've got a lot to do." Mandy spoke, remembering back to the squalid school building and its mass of human wreckage that inhabited it. "We might spend some time off from school until everything settles down again, and we know it's safe."

"Hey no we should be able to catch up tomorrow. We could meet at the brain freezie place." Billy suggested enthusiastically, waving his arms up for attention, as if he didn't attract enough of that already. He and Mandy paused again when they saw Junior's face wince inwardly from some unknown pain.

"Yeah. That'll be good."

"We'll call you later." Mandy spoke as Junior and his family turned back towards their subterranean car.

"Nergal." Grim called out as the elder demon opened the driver's side door, turning back to look at the reaper. "Dere's someting I wanted to discuss with you later. I'll get back to you tonight."

The green demon looked questioningly at Grim while he kept his jaws shut. Billy and Mandy also looked up in wonder at what he was thinking, having heard nothing of any sort of plans he may have been toying with. He had become impressed with Billy's growth over the time they were on the run. He had seen how greatly Billy had grown up, having developed a sense of maturity and responsibility in their times of trouble and stress. And in addition to the savage malevolence he had now uncovered, he knew with certainty that there was something he owed him.

The group watched as the subterranean vehicle drove around into the middle of the street where it quickly burrowed a deep hole, causing several not quite minor car accidents along the way.

"No wonder insurance premiums are so high around here." Gladys remarked before they each turned from the scene of chaos and made their way back into the house, while Grim used an enchanted card to summon an elevator into the underworld, disappearing without so much as a word.

Unseen by them at the end of the street a psychotic blonde woman stood watching the carnage through a pair of binoculars, all the while twiddling the Golden Apple in her fingers.

'_So at last they've returned eh? Good, this place was getting so boring without them, always the same raving lies and idiocy, it's depressing.' _Lowering the binoculars Eris grinned excitedly._ 'So many mindless little bigots all waiting to be set off… This outta be fun.'_

As Harold and Billy made their way back towards the television, Gladys tapped Mandy on the shoulder and motioned for her to follow. Looking back and forth between her and Billy he hesitantly turned away and left them alone as Gladys pulled her aside into the hallway, away from anyone who would hear them. Watching them go Harold turned the volume up as Billy sat down in his usual place on the couch.

"What is it?" Mandy asked the elder woman guardedly.

"I just wanted to talk to you in private for a moment, that's all." Gladys said to the girl as she led her to the living room at the other side of the house.

"Alright, what's this about?" She raised an eyebrow as they came to stand near the kitchen table.

Gladys sighed a breath and looked solemnly down on the young girl before her. Seeing as she stood before her now stern and in control as ever she couldn't begin to imagine what she had been through following the events of that night so long ago. But she knew it had changed her, she had seen the pain when they first returned.

"I'm sorry about what happened to your parents Mandy. They were good people, and they deserved better than that." Mandy lowered her gaze as the elder woman's words cut into her. Gladys puckered her face glumly. "I know they both loved you very much. They would be very proud of you for what you've come through, and becoming such a strong young woman."

"Yeah I know." She responded weakly.

Automatically she remembered how she had taken advantage of them as if they were just two more insignificant people to rule over and control, how she had felt undisguised contempt for them for how they cowered under her will and even later felt only the most limited respect. But even after all she had put them through they had continued to love her, to see the morbid, terrifying little girl as their little girl. They had been her parents, two of the three people who had always been there for her despite everything. Once again she couldn't help but feel the heartache of remorse rising up inside her for everything she had done to them.

'_I never really cared about them until they were gone.'_

She recalled the terrible dread of wondering what had happened to them as they returned from the hospital, and the anguish and loss of finding them dead. Her breathing shuddered at the memories. Mandy knew the image of her parents' dead bodies lying on the living room floor would be burned into her mind for the rest of her life.

"It's just like that old song isn't it." She answered in a sullen tone. "You don't know what you've got til it's gone."

Gladys watched in silence as the girl sank into despondency. She had never seen the powerful and foreboding Mandy so broken and disparaged like she was now, and it tore at her heart. Mandy had known Billy since before they were five years old. She and her parents had become so close to the family that on one occasion Harold had mistaken her for their daughter. On more than one occasion so had she.

"Did Billy tell you what Harold and I had agreed on?" Mandy nodded her head.

"He told me that you said if I wanted to I could stay here until I could find a foster family somewhere else." The thought of living with a new family, people she knew nothing about scared her. She could end up with someone kind and gentle, or someone abusive and dangerous towards her. What scared her even more though was the thought of having to move away, leaving Billy behind to settle somewhere else. After everything that had happened she doubted she could survive long without the loving and caring boy.

Gladys nodded and continued.

"Well while you were away we got to talking again, and we thought-"

"You can't risk having a tyrant like me in the family." Mandy finished taking on her controlled persona again to get down to the heart of the matter. Gladys' eyes widened at her conclusion as she continued. "That's okay, I can hardly blame you. After all I was never the charitable type."

Before she could continue Gladys held up a hand and motioning her to be silent and listen. "Mandy, what if we adopted you?"

Mandy looked up at the woman, her surprise etched clearly across her face as she stared up at her. "… What?" Her voice was little more than a whisper.

"You've always been very close to our family. A few months ago Clair came to me to talk about the idea of us being your godparents in case something ever happened to them. It never went any further than just talk, but after your parents died we knew we couldn't just abandon you to god knows what, not after all you and Billy have been through together." Gladys continued as the young girl stared in silence. "You were always the one to guide Billy, and he cares a lot about you, and has cared about you for a long time. So we decided if you wanted to you could live here with us, but only if you choose to."

Mandy gaped up at her stunned. They would let her live here with them, after all she'd done to drive everyone else away? She frowned as a cauldron of torn emotions began to well inside her.

"But I was always so cold and heartless towards everyone, even my own parents. I don't understand, why would you give me this?" Gladys could just make out Mandy's voice beginning to break up at the situation she had found herself in. "I don't deserve this."

Gladys smiled and shook her head. "You do. We know you Mandy. We know there's a lot more good in you than you let on, just like your parents knew, and we love you for it. And if they and Billy can see through your past mistakes then we can too." She smirked and leaned in closer to her as she looked up to her with wide eyes. "Besides, to tell you the truth, I've always wanted to have a daughter."

'… _Love. They love me. I'm loved again!'_ Mandy lowered her head again as she felt her heart wrench and twist into a little ball inside her. She curled her hands around her elbows and shrank away from the woman in a way that showed how perfectly vulnerable even she could be. Without looking up at the woman who had given her the chance at a new beginning she nodded ever so slightly.

"Okay." She said in a voice so soft Gladys could barely hear it. She could see her face, downcast as it was, harden into a controlled neutral mask, trying to cover up and control the emotions that were ready to make her heart burst. It wasn't hard to see the tears welling around her eyes though. It made her heart melt.

"Sweetheart, don't worry." She placed her hands on Mandy's shoulders as she quickly looked up, struck by the word the elder woman had used for her. Gladys smiled warmly at the wide eyed girl. "It's alright. We're not going to judge you."

'_Sweetheart…'_ Mandy could only look into her new guardians caring eyes for a moment before her tears came running freely down the sides of her face. She moved into her embrace as she buried her face into her shoulder. Gladys wrapped her hands around the girl's back as she let out several weak shaking sobs, holding onto the loving older woman's back as tears continued to streak down her face.

It felt like one of the dreams she had where everything was alright, and none of the suffering and loss of weeks past had occurred, only this wasn't a dream. After she had lost everything, she had been given it all back on the will of three people who had loved her when she hadn't permitted love in her life. Now she could be with Billy and have a loving family here, all the while working with him towards carving out the future world of her dreams. She was now being held in the same way they had held Billy not long ago. At last she was now at a place that really was a home.

"_Thank you."_ Mandy whispered softly in response. Gladys closed her eyes as her own tears welled up at the sound of her voice.

As Mandy continued to press her head into her carers embrace and her sobs stopped she began to think of how her life would be like now that she had become part of their family. First and foremost she would not make the same mistake as she had done with her previous parents. Whereas she would continue to be cold-hearted and merciless to the corrupt she would not show such contempt for these people. She would return to them the same love as they gave her, she owed them that much.

The subject of love bought her to another topic, one which had some slightly inconvenient implications for her and Billy.

"Hey." She called for Gladys's attention softly as she opened her eyes and moved out from her embrace, drying her eyes on her hand as she returned to her old controlled self once more. "There's just one thing I was thinking about."

Mandy calmed herself as she searched for the right words to express her thoughts in a calm and controlled manner. "If I become part of the family, will that… make Billy my brother?"

Gladys thought for a moment, wondering what the point of this was. "I suppose so, if we officially adopt you into the family. If you want we could have it so that we were just your guardians. Why?"

Mandy pursed her lips and looked away to the side as a scarlet blush crossed her still restrained features, crossing her hands in front of her. "Well... I was just thinking, even if we're not related…" She stammered uncomfortably and looked to the ground, having never talked with anyone about awkward subjects like the one at the forefront of her attention. "Well it's just… it would be kind of awkward … to be in love with a brother."

Gladys was powerless to suppress the ear to ear grin that came over her face, and the joyous howl of laughter that accompanied it.

* * *

Moments later, after Harold told his son to ignore the sounds coming from the living room, he directed his attention to the doorway as Gladys and Mandy rejoined them. Billy followed his fathers gaze, noticing his mother with a grin on her face and her hand resting on Mandy's shoulder. To his surprise Mandy also held a slight awkward smile, and it beheld all the joy and happiness she had found in her life during their time together. It made her entire being change from one of darkness and control to that of a light-hearted, joyous young girl who would make every day he spent with her better. Automatically he felt drawn to her.

"So did you tell her?" Harold asked with a grin.

"Yeah." Gladys answered, Billy looking back and forth between the two.

"And?"

Gladys looked down to the beaming Mandy at her side, who just nodded calmly. Billy found himself becoming more and more confused as now his father broke out in a joyous grin.

"Did I miss something, or am I just getting stupid again? He requested perplexed.

"Remember how we talked over the phone about allowing Mandy to stay here until she found a foster family?" Gladys asked happily. Billy nodded, remembering back to their conversation over the phone at the motel. Gladys glanced down to the happy and smiling Mandy, who lowered her face again and stifled a laugh. "Well there's been a slight change of plans. While we were hiding out with the Nergals your mother and I got talking again. You see Mandy's always been so close to this family, and it would be just awful for her to have to leave us now that we're all she has left. So we decided, if she wanted to she could stay her with us permanently, and it looks like she's agreed to it."

The three watched on as the boy's eyes widened as he realised what that meant. Mandy and he would now be living under the one roof side by side. His face lit up with an ecstatic brilliance all his own, a huge grin forming as he looked to Mandy. She stared right back, the same elated smile on her face.

"… You mean… she's gonna… we're gonna…" He struggled to speak as Gladys held up a hand to quiet him momentarily.

"There's just two things I should mention." She watched as they stopped and listened. "Mandy has asked that while we're going to be taking legal charge of her, she will remain a separate part of this family, so though you two will be living under the same roof she will not be your adopted sister."

Billy cocked his head to the side, baffled by this odd turn of events and conditions that Mandy herself had so desired. A thought struck him. _'If she formally became a part of the family that would make us brother and sister, and we're brother and sister on any level that would make it really weird to…'_ He looked upon Mandy, noticing her returning to a slightly shyer stance before her new guardians. _'Would she really feel that way for me? We've been through so much together, but could she really feel the same way I do about her?'_ His heart began to race as he considered the thought racing through his head.

"Mandy feels for her own reasons that it would be better that for now at least you and her stay as friends." Gladys explained while the newest member of the family remained oddly quiet, content to let her deal with the uncomfortable situation. "So while she's a part of this family now, she's not your sibling, either by relation or adoption. You understand?"

"Okay." He spoke softly, trying to act as if his head wasn't caught in a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings centred around the blonde.

Mandy blushed slightly, averting her gaze to a blank spot on a nearby wall. Before she would have thought it unthinkable to show such a reaction to anyone. But this was Billy, the person who had been there for her after her family had been taken away, who had run with her to hide away when their lives fell apart, who had forgiven her for her lack of kindness and respect. And it was him who held her close when she was hurt, and comforted her when all her hopes and dreams crumbled to nothing, and had then given her new ones that had shown her the way to triumph. She figured that after being so close to him for so long she could permit herself to confide in him.

But not now. There were better times for that.

"One other thing." Gladys turned to Mandy who looked up. "If you're going to live here with us that's great, but there's just one rule you have to remember; I'm the boss." She pointed her thumb at her chest for emphasis as she spoke seriously. "Everything else is common sense. Outside you can act the way you want, but in this house I'm the queen, and you will follow my orders to the word. Is that perfectly clear?"

Mandy stared flatly at the woman, noticing the faint gleam of madness in her stare. It was a stretch for her, seeing as she was so used to her own brand of micromanagement. Grimacing momentarily she relented.

"Fine, but I retain the right to be a tyrant outside these walls." She scowled sternly at her guardian before relaxing as Gladys smiled happily.

"Good! Then it's agreed, this will be your home from now on. Harold and I will be willing to do whatever we can to help you settle in." Gladys spoke as Mandy moved over to her seat on the couch.

"Don't worry, I think Billy and I will be fine on our own." She answered as she sat her small frame down on the couch next to her friend, the four watching as a man screamed in terror at the sight of a giant kitten. Gladys glanced across to her kids as they sat with their sides touching and had to hold back a grin.

"Sooo…" Billy began. "What's the deal with not wanting to be legal siblings again?" Mandy smiled.

"I'll explain it all later." She said to the quietly perplexed boy, swinging herself around so she could prop her legs up on the end of the couch and lean back into Billy's embrace. Reaching up she put her arms around the back of his neck as he leaned back against the corner and placed his hands around her waist, smiling at her as she nestled herself in comfortably. From the side Harold and Gladys each watched how close their bond had become with a smile, her new family each sharing in her quiet elation.

* * *

**This whole thing seems kinda chopped up to me. I never was any good at family or emotional moments. Oh well, hope you enjoyed.**


	37. The Great Demon Prince

**Hello again, another fortnight another chapter.**

**This one was a real killer to get together, but I think it pays off. You're lucky I'm such a perfectionist about timetables and such. It also sucks that my attention span is so short it would have run out by the time you're done reading this sentence. Oh well, you guys are worth it, not that I'm doing it for you.**

**In this one we start by basically recapping everything that's happened so far, which you can skip if you want. Also Mandy finds peace with her parent's deaths, we catch up with some old characters and places from the series, and Billy gets something very special.**

* * *

**The Great Demon Prince.**

Later that evening.

"Alright, what's been going on since we went down with the freaks?" Harold asked the two as plates of spaghetti bolognaise were set down before them by Gladys, Billy and Grim, who had returned earlier without saying much of anything, only that he was attending to minor duties. He never spoke much for the rest of the night. Planting his nose into the rich mix Harold took a sniff, and a smile came upon his face. "Thanks honey."

"You mean the Nergals?" Mandy corrected as a plate was put in front of her. She lowered the severe scowl on her features momentarily. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, and no, he means what he said." Gladys responded as she sat beside her husband and began to eat. Pausing Mandy looked across to Billy who sat on her left, seeing him looking back with a heap of spaghetti in his mouth, and nod his head.

"… Yeah that's true. Maybe not Junior though." She relented and stuffed a forkful of meat and pasta into her mouth. As the taste worked its way through her mouth she paused. Gladys watched as her scowl melted and her eyes became glazed over and distant.

"Is something wrong?"

She shook her head. "No. It's just, I remember this from before." The taste of the familiar dish bought back memories of their past lives, and how she had eaten this very dish here many times before. The memories bought feelings of a homely nature. It felt as if this place had been her home close to home long before it had all been taken away.

"So what have you two been doing since you've been gone? You both seem so much more…" Gladys searched for the right words to convey how proud she was of the two. "… mature. You've both grown up so much since you left."

As if to back up her statement the two smiled softly under her praise. Mandy in particular relished in the warm feeling that came over her from her new guardian's appraisal. It wasn't that Claire and Phillip hadn't done so, she had just never payed any attention or care. Now though she wouldn't take such a feeling for granted.

Billy looked across to her. "Should you start or should I?" He asked, more inviting her to talk for him. Usually it was her who did the talking, though Billy was more than capable of pitching in when he had something to say. Still as the leader she felt it best to explain it from the beginning, and she was more adept at explaining events such as this anyway.

"Okay, well…" She started to think back to where everything began. It took effort to go back through so many memories as the beginning to their 'adventure', if you could call the nightmare they had gone through that, stretched back several years. She sighed as she recalled how long they had been living in the presence of a monster, and had never suspected a thing. "Do you remember Max?"

Harold and Gladys frowned and shared a glance between each other, perplexed by what he of all people had to do with any of this.

"Of course, you three were good friends." Gladys remembered the charming and polite boy who had come over here so many times since they had first met years ago. He had always been such a model person that she had absolutely no trouble in dealing with him even on bad days. Whereas Billy could admittedly be incredibly impulsive and random, and Mandy had been so domineering and harsh, he was, almost by definition, the perfect child.

"Well he wasn't exactly as friendly as he seemed. This whole thing revolves around him. He was the one who was trying to kill us all along." Mandy told them, seeing their eyes widen in disbelief.

"What! Max was the one…" Gladys found herself largely lost for words, almost unable to believe Mandy had just said that. She thought maybe she had heard her wrong as Mandy would never joke around on something as serious as this. She didn't really joke around on anything, something Harold had forgotten.

"Heh heh. You mean goody two shoes of all people was a cold blooded killer?" Harold scoffed at the notion. Max was just too nice to do something so diabolically evil. "I'd like to see-"

"Uh dad, I don't mean to shoot you down in flames and all, but we had to fight Max off with everything we had and in the end we still only got away by the skin of our teeth. So trust me when I say that goody two shoes wasn't exactly as sweet and innocent as we thought he was. He tried to kill us, and we had to go through hell and back to stop him." Billy replied gravely.

"But Max was always such a good boy. Why would he… How could he just turn around all of a sudden and do all this?" Gladys stammered out as she started to stress over what she was being told, and was starting to sink in more now.

"Max was never the person we all thought he was. He was always a murderer, before he came to us." Mandy explained to them as the two sat in silence. "Max came from the far future, created by myself with supernatural powers and sent back here so he could help me in a… political revolution. Unfortunately he had other ideas. He chose to go rogue, working towards his own goals by helping me rise to power, so he could then kill me and take my place. He only acted like a friend to gain our trust."

Harold and Gladys sat in shock and rapt interest as Mandy began to explain how she and Billy had first met him near the ice cream store, and how he had started going to their school the following day. She told them about what she had seen of how he had easily overpowered Sperg, sparing his life so he could be a servant and source of income for him.

"When he looked at me…" Mandy leaned her head into her hand as she recalled the moment she had first seen the true side of Max, feeling the hairs on her skin stand on end. "It was like he was devoid of any compassion or care, like there was nothing inside him except cold logic. He was so… absolutely cold and unfeeling. He didn't even take pleasure in what he was doing, he just did it out of logic, like a robot. I should have seen it then that he was dangerous, but he was just so much like me that I sort of respected him. He was like a mentor to me because he shared my beliefs so closely."

She continued on to how he had set out on his killing spree, purging those deemed a threat by his previous master, of which Irwin was one.

"I don't really know why he killed Irwin. I suppose it was because he had something to do with trying to oppose me when I began to find my own success. It must've had something to do with me bruising his pride. Anyway Max was the one who killed Irwin and his family. He killed them using a demonic energy he had been created with, sort of like a living weapon of mass destruction."

"Wait, demonic power? How could he have kept something like that hidden for so long?" Harold asked, unable to identify one piece of evidence to suggest…

"The TV." Gladys spoke up. "Remember how the TV always used to flicker every now and then? Ever notice Max was always over here when it happened, and it never happened unless he was here?" She had noticed this strange occurrence long ago, but had simply dismissed it as more lunacy. She couldn't imagine how he could have interrupted the signals to their house and all nearby just by being in the area. Now she knew.

Moving on she regaled them about how the night following Irwin's demise Max had taken her to the Doolin house to propose an ominous deal, entailing him helping her in her rise to power as her second in command, in return for her leaving Billy. Said boy was interested to hear how she had turned his offer down despite herself at that time wanting to leave him as well. It was due to this, the fatal error in Max's plan of Mandy not taking the bait like he predicted she would, that had set him on a new path, one that had devastating results for everyone.

"On that Friday afternoon we were leaving the mall when he attacked us in the parking lot. We couldn't see any part of him because he was wearing a cloak, but we knew he was powerful because he turned the place into a vision of the moon."

"You mean a beautiful silver disk held high in the night sky surrounded by a billion brilliant stars?" Harold asked.

"I think she means more a pockmarked landscape of lifeless desolation." Gladys interjected.

"Right. We only just managed to fight him off when Billy distracted him long enough for me to score a glancing hit. But before I got him he broke Billy's right arm, so we had to get him to a hospital. Because there was a good chance he was waiting for us at the local one, we had to steal a minivan and go out of town for awhile to get his arm in a cast."

Mandy continued on how they had spent a good few hours at the hospital, from where Billy had called them to warn them of the danger. She told them she had called her parents, but no one answered, and fearing the worst they had made their way back to Endsville. Gradually Billy moved closer to her as they neared the part they were all dreading. Her explaining about the night she had come home was enough to wound the hearts of all present.

"When I found them… mom was looking up at me from the floor." She took on a trance like state as she found herself in the moment once more. "Her eyes were… I can't explain it. It was like she was crying out to me in her last moments, as Max took her. Like she was asking me why, why has this happened to us?"

The five sat and listened in solemnly silence, as she regaled how her family and their close personal friends had met their end. There was a deep pain evident in it, a regret that she would not be able to forget as long as she lived. Beneath the table Billy and she wrapped their hands around each other for support.

She hardened her features again a few moments later and soldiered on as they each took small bites out of their dinner, loosing interest in it as Mandy continued on what they had been through. She told them about their miraculous getaway, staying at the motel, telling them about the cabin, Billy's phone call home and buying the not so new car and taking off northwards on a grand tour from south to north. She regaled them about their new home amongst the cool northern forest, and their utopian life of luxury far from their concrete and pollution-filled home. It was the first time they, especially Mandy, had ever come to appreciate the beauty in nature.

"Grim taught us both how to drive, as well as use guns while we were there. Billy had to wait for a few weeks until the cast came of, but he picked it up easily… enough…" She ground to a halt upon noticing the outraged look in Gladys's face.

"Oh hell."

"YOU TWO WERE USING GUNS!" Gladys shrieked and panicked over her kids being allowed to wield such dangerous weapons.

"Where did you get them anyway?" Harold asked incredulously as his wife hyperventilated in her seat.

"Grim has a case full of them, enough to fight off a Soviet armoured thrust." Billy explained. "And Mandy has her own from a while back. It's gone now but, well yeah, we used lethal instruments of death. Why?"

"Wh…" Gladys turned to Grim at the end of the table. He inched back in his seat fearfully under the woman's enraged glare. "Grimey, did you teach my kids how to use guns?" Her eye twitched noticeably as she prepared to bellow a vengeful mouthful of outrage at the deity of death. Reaching down under the table she procured a large battle axe, holding it outstretched in her arms pointed at him. Why she had stored a battle axe under the table only she knew.

"Uh, I really think you should give him a break just this once." Mandy said. Gladys turned to her, all her livid outrage still plain in her face.

"You want me to what? He could've gotten you both killed!"

"If he hadn't taught us to fight we wouldn't have been able to make it through everything that happened later. If not for Grim, we would be dead, and Max would now be standing over the ruins of the world. So with all due respect, I strongly recommend you rethink your judgement." Mandy hardened her features into her old scowl, evident that though she would respect her new guardian she was still going to take a stand for what she believed in, regardless of how angry Gladys was.

Gladys could see the reasoning behind Mandy's words. If they had to face Max without the ability to fight back she wouldn't have seen her son again.

"Uh mom." Billy interjected. "Just so ya know I actually offered to let Grim go at one stage. But he didn't go, he stayed right by us the whole time. And he almost died trying to protect us, but he still kept on fighting. So just remember, you should thank him that we came back to you alive."

Gladys couldn't keep up her fury under the pressure. She relented in her accusation as a sense of guilt began to well in her at having proverbially spat in Grim's face for saving her kids. She turned back to him apologetically. "Sorry. Thanks for taking care of them Grim." She admitted meekly. It wasn't much, but it was enough for Grim, especially considering she was lowering the axe back under the table.

"Eh, t'was nothing. Don't worry about it."

With that little issue settled she continued on how Grim had spent the time researching on the other victims in search of anything that would shed light on who their enemy was. She told them about getting the computer, their run in with a gang of neo-Nazis, and then spending the next month largely as a break from all the stresses of life in paradise, and all that had transpired since, the twin hourglasses, and their encounter with the army in the town. They had stayed there for another month, towards the end of which their paradise was lost due to the fight they had together. She found it difficult to talk about what transpired over the next few days, and of Grim telling her to give up her pursuit of power and control and to open up to others. She had to pick and choose her words carefully to avoid letting her real plans slip.

Moving on she told of how she and Billy had made up, and how Grim had found out about the effects of time travel on the hourglasses, calling Mandark, who later told her their enemy had come from the future. Later they had left, burning the cabin so as to cover their tracks, which it seemed didn't work out in the end. Upon their arrival at Mandark's new laboratory in Chicago he showed them to a machine capable of sending them where they needed to go to find information. They used it, going through to what was, in essence, an alien world.

She went on to describe the dystopian nightmare world they found themselves in, where people had begun to feed on each others decaying corpses. A world of black skies and lifeless soil, watched over by a mechanical army which could barely keep itself functional. She told of how they had begun to realise they were being watched, to being captured in a surprise attack, until they woke up in a prison cell, and what followed.

"They… tortured you? Oh Mandy…" Gladys stammered out, horrified at the concept of one so young being put through something so horrible.

Mandy nodded downcast, clearly uneasy with the feelings of fear and sheer anguish the memories bought up. The care and support she was receiving from her family made it all the easier to endure though. "They drove nails through my hands and shocked me for a few hours. I was dropped back into the cell just before Grim and the resistance came and broke us out. We escaped with them and they took us into their base."

The three continued on describing their few days there, meeting the general, the bleak history of the collapsing Night Empire, and volunteering to be their trump card in the imminent revolution.

Grim smirked. "Did you wanna tell them about your little drinky-drinky or should I?" Immediately Billy and Mandy's eyes went wide and they all turned to him.

"What?" Gladys asked.

"You swore you'd never tell!" Mandy shouted, only for Grim to smile.

"I said I'd never tell anyone that you got drunk."

Billy waved him to stop talking while Gladys faced the two kids angrily. "Did you get drunk while you were away?"

"No they didn't." Grim added. "Don't worry woman, I made sure to remove every last drop of alcohol in deir drinks. Dey were none the wiser."

Billy and Mandy looked at each other wide-eyed. Gladys and Harold looked back and forth between them, and a smirk began to form on their lips.

"You mean… we got drunk on non alcoholic beer?" Mandy asked quietly horrified. At that Grim burst out laughing at their expense, along with Gladys and Harold. Looking back at each other mortified as a huge embarrassed blush worked its way across their faces at the memories of what they had been like afterwards.

Mandy then explained about how she had been taken to where they were holding the officer who had tortured her, and after her original mercy was mocked with a sneer she had sent him to hell. They then spoke of the congregation where their battle plans were announced, as well as the underlying real agenda of the resistance. Mandy felt it better to keep the discussion between Billy and her a secret. Such personal feelings were best left personal.

She moved on to how they had attacked the fortress, going up against an army of machines and a mechanical leviathan. Then came the revelations of what she had done, and how she had ultimately destroyed herself through her isolation and loneliness. Mercifully Billy cut in just after this, explaining about how she had simply left him behind to go it alone. God only knew what would happen if they found out what she had really done. They also omitted the personal details of their little moment together afterwards.

At some point during the explanation Billy found himself holding Mandy's hand under the table again.

Billy went on to speak of how he had called the general out on all his hypocrisy. He felt the sense of power and rage rising within him, daring him to just rise up and go on a rampage then and there. It was a feeling like no other, yet he kept himself under perfect control.

Soon they summed up how they heard as Max wiped out the resistance behind them, how he had caught up to them in a stolen car, and his being rammed off the road and shot by Mandy. The confrontation after he came back to life was surreal, almost as if they couldn't believe it themselves as they spoke it. He knocked out Grim, knocked out Billy, tried to get Mandy's scythe, realised he had failed, was almost defeated by the three together, took the scythe, realised he had won, and was finally destroyed by the Empress after hitching a ride back in her scythe.

Mandy's head was in a tired whirl by the end of it. _'From now on I have to choose my friends better._' Her disoriented daze was shared by the entire family regardless of wether or not they had been through it.

"I think dinner's gone cold." Harold commented.

"Well it was around five when we started talking, and it's now ten, so it makes sense." Grim remarked noticing the time on the clock. They had been talking for five hours non stop.

"Okay you two, Grim and I'll clean this up. You get ready for bed. You've got a lot more to do tomorrow. Mandy you're in the spare bedroom." Gladys spoke. They both left their half-eaten dinner and went upstairs.

* * *

A few minutes later as the three adults cleared the table below the kids were already lying in their beds, letting the day's exhaustion take them. Mandy, dressed in the short pink top she had taken to wearing to sleep, was quietly staring up at the darkened ceiling, while a multitude of unorganised thoughts roamed through her head. She found the spare bed to be far better than the one she had slept on during their time with the resistance. Not quite as comfortable as the one she slept in last night though. Now that her fear and aversion towards love had been lifted she found she could not stop thinking about him. The memory of feeling Billy's arms wrapped around her danced in and out of her mind, and suddenly she found she couldn't get comfortable without the feel of his presence nearby.

Everything she had recently opened herself up to was still new and unexplored territory for her, and she was still finding it an awkward process getting accustomed to these new feelings. Absent-mindedly she thought back to the feel of his body heat when she had been in bed with him last night, and suddenly she found her face growing very warm and a new nervous tension fill her, causing her eyes to dart around from one end of the darkness to the other.

Grizzling irritably she pushed those thoughts from her mind and rolled onto her side, trying to assess what she would have to do next. Though she wasn't going to deny herself of those feelings anymore, she disliked feeling lost and powerless. She still had to carry herself to her own professional standards. It was part of the reason she feared these feelings in the first place, and something that she and Billy would both need to deal with.

'_I still have to tell him how I really feel about him.'_ The thought still felt like a weight on her stomach.

But there was much work to be done outside of their relationship though._ 'Mandark's dead. I doubt he'll t be able to provide me with the research I need now. He said about that friend of his Dexter, but he was always against what Mandark and I were involved in, he'll never agree to help. The guy's probably in a prison cell or dead by now. There's Skarr, but he and I were never on good terms either. Plus he's too personally ambitious, he might betray us later.'_

Mixed in with that however was the fact neither of them had any good idea what had happened to Endsville or the rest of the nation since the suspension of the constitution was declared. What did the new dictatorship look like outside these walls, and how would they need to approach it? That though was a side note, and could be dealt with easily enough tomorrow when they saw Junior. She knew what her priorities were.

'_My first task is to find another genius capable of developing the machines and finding genetic immortality for Billy and I.'_

With the vague plan set Mandy sighed and settled down into the soft little nest of pillows and blankets she found herself in. _'But I need one who could easily be swayed to my side. Someone smart, but weak-minded and arrogant. I could use their arrogance to lure them to my side, and once they are of no more use I'll get rid of them.'_ It occurred to Mandy this was the exact same thing Max had been planning, to use people and then do away with them in the end. Then again, she had to admit Max and she did share many traits and behaviours, if not the same moral compass.

'_But if their arrogant they're likely to turn on me as well by the end of it, so I need to ensure that they can only profit from any deal after I'm done with them. Oh well, I can deal with that later.'_ Putting aside such matters she let herself sleep for the night, turning her mind towards the comfortable warmth of the bed. She wouldn't be asleep long before the traumatic memories from earlier invaded her unguarded mind.

* * *

She felt cold, and profoundly uncomfortable.

Before her stood a tall, thin man in a black overcoat, along with two massive robotic guards. Her arms were spread out beside her, locked in a vice-like grip facing them upright. Looking to the guard on the left she saw a pair of razor sharp steel spines held in its armoured hand. She recognised it all too clearly, and a faint gasp of dread tore at her lungs.

'_Oh no.'_

The officer stood watching with a slight smile as the machine advanced on her. All at once her composure fled her and she tried to sink back into the rig holding her. She couldn't face this pain again. Just the memory made her feel sick.

"No! Don't!"

Watching horrified the machine closed in on her, and positioning the spine against the centre of her left palm reared its hand back and drove it through, along with the other hand in the same moment. At the same time the memory of what it had felt like came back to her, along with the image of the spines sticking out of her hands. She shut her eyes.

"Aaaahhhh! No, it hurts! Mom! Mommy!"

Instantly though she kept her eyes shut the man and the guards both vanished, leaving her alone in the rig, dripping blood from her aching wounded hands as she hung her face, a stream of tears running down her cheeks. She sobbed quietly to herself.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, for everything I did to you. Please hear me. I wish you were here. I wish you were here for me."

"_Its okay sweetheart."_ Came the voice of her mother from inside of her.

"_We're here now."_ Her father's voice spoke.

Throughout her pained body a warmth and comfort washed over her, like they were holding her close. Mandy clenched her eyes ever tighter and a renewed stream of tears and sobs broke out as every ounce of guilt and remorse and grief came out.

"Mommy… Daddy… _I failed you!"_

"_No Mandy. We've seen how you've grown up, what you've been through and done. You've made us both so proud."_ Her mother spoke softly, and a cry of heartache escaped her mouth. After a moment her racking sobs lessened, and she gathered herself for her last words to them, to tell them what she wished she had told them long ago.

"I love you." She spoke shakily but with conviction. "I always loved you, even when I never showed it."

"_We know sweetheart."_ Phil responded. She sensed a smile from him. _"And we're not the only ones, isn't that right?"_

Mandy remained silent and still, knowing they had seen right through her and to what she and how she felt for her opposite. Again she sensed their smiles.

"_We want you to know that your mother and I support you in your relationship with Billy. We always had an inkling."_

"_Don't hold back. You and Billy need each other. You always did, right from the beginning. And you know he feels the same way for you."_ Claire told her, knowing she would need her guidance here more than anything. _"Soon the time will be right to tell him. You'll know it when it comes."_

Mandy nodded. "I will." She faltered as another thought came to mind. "You know what it is I'm doing right? You've seen what's happening to the world, and what I have planned for it. I honestly feel I have to do this, but I can only do it if you are okay with it."

"We have seen what you have planned, and we support you whole heartedly." Phil responded. _"Those evil people out there need to be punished, and the innocent need to be protected and honoured. You have to do what you believe is right. Just don't lose sight of it along the way."_

"I won't." She swore to them. "I'll make it a place you can be proud of. I promise."

"_Thank you."_ He whispered in reply. She felt their presence leaving her, along with the pain in her hands and the rack holding her upright. This was to be the last time she would ever speak with them. She was sure to make it count.

"Mom, dad. I…"

But there was nothing else left that needed to be said. She had made her peace with them. She closed her mouth and smiled to them as they smiled back.

"_Goodbye sweetheart. Know that your father and I will always love you, and we'll always be watching over you."_

And it was done.

Mandy's eyes open and she found herself lying in her bed, her face and pillow wet with tears. Her breaths were calm, and she felt warm. Sitting upright she reached over and switched the bedside lamp on, illuminating the room a soft yellow. Pausing to calm herself and clean her face with the back of her hand she wondered if anyone had heard her, or if she had spoken out loud at all. She listened and waited for the sound of footsteps coming up to her door, but heard nothing.

Sitting back against the bed head she thought of what she had just experienced. Quickly she felt an awful tension growing inside herself, a kind which could only be resolved by one person.

Slipping out of the bed she made her way shakily to the door, careful to not alert anyone to her activity. Opening the door slightly she could see the lights in the hallway were out, but there was still light and the sound of movement downstairs. No one had noticed.

Carefully she emerged from the door towards Billy's room, hoping that maybe he was still awake. Maybe she would stay with him, or maybe they could just talk. Either way she just needed his presence. Opening the door to his room she noticed his form lying asleep in his bed. She watched his features cast into a still mask of calm as he lay on his side facing her, so unlike the usual bubbling force of anarchy that welled from within him, the moon shining in from the window.

The pail light caught her attention. Turning her eyes from the sleeping form she froze, staring agape at the image of her old house. The moonlight shone down on its bone white walls, lighting it in a chilling relief that was exactly like the night she came home to find her mother and father dead. She found herself completely overwhelmed by the piercing image of the haunting house. Stuck deep in its chilling embrace she made her way through the door, closing it behind her as she walked towards the window in a trance-like state.

As she stood at the window, staring blankly out at the world beyond, she could see it clearly, the geometric shaped building standing stark in the darkness, the full moon high overhead. Police tape, torn and abandoned as it was could still be seen out the front of the overgrown lawn. While the yard showed the appearance of a lush jungle in development the ghostly white walls couldn't be more different. They were pail, pail _'like my parents skin when I walked in and found them both dead. I saw them dead. The dead bodies of my parents. The lifeless…' _

Billy stirred from his sleep, having dimly heard someone entering his room and stop somewhere close, only to stay there. Concentrating he could hear laboured breathing coming from near the foot of the bed. He raised his head up and opened his eyes, finding Mandy's form illuminated in the moonlight. She was staring out into it almost as if under some curse.

She vaguely recognised his activity to her side even in her daze of trauma as he got out of bed to walk up behind her. To feel him place his hands softly on her shoulders though eased her out of the pit of anguish she had fallen into. Lowering her eyes away from the haunting visage she let herself fall back slightly into the boy's presence. He moved one hand to wrap it around her small bare waist to comfort her in her vulnerable state, knowing what was going through her mind as he looked out to the white building. Mandy let her gaze return to the house, remembering the good life she once had in there, with two people who loved her.

"I miss them Billy." She said softly as he continued to comfort her. "I wish I could have valued them a bit more when they were alive, that way maybe I wouldn't have made so many mistakes. I wish I could turn around and undo everything. But…"

Mandy broke off as she stepped out of Billy's embrace, moving in towards the window again. She pressed her hand up to the frame as she looked out across to the front window of her house, looking into the darkened living room where she had found them that night.

"… I have to wonder, if they were never killed, would I still want to take it all back? Would I still love them if they were still alive?"

She continued to watch the house for a moment more, until she lowered her head to rest down on the glass before her, all the grief and loss she had suffered coming to the surface within her. She closed her eyes as her heart contorted once more, a stream of hot tears spilling down from her eyes. Stepping in Billy pulled her away to wrap his arms around her back as she turned and buried her face into his shoulder. He held her there as she cried softly for the loss of her late mother and father.

* * *

Grim thought quietly to himself as he leant against the wall outside the door, having heard everything of Mandy's way of grieving. Whereas before she would have crushed the pain, writing it off as weakness, now she was able to open up and let it out, and be supported by someone who loved her. In addition he had been able to give Phil and Claire the last words they deserved so they could properly say goodbye to each other, and Mandy could find her peace. He smiled vaguely.

'_Dose two are gonna be just fine.'_

Smiling he made his way down the stairs towards the front door. Checking no one was watching he stepped out the door to the front lawn, waiting by the roadside. He summoned his scythe, looking up and down the street impatiently.

'_Don't tell me he's gonna be late.'_

But 'he' wasn't. Seconds later a deep rumble could be heard coming from up the street to his left. Turning to face it Grim saw a headlight appear in the distance, coming up quickly towards him. Gradually the rumbling sound grew louder and lower, and a menacing black Suzuki Boulevard pulled up on the opposite side of the road, the rider wearing a silver-grey full face helmet. Switching off the engine the man disembarked, walking calmly across the road towards him, reaching up to undo the chin strap and lift the helmet off, revealing a mane of orange hair and an eye patch.

"Did you get a good sample of his personality?" Hoss asked as he stepped up. Grim reached into his coat and withdrew the empty Tokarev Billy had taken to using and handed it over.

"Like I said, do dis for me, and I'll give you yer old legs back, plus give you low level regenerative healing." Grim spoke to which Hoss nodded. "Alright. I gotta pick up some other people first."

He swung the scythe, a portal forming to the Nergal's cavern which they both stepped through before closing. He would have to talk to Nergal, as well as his old friend-enemy Velma Green first, before taking them all down to Level F, and hopefully starting on a special project he'd had in mind for a certain red-headed maniac.

* * *

Upstairs Mandy stilled her sobbing after a minute. Billy continued to hold her as she dried her eyes on his shirt. She let herself linger there in his arms as she bought her face up to his. The blue eyes looking back held all the care she had ever wanted, and set her in a state of perfect comfort as he held her close. She laid her head against his collar as she just enjoyed the moment, feeling the warmth of his embrace against the cold night air.

After a moment she was ready to go back to her bed. But before she left she couldn't help but look back up at his caring face again. She almost wanted to tell him how she felt then, but knew it just wasn't the right time. So instead while still in his arms she leaned around and gave him a soft little kiss on the side of his cheek. Billy seemed to shrink in on himself as an enormous blush spread across his face as she slipped out of his arms, feeling his hands brush across her soft waist as she withdrew.

"Goodnight Billy."

Looking back as she opened the door she saw him turn around to look back to her with a small smile.

"Goodnight Mandy."

She smiled awkwardly in return before she closed the door to go back to her own room, feeling like she was on a high. As she made her way back under the covers of her bed, letting herself relax from the rough emotional night, she found that she simply couldn't suppress the little smirk on her face.

'_So this is what it's like to be in love. This is stupid, but I could get used to it.'_ She thought contentedly to herself.

Her thoughts returned to that of her parents. Though she was at peace with their loss the pain was still there. It occurred to her that this was what hundreds of thousands of people all over the world were going through because of the depravity of those around them. For the first time she had a real sense of wanting to protect others from what she herself had suffered, just as much as she wanted to make the ones responsible suffer ten fold for what they had done.

'_In my future the people should respect and fear me, not criminals, murderers, rapists and the scum of the earth. I'll create a world of order and respect, where people can live in safety and security so long as they obey my orders and are responsible for their own actions.'_ She hardened her features as a determination came to her as she thought of how it felt to lose her parents again. _'No one should go through that.'_

Mandy meditated on her desire for order and stability for her new world order before she let herself fall into the darkness encroaching on her consciousness from within. As she slept she wouldn't have known that her decision would ultimately affect the nature of her rule in the future, leading to an orderly civilisation that was both a dystopia and a utopia to the people within it.

It seemed the future Night Empire had just found a dawn.

* * *

The next morning.

Billy opened the door and emerged from the bathroom, newly showered and dressed for the day. Drearily he ran a hand up across his face and through his hair. His friend in the bedroom nearby may well have slept soundly after their emotional encounter, but he hadn't. The thought of what awaited Mandy and him kept him awake early into the morning. He stepped down the stairs out into the living room, where Mandy already sat eating a sandwich. She turned to see him descend and make his way over to where she sat at the table.

"Good morning." He spoke in a soft, welcoming voice, his bright side shining through for her.

"Morning." Mandy's voice still held an authoritarian tone to it, despite the widespread reforms she had implemented following their trials together. Just the sound of that stern, controlled voice gave rise to an electrical storm of enthusiasm inside him. It had always been a drug to him, capable of controlling his very mindset, and that was how he liked it. She watched as his kind smile twisted into a satisfied smirk as he sat down facing her. "What?"

"Nothing." He hummed in reply and seized a box of colourful cereal, tipped it up and began to devour its contents dry from the open end, still smiling to himself. Mandy glared at him, and his smile grew as he swallowed a mouthful. "I never told anyone this, but I always liked your scowl. I think it's cute."

He chuckled to himself as Mandy paused caught off-guard, looking absently at his collar before a flush of warmth swept her face. Billy watched as she tried and failed to stop the ends of her mouth curling upwards, and a wide smile broke out across her features.

Billy watched her happily. "I like your smile even more."

"How can you like both?" She retorted eager to retain some sense of dominance.

"Because your smile is so rare, it's precious."

Crossing her arms Mandy pouted, puffing her cheeks out as Billy up ended the cereal box into his mouth, reached across and grabbed the cardboard milk carton, and poured some in. Attempting to look cross she turned away with a huff, before spluttering out a laugh.

"Moron."

"Heh heh…" Billy swallowed the mass and faced her again. "So what're we gonna do today?"

"Didn't Junior say he wanted to talk to us at the ice cream shop today?" Mandy asked returning to her usual stern self.

Billy nodded as he set aside the noxious sugary breakfast. He relaxed back in his seat with contemplation on his features. "Did you notice how he reacted when we mentioned the Freezing Brain?"

"I noticed." Mandy remarked and threw down the last of her sandwich as they sat at the table and looked out the window, taking note of everything happening outside. It didn't seem too different to what they remembered it had been from before they'd left save for the black cruiser parked outside. But surface appearances could be deceiving. "Something happened to him while we were away, and it would have to be something in Endsville that did it." She frowned at the view, the lawn badly needed to be cut, a job for Grim to do today.

"Grim!" She barked out waiting for the spectral form to appear from somewhere. She continued to wait for another few seconds, with no skeletal being appearing anywhere.

"Hey Grim, Mandy's got a surprise for you!" Billy called out, hoping to lure the oftentimes gullible reaper out. Again they were puzzled when no one came.

"Oh Billy? Mandy?" Came Gladys's sing-song voice as she stepped in from the hallway. "Grim's not here. He left a note for you." The two turned to face her as she came and delivered the piece of paper to Billy's hand. He and Mandy looked over the writing in black texta.

'Going out for a few hours with some old friends. Be back with something special.'

"Something special?" Billy raised his eyebrows in wonder as he and Mandy tried to imagine what their servant had planned for them. After that they'd make him do the lawn.

"Well he'll be back later so, I guess we have some time to spare." Mandy said as Gladys continued on upstairs, leaving them alone. Billy looked across to her with a somewhat solemn look.

"Are you alright?" He asked, referring to last night.

Mandy nodded. "Yes, thank you." She spoke quietly. "I mean, it'll take time, but I couldn't confront this without you there for me." She answered him as he leaned forward on the table towards her. All the grief and anguish she had felt in loosing them had now come out, and now that she had someone with which to share the burden she could be certain that she was going to get through it just fine. "I'll be alright. I just gotta work through this at my own pace."

Billy nodded his head as Mandy leaned forward, putting her finger against the table.

"Look, if we're gonna get settled down again we're gonna have to know what we're up against here, from Endsville, National Unity, all of them. I need to know what happened to him, and who did it, and what we have to look out for." She spelled out. Billy sat back with a troubled visage.

"We're gonna have to break it to him about Max." He spoke soberly. "Junior never had many people he could call friends. I think Max was a lot more important to him than either of us."

They thought in silence, until their attention was drawn to a flash of green taking place out front. They watched as a pillar of spectral green flame rose up out of the lawn, searing a small part of it brown as it dispersed, revealing Grim as he exited the vortex, followed by Nergal and Junior, as well as Hoss Delgado behind him. He looked over from his place on the patch of brown grass through the window where Billy and Mandy sat watching them arrive.

"This is very odd." Billy said as he jumped from his seat to head out the front door. Mandy followed after him at as they confronted the group standing in front of the fading portal.

"Good morning Billy. How are you two?" Grim asked as he stepped up to him. Billy frowned up at him in wonder as Gladys and Harold came out to join them.

"We got your message. Where were you? What the hell is this?" He asked guardedly with a strain of aggressive over-confidence derived from the former childishly pompous way he used to poke and prod at Grim and Mandy's tempers. Grim grizzled as he looked across to Nergal.

"Little arrogant, but managed. Aggressive, but managed. You were right, he's got real potential." He answered him with a smirk, drawing Grim's gaze back to the baffled youth before him.

"You know when you said Billy I didn't believe you at first, but you weren't kidding, he's definitely got something going on here." Hoss remarked bending down to scrutinise him. "No bullshit, from what you've told me he's got demon lord material written all over him, even if he's just a punk now."

"Excuse me, but will one of you shit-for-brains talk like I'm actually here." He demanded, Junior smirking. He was looking forward to what was coming. Billy stopped and frowned. "Wait a minute, demon lord?"

"Billy, during our time in hiding you proved to me dat you were more than worthy of wielding great destructive power, both for the vanquishing of the depraved and protection of de righteous. You also showed dat you also possessed the correct… how shall I put dis… 'frame of mind' with which to use it properly." Billy nodded in understanding as Grim laid it out to him. "So yesterday evening and last night Nergal, Hoss, Velma and I took a little trip down to research and development on Level F in the underworld, and…"

He pondered over how to introduce the boy to the new horror he had created specifically for him. Listening and waiting on edge Billy noticed Grim and Nergal's faces morph into a pleased grin. "Remember how we made that deal, dat if you could safely master a gun, den you could master the dark forces of the universe?"

Billy's eyes widened in anticipation and his mouth went dry.

"Guys, you know it's not a good idea to keep a maniac like me hanging."

"Alright den. Close your eyes and hold out your hands."

Billy looked questioningly up to Grim and Nergal, then across to Mandy, and back to their servant. He relented, closing his eyes as he extended his arms out with his hands upwards and focussed on his hearing and touch. A few seconds later he heard the sound of something being summoned from the underworld in a rush of flames, followed by the feeling of an object being placed into his hands. As soon as he felt the staff-like shape touch his palms he picked up on a sense of prickling energy that flowed like a ripple throughout his skin, like static electricity. From what little he could discern from it the object in question felt heavier at the left end, with a strange texture which while rock hard tended to give ever so slightly under his grip, as if the material was slithering out to form temporary hand grips for his fingers. It was slightly cold, and damp, like it had been pulled out of a swamp.

He also noticed the faint tingle he felt a moment ago was still there in his hands, having grown in intensity to a mild sensation of pins and needles. He tightened his eyelids as he felt the prickling pain suddenly shoot up his arms, washing across and throughout, dispersing into every cell of his body. He almost gasped when he realised he could feel himself all the way through, and became acutely aware of his own organic existence. His cells were dividing, dying, and there were electrical currents running through his nerves. He quickly got used to the awakened sensation as the buzzing rapidly faded.

In the following few seconds after the wave had washed through him, he felt subtly though profoundly different. Something throughout his entire body had changed, though he could not say what. Through the faint buzzing the first thing he recognised was the heavy beating of his heart in his ears, along with the rushing of the storm going through his lungs. As he tuned out from the sound of his own existence he next noticed an uncomfortable tightness throughout his body, and felt as if he had suddenly grown in muscle mass and strength. He felt a strong need to be active, to run and jump, and below that a desire to hunt.

'_What's happening to me? I feel… powerful all of a sudden. I wanna go destroy something. But why?'_

"Okay Billy, open yer eyes." He heard Grim say. Though he knew he had said it no louder than normal the voice sounded clearer, as if he were able to pick up on every minute vibration in the air with acute precision. His senses had been tuned and improved. He could hear Mandy's shallow breathing next to her, shallower than normal he noticed.

_She must be staring in surprise at whatever it is I'm holding. But how do I know all this? And how can I pick up on her breathing anyway?'_

Letting his eyes open they quickly adjusted to the brutal sunlight, taking in his surroundings in perfect clarity in an instant. He felt said eyes widen as he looked down to his hands. Sitting there grasped between his two hands lay a ferocious demonic green scythe.

He gaped openly in stunned amazement as he studied the weapon. The shaft was black with flakes, veins and seams of a glowing green crystal within it. The glow moved and fluxed across the length of the shaft from within, while the veins themselves stayed perfectly still. In amongst the green veins lay flickers of yellows, oranges and reds, each flake giving off an overpowering, empowering rage and bloodlust, even as it lay sedate and at peace in its young masters hold. Despite the shaft being cold and damp to the touch, it felt almost welcoming in his presence, and he could make out where the crystal had moved to form grooves for his fingers to rest in whilst still retaining their diamond hard quality.

Turning his gaze towards the end as he raised the weapon upright, a satisfied grin formed on his face as he took in the twisted, primal and sadistic shape of the blade. Whereas Grim's onyx scythe was a simple curve, and Mandy's was a hard geometric shape taking the same overall pattern as Grim's, his was a shining steel blade with a faint green hue, cut in a malicious set of jagged edges and large teeth-like projections. It curved downwards in a jagged fashion like the other two, only at the end it rose back up slightly.

A dark sneer crept across Billy's face as he felt his powerful new weapon. Grim smiled, seeing this was probably worth more than a lifetime of Christmas and birthday presents to the boy as he fantasised about all the destruction and anarchy and slaughter he would cause with it.

"Okay listen up. Dis scythe is powered by the same basic energy as all demons, angels and supernatural artefacts are, but it also imbues special strains of this energy unique to various races, hence why Nergal was instrumental in creating it." He gestured towards the demon as he gazed with pride on their master craft. "Like Mandy's it is primarily a weapon for destroying your enemies, but it will create just as willingly if you want it to. Its primary powers are control of all elements, in particular those related to earth, summoning demons to do your bidding, raising vast structures for whatever purpose from scratch, creating portals to the most far flung regions of the universes, and being able to change the form of different objects, creatures and people. Basically in return for sacrificing some fighting and reaping potential, it'll do just about whatever you will it to do. So while it won't be as devastatingly overpowered as Mandy's, it can do much more." Grim explained while the boy nodded, never taking his eyes off the thing for a moment.

He smirked at how he took in every detail as if he were looking at it under a microscope. "One ting you'd be especially interested in is de effect it has on its master. Because it holds the power and abilities of demons in it in many different forms, as well as being bound to your own consciousness, not only can you channel that power to use it as a weapon, but you yourself can, on a whim, become one."

Billy looked up perplexed, unaware of how Mandy beside him was looking at him with shock.

"Didn't you feel it when you took hold of it? Didn't it feel like something had just changed inside you? Did it feel like you suddenly became stronger and much more powerful, like a monster disguised as a human?" He taunted his mind with these eerie suggestions. Billy remembered the feeling exactly.

"You now hold within yourself a small portion of the power of all the races of demon. On a whim you can turn yourself from being ordinary human Billy, to a fully fledged demon lord, with or without de scythe."

Billy gaped in shock as he once again felt the subtle change in his being. Patting his hands across his body he searched for anything out of the ordinary. As he searched he bought his hands up to eye level, seeing the fingernails held a very slight green pigment in addition to the skin tone underneath. Grim lowered his own scythe for the boy to look in the reflection of the blade. As Billy looked into the reflection his eyes centred on themselves. Staring back was a pair of slightly feral blue-green irises, surrounded by whites that now held a green tinge to them. Baring his teeth he saw that they too were a pail green.

"Whoa…" He spoke in a daze. Raising his hand again he gave it a flex, enjoying the tightening of the muscles and tendons.

"Its personality was designed from the outset as an offshoot of its masters, so together you and it will serve to unconsciously fuel each others fury in battle or when confronted by corruption. If you want to return to human again it's as simple as focussing on being human. The scythe's presence inside you will recognise your will and make all the changes disappear so you go back to normal, whatever normal is for you." Grim instructed.

Billy considered what he was saying and followed suit, focusing on going back to his semi-normal human form. Before he even knew it his reflection had changed to that of his human self, and he felt all his extra strength and sharp sensed return to their normal relaxed form. He continued looking into the reflection as he willed his demonic features to activate, and as such they immediately returned, giving his eyes and parts of his body a faint green hue again. The changes gave him a feeling of power, like he had become a living natural disaster. He smirked again madly.

"Why don't you give it a try?" Nergal suggested eager to see how their work performed.

Billy locked his enhanced gaze on a tree in his front yard. They remembered the Taking Tree which had over time caused many inconveniences for the family, and anyone passing nearby, due to its occasional bouts of kleptomania following the death of his favourite baseball player, eaten by mutant squirrels while imprisoned in its trunk. Billy sneered viciously at the possessed tree, making his way towards it with the savage new scythe glowing green in anticipation for destroying something, Mandy and the others following close behind. Mandy couldn't help but feel slightly inspired by the presence of savagery and destruction the boy exuded as the annoying tree noticed his arrival.

"Well hey there Billy. What's that ya got there huh, something new for me?" It asked of the scythe, eager to snatch it out of his hands at first chance. It barely even noticed the demonic changes in the boy's body even as he grinned maliciously at it.

"No my thieving little friend, but I do have something for you, just to say thanks for stealing our stuff for all these years." He answered in a sadistic mocking tone.

"Huh?" The tree only just noticed the malice in the young man's voice as Billy reared back with the scythe, swinging it in and ramming the jagged blade into its side. Instead of stopping there he felt the blade's momentum lessen with the impact, then rise again, eating its way through the trunk in just a moment as he swung the scythe through. Looking at what it had done he saw the scythe had ripped apart a wide band across the front that rained shards of plastic from toys, broken gadgets and the occasional piece of clothing.

The tree gaped in shock as Billy recovered from the swing, levelling his new scythe at the opening of its mouth. With a thrust he blasted out a wave of green energy that landed inside the tree, spreading throughout it in an instant. It barely had time to react before a mass of razor sharp black crystals shot out from its surface, tearing it to sawdust in a microsecond, leaving a demonic abstract sculpture in its place.

Gritting his teeth through a thin smile Billy twisted his fingers across the staff with satisfaction. He had only just touched on its power, and already he was deeply enthralled with it. The thought of what madness he could reign down on the debase people around him filled him with an eagerness to unleash its potential some more.

"Wanna get to know it some more?" Grim asked behind him. Turning around with a slightly crazed glimmer in his distorted eyes he faced them.

"You read my mind."

Reaching out Grim called on his own blade, channelling its energy into creating a portal beside the group facing the road.

"We know a place where you can do just that."

Stepping up to and through the portal Billy, Mandy, Gladys and Harold all looked about their surroundings in wonder. Billy and Mandy quickly recognised it as the same place they had gone to years ago after Billy and Irwin's videogame addiction, the group standing amidst a clearing in a barren rocky mountain range beneath the walls of the menacing barbarian castle. They both gazed in surprise as before the group stood two people, Velma Green, queen of the spiders, and F, head of supernatural research and development, both waiting for them.

"Hello Billy. Hello Mandy. It's good to see you all again." Velma spoke as Billy stepped forward.

"Velma? F? You're part of this too?"

"That's right." The eccentric scientist replied. "We'd been collecting a compendium of supernatural energies for some time, but when Grim came and gathered us all together for this, out of his own wanting to do so I might add, we all figured it was the right thing to do."

"What are we doing here?" He asked of the dark landscape, Velma moving forward to take over.

"This level of Limbo is one of several used as a dumping ground for supernatural beings deemed too corrupt and dangerous for their natural realm. Normally they all tear each other to pieces on sight, but recently a warlock has taken control and has built his own small army out of the lowlife scum. We've observed them in advance. Some of his creatures are powerful, and we know he has some level of magical ability, but they are no match for you and your new scythe."

Grim stepped in and took over. "This is really for you to get to know what you can do now. Take your time and explore the scythe's abilities. If you need to escape just form a portal back here." Reaching into his robe he drew the old Tokarev and handed it back to him, along with two full magazines. "This is just as much about your own new abilities as it is about de scythe so it be good to try fighting without it as well."

Nodding Billy dug the gun into the back of his pants and the magazines in his back pocket. Looking over them all he gave a smirk and took off in the direction of the castle before them.

His family and friends watch tensely as he took off up the long flight of stairs ahead of them, running and bounding up with noticeable vigour as he stretched his newly upgraded muscles. Nearing the entrance he skidded to a stop, setting himself on guard and alert as the gate opened upwards, and a dozen or so short, bony grey creatures rushed out to greet him. Billy regarded them intrigued as they snarled and snapped with animal aggression. They were deranged goblins, he realised, armed with a multitude of crude swords and spears, and clothes made out of rags, if any.

Readying the scythe he grinned crazily at the small horde as they roared and launched themselves down the stairs at him, by which time Billy had already figured out a plan. Backing away down the stairs to draw them all out beyond the cover of the gatehouse he slashed right and left, severing the heads and limbs of the first two, waving the scythe to deflect a round of hacks, breaking several of their swords in the process. Stepping across their front he dealt a long diagonal slash that tore through another four, severing them from their legs all the way to their necks, splattering the ground with their blood and body parts.

Watching as the first half lay in pieces before him either dead or screaming mindlessly in pain, the gazed on as the remaining half edged towards him more cautiously with spears and swords at the ready. Dropping low to the ground on all fours he flexed his muscles and leaped up, soaring over their dumbstruck faces as he dropped down behind them, bisecting the skull of one on the way, and immediately went to work. Gleefully he hacked and slashed at each of them, the demonic blade chewing through their bodies like a chainsaw causing blood and gore to fly. After several short, brutal seconds of slaughter he left them lying dead on the stairs behind him as he made for the doorway, examining the bloody blade and staff with a happy-go-crazy smile.

Heading inside he held the staff in his right hand as he looked about intently. The stone corridor was poorly lit, but strangely his eyes could see easily, taking note of everything around and ahead of him despite the gloom. Looking to one of the few flickering torches he noticed something interesting. Though he could see the flames as they rose and died away a few inches above the burning surface, he could make out the hot air rising up away from it, seeing it as a mysterious red-white glow that dimmed as it dispersed.

'_I can see heat.'_ He realised with a start.

Continuing on through the hallway between the square supports, in the darkness ahead he could see momentary flashes of soft heat peaking out from behind the base of the columns, and quickly realised they were more creatures hiding in wait for him. Stepping off to the side he took cover behind the nearest column to his right. Training his ears he could make out their convoluted breathing and shuffling, and estimated he was facing much the same group as he had hacked away at before. But now that he had caught wind of their ambush he could experiment with bringing his own tactics into play.

Aiming the scythe behind him he formed a small portal, calling forth a small force of a dozen of Velma Green's spiders. Gesturing his orders with his hands he sent them scurrying silently around the other side of the columns towards the enemy's position. He shuddered momentarily; he was still slightly edgy about spiders. Waiting until they began their attack he listened as the enemy soldiers suddenly shouted out in alarm and began fighting and snarling in grating voices. Watching the carnage from behind cover he saw they were more goblins.

Rushing out he began hacking his way through the remainder. His naturally fast and honed reflexes helped him deflect and side step every slash and stab from their crude swords, butchering the remainder while being careful not to harm his spiders. In seconds it was over, their bodies littering the ground, though sadly three spiders had died with them. Looking towards the end however Billy saw two survivors fleeing in terror; a chance to test his scythe's magical capabilities. Aiming it at them he called on his weapon's affinity for earth and solids, raising a high wall of the same stone of the floor to block them off. For a moment he watched as they hit the wall, bashing mindlessly against it, before they began to turn on each other with their swords. Before they could kill each other altogether Billy focussed the blade on them, calling on the air element to send a string of invisible blades of gas towards them, cutting them both into several pieces. With them dead the wall burst and dissolved away into energy. Turning he formed another portal for the spiders to return them to their realm.

"Thank you." He spoke reverently, unsure of what he really could say knowing that three of their number had died for him. They each looked to him surprised at his show of respect, bowed and filed into the portal before it shut after them.

Continuing along the hallway at the end he stoped and listened around the corner to the right. He could hear soft groans, slowly shuffling feet, and along with them the ghastly smell of rotting meat. Peeking out cautiously he saw the hallway was littered with twenty or more zombies, noticing they emitted little or no heat signature. They were spread out along the corridor. Though he'd longs since been immunised against zombie bites, it would take time to clear them manually. Raising the scythe he drew its power out, gathering a mass of fire in the air. Ahead the undead abominations turned towards him as he sent it rushing down hallway, pouring across the zombies and searing them. Watching as it cleared however he was displeased to see them still standing, the burns going no deeper than the skin.

'_Fire doesn't work.'_ He surmised, seeing it was also drawing the zombies towards him. Trying again he drew on ice, sending a current of freezing cold air down over them. This time it worked to good effect, causing everyone ahead of him to freeze solid. Stepping out into the open he raised the scythe over his head, charged the blade and swung it down into the stone floor, causing an earthquake to spread out ahead of him, travelling up their legs and into their bodies, shattering them all.

Their destruction cleared the pathway to the end, revealing a lone zombie-like creature left, larger and stronger than the others and without decay, wielding a drum-fed Russian RPK machine gun. His eyes widened in surprise as it locked its bloodshot eyes on him, gave an ugly snarl and opened fire. Acting on adrenaline Billy jumped up over the line of fire, bounding back and forth off the walls and ceiling, all the while wondering in the back of his head how they got a gun in the first place. Dodging the continuous fire he raced in for the kill, bringing the blade in on the abomination's right shoulder, ripping it in half all the way across through to the left side of its abdomen. Gurgling momentarily the two halves fell over, spilling congealed blood and pieces of organs on the floor as he stepped over the two pieces of carcass, blowing the wooden door behind it to pieces with a blast of energy and descended the winding stairs down.

Exiting the stairs he found himself in the grand chamber. He recalled this as the place he had confronted a giant red insect. Standing at the other end was a small, ugly little man wearing a tattered old piece that looked like this garbage dump realm's equivalent of a regal robe, who turned to gaze at him in alarm. Looking at the yellow eyed man he was not sure if he was another goblin or a mutated human, but he quickly sensed mad delusions of grandeur and a lust for power and cruelty. In his right hand he held a large wooden staff topped by a ram's skull, and in the left a bag of belongings. Accompanying him however were two enormous grey-skinned trolls, standing nearly ten metres tall. The hunched creature turned around and glowered at him hatefully.

"Going somewhere?" He grinned at the delusional sorcerer.

"How dare you trespass upon my kingdom! You shall pay for insulting my splendour!" The ugly creature cursed at him, causing Billy to grin even harder and let out a snigger.

"Says the man dressed like a hobo."

Snarling the warlock raised his hand to point at him. "Kill him!"

At once the trolls stepped around him to attack, while the man raised his staff towards them, uttering a short chant in some supernatural tongue and casting a spell on them both as they move in to kill him. Grinning with excitement Billy jumped up as they brought their fists down. As he fell he slashed at the larger one, however finding the blade wouldn't cut as easily as before, hacking a long ravine through the skin on its shoulder and back, and realised the spell was a kind of protective shield. Dodging left and right he darted out of the way as they landed blows on the ground, frustrating them and keeping them from getting too close. Lashing out at their hands he found the same result, giving them long but shallow cuts across their fingers and arms that only served to fuel their rage. Jumping up again he touched down on the smaller one's arm, bounding again up onto the top of his head. As he'd predicted the larger of the two landed a crushing blow to the other's head just as he leaped back, knocking it off balance. Acting fast as it fell towards him he levelled the scythe at the ground, raising a bed of razor sharp green crystals under it and jumped off to the side as it fell, impaling and killing it.

Racing back at the remaining troll he jumped up and dealt a hard slash across its chest, though failed to do enough damage, with the result of him getting brutally hit by a back hand that hammered him into the opposite wall, the troll staggering back holding the wound.

Groaning as he fell back to the ground he searched for injuries, and aside from some cuts to the right side of his face where he'd hit the wall and soreness he was okay, putting it down to his recent demonic upgrade. Recovering he quickly began searching for a way to get around the physical barrier protecting his enemy. Looking back to the warlock he noticed not only had he not continued in fleeing, but he was still standing with his staff raised. The realisation dawned on him; he had to manually keep it active. Casting out a billowing stream of purple energy from the blade he formed several of Grim's mindless frenzied monkeys that immediately attack the troll, distracting it as he turned back to the corrupt old man.

Running back towards him the warlock cowered in fear as he attacked. Turning his staff the creature jabbed in his direction, emitting a blast of fire. Side stepping it at the last moment Billy scowled and swung the scythe down in a perfect arc, cutting off both his hands. The man staggered back screaming as he held up his stumps, blood spurting from the arteries as Billy took the staff with his hands still attached and crushed it through the middle with his powerful grip, disabling the low level spell. Checking on the troll he saw the remaining three furious monkeys now starting to cause real injuries as they tore at its flesh, and each other.

Turning back he lashed out with a kick that hit the warlock in the chest and dropped him over on his back.

"NO! PLEASE HAVE MERCY! PLEASE! IT WASN'T MY FAULT!" Begging for mercy he cowered and whimpered. Billy however just grinned crazily, lowering the bloody blade to his face, increasing his mindless terror. Screaming and thrashing about he tried to push away with his legs, only for Billy to step in and cut them off below the knees, causing him to scream in pain further. Raising the blade he opened a portal directly to one of the underworld's more horrific hells directly behind him.

"You call yourself superior, this is what ya get." He remarked and kicked him in contemptuously.

Turning back to the troll as the portal closed and it destroyed last monkey in a burst of purple he withdrew his Tokarev, lining up the sights with its head and firing all eight rounds one after another into the side of its face and neck. The bullets blew deep wounds through its skin and flesh, opening holes through the blood vessels in its throat, but none penetrated its thick skull. The wounds caused blood to fly and spatter down across his shirt and face as he walked calmly in, watching grimly as it clutched the side of its throat. Releasing the barrel and returning the gun to the back of his pants he flexed his ready hold of the staff, and uttering a slightly feral roar he jumped and swung the toothed blade of the scythe straight upwards, bisecting the creature from its hips up through its brain. Turning over in the air he fell in a crouch facing the monster. Standing he opened his arms to revel joyfully in the rain of blood as it fell in halves.

"KYAHAHAHAHAHAA!"

When the blood ceased to rain down on him he smiled and flexed his neck, turning around and opening a portal out of the castle, stepping through back to where the group stood looking intently, beaming happily despite being splattered all over with red blood.

"Enjoy yourself?" Mandy asked, to which he gave a creepy laugh and nodded, returning to his normal full human.

"Oh I'm gonna have a _lot_ of fun with this." He replied, all the while noticing Grim holding a crystal ball, showing everything he was seeing as he saw it. His smile fled as he moped slightly, he hadn't quite intended for all of them to be watching, especially his mother and father. Looking to them they saw they both seemed okay with it. "So what'd you guys think?"

"THAT WAS THE MOST HARDCORE THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!" Gladys suddenly screamed out madly before recovering. They each looked to her strangely for a moment, seeing her standing calmly as if nothing had happened.

"Velma, about those three spiders that died, on my orders…" He lowered his face slightly. Velma held her hand up for calm.

"Do not worry Billy. My soldiers have no fear of death. Their minds are limited in scope, and will sacrifice themselves willingly. But I saw how you thanked them. For someone like you, who respects them for their sacrifice, they will fight with zeal to the end of the world and beyond." That set his mind at ease.

"Okay then." Billy spoke as Grim formed another portal that took them back to the front lawn they'd been moments ago, cleaning Billy of all the blood that had coated him moments ago. He turned to face him.

"Now Billy there's two things you need to know. First, I expect you to use dis power with responsibility for de betterment of those who have concern for their fellow man. I don't expect you to just cut loose and destroy everything in your sights." Grim spelled out to him seriously. He nodded in response.

"I won't. It'll be good to be able to do something constructive instead of just destroying stuff." Harold and Gladys smiled quietly at that, seeing how responsible he had grown up to be.

"Secondly, though your body and abilities have all been enhanced significantly as you have seen, this is only a halfway stage in your transformation." He spoke, causing Billy and Mandy to frown in wonder. "At this stage you're really more of a vigilante street punk, but as time passes and your personality becomes that of one worthy of the title of demon prince the transformation will complete. You will still be able to turn back to human on a whim, but what you will eventually become will be infinitely more powerful than what you are now."

Billy nodded in thought. "Okay. I guess I'll get used to using what I got now first."

"Wait a minute." Hoss spoke up suddenly stepping to the fore and turned to Grim and them. "I held up my part in putting this together, now I want my payment." He announced, drawing everyone's attention. He lifted up the bottom hems of his jeans revealing his prosthetic metal legs. "I want my old human legs back. My arm I'm fine with, but I want my legs. And I want to be able to regenerate from injury like him."

Billy and Grim turned to each other. "Sure, but my scythe can't regrow tings like dat. Yours can though."

Looking between them nervously he relented. Carefully he levelled the scythe at his metal legs, willing to his scythe what he wanted to happen. Acting as if it was on autopilot a thin stream of calm green energy leaked from the blade, drifting across and into Hoss's body. He froze, looking down to his legs as the metal component quickly vaporised, and a new pair of limbs formed to replace them in only a few seconds. Raising his new right leg he reached forward and touched his ankle, smiling at being able to feel human cells again. In addition he could feel a buzzing flurry of cellular activity throughout his body that slowly calmed, sensing his new survival ability had taken effect. He turned to the boy with a restrained smirk.

"Kid, you ever need anything and you can count on me to deliver." He spoke, to which Billy nodded back.

"One more thing." Mandy spoke up beside him. "What's its name?"

Billy looked from her up to Grim who only shrugged. "It's your scythe Billy. You name it."

Turning his eyes down onto its savage blade he thought. He remembered the brutal glee with which he had slaughtered his depraved enemies, of watching them scream and run and fall in a pool of their own blood. He had felt so alive in battle, so perfectly at home in slashing left and right across his opponents numbers, like a Viking warrior gone to Valhalla.

Suddenly his eyes flickered and widened, and a dark smile crossed his features.

"Berserker."

All of those present around of them gave an evil little smirk at the predatory conviction in his naming.

"Ooh, ooh, hockey stick! I want that hockey stick! I think it's important that I have that… stick… thingy! Yes!"

Instantly the ominous moment was disrupted. Scowling flatly they turned to see the chubby green demon waddling up towards them from down the road, eager to get his grubby fingers on it, while Gladys and Harold gaped frightfully. Billy didn't wait another moment as he opened a portal underneath Fred's pads, immediately sucking him down into the underworld like had been done for years now. And like all the times before he knew he wouldn't stay down long.

"Okay friends, I'll see you later." Nergal said as on a whim a gaping hole formed in the street, collapsing down into their cavernous abode far below. "Junior's going to stay up here for a little while so if you could send him back down when you're done would be great. Enjoy the scythe Billy!"

"I will, and thanks!" He called as the demon stepped back, falling into the hole. He was immediately followed by a car and a street light knocked over by said car as the driver swerved in a vain attempt to escape certain death. Far below a crash could be heard, followed by Nergal's voice before the hole closed, sealing the sounds within.

"OW! Stupid piece of god damn mother fu…" The remainder looked on as the ground reformed into the way it was, minus one car and a street lamp.

"Oooookaaay." Billy said as they each looked at one another quietly. After him Hoss took his leave, putting his helmet back on and riding away on his Boulevard, while Velma created her own portal back, leaving Harold and Gladys to return inside.

"So, you guys wanna go get some ice cream?" Junior asked with a noticeable hint of despondency.

"Yeah alright, let's go." Mandy said as they began to make their way down the footpath into town. She turned back to where Grim was following behind. "Grim, the lawn needs mowing, and Billy's sculpture needs to be put in the garbage."

"What! After all I… Grrr stupid…" Grim snarled disdainfully as he turned around to begin his chore. Billy caught the sleeve of his cloak in his hand.

"Wait Grim, I'll do it." He said. Grim blinked in surprise before a smile crossed his bony features.

"Well thank you Bil… What are you doing with that?" He asked concerned as Billy levelled Berserker at the centre of the front yard nearby.

He didn't have time to yell out for him not to as he charged it up and blasted a bright bolt of green plasma at the ground. It exploded with a brilliant flash and searing heat, and enough force to blow the group backwards with the shockwave, knocking out windows throughout the neighbourhood. They each recovered from the blast, looking to where a stout mushroom of choking black ash and dust rose from the sight of the ground burst, drawing a trail of blackened smoke with it as it rose into the sky. Billy sniggered madly as he stepped back from the supernaturally radioactive cloud, his hair and clothes billowing slightly in the breeze as the cloud tried to suck them in towards the centre, where a large crater could be seen through the slowly clearing dust.

Watching from their position by the pathway Mandy smoothed out her hair and clothes as she saw that the windows of their house were unbroken, due largely to the fact that they had fitted thick glass after years worth of small supernatural disasters such as this one. Ironically they were the ones with the lowest insurance premiums despite it being ground zero for just about everything. The crater had cut into the water lines, and was having predictable results in turning the small chasm into a pool.

"Oh well, good enough." Billy commented, seeing that much of the surrounding lawn had been seared brown. He looked in towards the dirty liquid pooling in the crater with interest. "Muuum." He called out in his best Aussie bogan accent. "I dug another hole. It's filling with wauda."

"Okay sweetheart." Gladys called out unaffected from within having not particularly listened.

The group each began to make their way down the damaged street towards the centre of town, ignoring the radioactive mushroom cloud as it dispersed overhead, dropping glowing green fallout around them which would probably fade to nothing in the next few hours.

Mandy waited and counted. "Four… Three… Two… One…"

"Wait what! Filling with wauda?" She shrieked, noticing the rain of ash following the nearby explosion. "What's all this fallout falling out?"

They each continued on, but stopped as Fred waddled on past them towards the house. They stared in interest as he made his way past the pool to the front door, where he began knocking to the chant of…

"FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger…"

Billy and Junior both looked deadpanned upon the pitiful display of lunacy before them while Mandy regarded it with apathy. She abandoned the green demon to his incessant knocking as she continued. Junior watched on as Billy and Grim followed her on down the path, watching and waiting for any sign that he would turn around.

"… FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger…"

He wasn't going anywhere. Turning he hurried to catch up to them. Mandy led the way towards the business district in the distance, hurrying her steps as she made her way onwards away from the fallout, Junior pulling his black jacket up to cover his neck, ducking his face into his collar to shield himself from the dangerous invisible rays until they passed. Billy and Grim kept going largely unconcerned with the ash as he kept pace with Mandy. They each walked on through the drizzle of fallout as the mushroom cloud started to dissipate overhead.

As Fred continued knocking and Gladys cowered neurotically, Harold unwittingly moved to answer the door. Upon opening the slightly scorched wooden door he was met with the greeting of…

"Yes."

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**What'd ya think? I think I overdid the whole Fred thing but I really like how Billy's bloody unleashing turned out. I actually wrote that and Mandy's final conversation with her mother and father in the last few days. Also what did you think of Berserker? It took months just to figure out the name.**

**Next time, it's what you've all been waiting a very long time for. Right now though I won't go into details. I just hope it lives up to expectation.**

**Be sure to review. Thanks!**


	38. Together At Last

**Hello boys and girls.**

**God this was hell to get finished on time, but worthwhile for the end result. Two weeks is fine when it's just a touch up but not when you wanna rewrite the plot. But I'm sticking to it, that's just the sort of person I am.**

**This is I think what we've all been waiting for one way or the other. No doubt it's been a long time coming. Aside from the long winded conversation throughout much of the first half this is my new favourite chapter. I found it good to finally get to this part, I'd been wanting to focus on it for a long time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it, thank you.**

* * *

**Together At Last.**

Mid morning.

By the time the four had reached the ice cream shop they were already halfway through telling Junior about what they had been through. They had still to mention Max was the one responsible however, that was going to require a more gentle approach. Along the way they also noticed the hostility directed towards their friend had grown much worse since they had been away, people stopping in the streets to stare at them all the way along. He kept his head down and weathered it all, not as easily as he had previously though. When they reached the ice cream shop however he stopped in his tracks. Grim, Billy and Mandy turned back to him as he stood on the footpath outside.

"Junior?" Billy asked unsurely.

"I… I can't go in here anymore." He spoke with a sombre note. Billy set himself seriously.

"What's bothering you?" Junior shook his head.

"Something happened here, a week after you guys left." Junior began. "When I showed up here the owner wouldn't let me in, and started with the usual hate speech. When I asked him why he started screaming that it was my fault he beat his kids and killed his dog, that his ice cream went off, that he cheated on his wife, foreigners, all kinds of crap, and at the end of it he started to loose the ability to talk. When I asked him if we could just sit down and talk about it, he… he went insane."

Mandy stepped in. "What do you mean insane? What did he do?" Junior stared at the ground at the memory.

"He started screaming, and thrashing, and attacked everything. He stabbed the woman behind the counter to death and…" His eyes widened in horror. "… ate her. He tore her throat out and ate it, in front of everyone. When he saw his own reflection he stabbed himself to death, just to kill the person in the reflection. When I looked at everyone else I saw they were agreeing with what he was doing, and after he killed himself they started screaming at me saying that I killed him."

The three looked at him shocked and horrified. The idea that someone could corrupt themselves so completely as to become like that was not something they had ever even considered before. Not only that, but how could people agree with something like that? And how could they reasonably equate the man killing himself to be Junior's fault?

"I haven't been up to the surface since, until you guys came back. Pity, I sort of liked this place." Billy and Mandy looked between each other at the pain hidden in his smooth voice, Billy turning to Grim.

"Can Berserker create illusions to disguise a person from other people?" Grim nodded. Calling on his new blade he felt it materialise in his hand, and immediately the four noticed a profound change in its personality. It felt warm and benevolent to be around, even if its jagged form hadn't changed. Turning the blade in Junior's direction Billy scoured his mind for an image to fool the townspeople. Only one came to mind. A flash of blue streaked from the blade and surrounded Junior before disappearing a moment later.

Looking at himself Junior saw he was the same, something Billy, Mandy and Grim shared.

"Did it work?"

"See for yourself." Grim stated and ushered him into the view of the patrons inside. Stepping forward hesitantly in front of the windows he looked inside. The few patrons occasionally glanced in his direction, but never reacted to his presence. "It only works for de oders, not de people who cast it."

Continuing Junior stepped up to the door and entered, pausing in the doorway. Again no one reacted to his presence. The others moved up behind him.

"How are you feeling?" Mandy asked, drawing on her own experiences for understanding.

"Alive. That's all that I ask for." He responded, leading them down to a booth near the window, Grim going to the counter to hypnotise the attendant. Sitting down at the far end Junior faced the two sitting together opposite and sighed quietly. "Max has disappeared."

He watched as the two shared a stern look.

"When?" Mandy spoke.

"The same time I was last here." He explained. "I was with Piff and him on the way here, on the Friday a week after you guys left. We encountered Sperg and a few of his gang. Max demanded money off him, and he actually payed up. Apparently he had been taking money off Sperg every week for some time. He said it was in return for not disciplining him, then said that he didn't have to pay him anymore. When Piff started asking why he was so obsessed with finding you three, he went blank and rattled off something about caring about you."

He noticed Billy and Mandy each listening intently to every detail, but with a more guarded front than he had expected them to. He could also spot Grim listening in from a distance. The idea occurred to him in the back of his head that they were keeping something from him.

"A blue muscle car splashed us and drove off. After that we continued on to the ice cream place. When the owner started going off at us I told Piff to go home, but I forgot about Max. When I was finished there I looked around and he was gone. I never saw him again."

The two sitting opposite remained silent for a moment, moving over as Grim sat down next to Mandy holding a single chocolate ice cream. Distracted momentarily they looked at him questioningly.

"Only one ice cream? Where's ours?" She asked seeing him hand it over to Billy.

"It looks a little sus, I don't tink deir fridge is working so good. I didn't think Billy would mind though." Grim commented dryly as Billy sniffed his half-melted treat suspiciously and lowered it, leaving them to return to the subject at hand.

"Junior, that car that splashed you, was it a dark blue eighties Camaro?" Mandy asked him. This caught him off guard. Frowning he raised his head towards them.

"How do you know about that?" As soon as the words had exited his mouth a deep dread began to manifest itself inside of him at what they may have to say in return.

The three went quiet again, lowering their faces sombrely. Looking across to her partner Mandy put the responsibility on Billy's shoulders, knowing he was closer to the youth as his cousin. He took a deep breath and settled himself, all the while Junior's fear grew progressively worse.

"Billy?"

"I'm sorry that I have to tell you this Junior, but you need to know the truth." Billy responded gravely. "Max wasn't the person we thought he was. He manipulated and deceived us right from the beginning. He was the one who was trying to kill us."

Junior's breath caught in his throat as his eyes widened. He tried to draw a gasp but nothing happened. The first thing that came to him was panic. He couldn't face what he was saying. Max was one of the handful of decent people who had ever called him a friend. The thought of all of what they had been through, the personal bond he had with him being all a lie was immensely painful. He shook his head and lowered his face.

"No." He spoke softly. "I… I can't accept that. Max was my friend. He would never use and betray any of us like that." Billy sighed sadly and sat back in his seat facing the boy sympathetically.

"Max was sent here to protect and help Mandy, but he betrayed her. He tried to manipulate us by gaining our trust and friendship in the hope he could get close to her and then do away with us once he had no more use for her. When his plan went wrong he attacked us. He was the one who killed Mandy's parents."

"No way. Not Max!" Junior shook his head as he braced himself against the edge of the table, pushing back into his seat with his arms. He held his eyes shut as he tried to shake away the terrifying notion Billy was putting upon his shoulders. He simply could not believe, could absolutely not accept that their friend, his close companion, was a cold blooded, pitiless killer. He couldn't accept that the kind, quietly optimistic kid he had the pleasure of knowing was the one who had killed Mandy's family, Irwin and his family, and a great many others. "Absolutely not. Max wasn't someone who could do that. I'd know if he was, and he wasn't. Someone like that just can't do those things. It can't be. It just can't…"

Billy, Mandy and Grim each waited in silence for him to finish. It actually came as a fair awakening to them to see Junior, the boy who they had known for keeping a cool, calm and cultured manner throughout every hardship, suddenly become so emotionally overwhelmed. They each knew what he was going through, Max had been close to all of them. He'd been their friend for so long that to Mandy he had become almost as close as Billy. Together they each had to fight tooth and nail, shoulder to shoulder not just for peace and their own interests, but for survival, against innumerable underworld hordes and the dangers of their own slowly decaying world. After fighting beside someone like that, having saved their life and them save yours, you couldn't help but become deeply connected to that person.

And yet Mandy had seen things Junior hadn't. She had seen him staring coldly at her from under the moonlight before the Doolin house, and stare down on her in that same cold, objective manner back at the laboratory. They had experienced first hand just what cruelty he was capable of, and had themselves seen and heard what was really under that human visage. They had even felt it, the bitter cold of his gaze and underlying nature, and the brutal iron grip of his hand.

"Junior, I know how good a friend Max was to you." She told the boy as he stared at his lap, eyes held wide in shock and disbelief. "He was our friend just as much as he was yours. But if you had just seen the way he looked at us, if you could have felt what we felt when he hunted us down, then you would understand that he was never our friend in the first place."

Junior shuddered as he again closed his eyes and shook the lingering sense of doubt from his head. Though Max had been a good friend of his, who he could, and indeed had, entrusted his life to on hundreds of occasions, there had always been a very faint sense that this friend he saw before him wasn't all that he appeared to be. He sometimes felt that there was something about his smile that was just not quite right, some inexplicable detail that made him question every so often at its validity. Whereas when Billy smiled one could sense that he was genuinely happy, or crazy, due to the way he seemed to radiate it from his being, Max held no such sense of joy. Despite the fact that he could see he was happy to see him, it was as if he didn't really feel any joy at his presence at all. On the last day he had been with him he had come to realise he didn't know Max any more than on the surface.

But there were more ominous signs that he had come to notice, in the days shortly before he had mysteriously disappeared. His sudden change following the attack had been obvious to everyone, how he had suddenly become far more distant as he single-mindedly searched for any information available on the three. But even that was eclipsed by what he'd seen of him on that Friday just hours before he disappeared. That one time he had coldly thrown his classmate out of his seat to take his computer, assaulting him when he'd protested, had been so out of his usual character that he'd not known how to react to it. At the time it had felt as though he was losing the last friend he had left.

Before he would just put the issue aside as him analysing too much and take him for what his actions had proven him to be; a loyal and trustworthy friend, the type that didn't come along too often. Now though, as Mandy told stories of atrocities committed by him in cold blood, those thoughts began to cut away at the image of the perfect companion he held of him. Could it be that he'd never been the good friend he thought he was?

"It… It can't be. I can't accept that. Not Max…" He held his fingertips to his forehead as he struggled to keep his head together against the two conflicting notions. Part of him continued to push out what they were saying to hold onto the clear facts that Max was not a murderer, that he was a friend of his who he could always depend upon when times got tough. But the other part of him knew that as much as he didn't want to have that part of his heart and soul torn out, Billy and Mandy weren't lying. In the end though as much as he denied it, he knew he was denying it, and so it slowly came undone.

Junior still had a fairly limited circle of friends, and those who he did count as being part of that group were very special people to him, like family. With Billy, the fact that they were legally cousins wouldn't have mattered, as had they been somehow unrelated he would have still looked upon the rambunctious redhead as such. This was in a way how he saw Mandy, as a cousin who he wasn't in any way related to. Max had been even more to him. Whereas Mandy could be cold and distant, and Billy could be impulsive and savage, Max was practically the epitome of friendliness. He had become his brother, and he knew that Max thought of him the same way.

And now here he sat, facing the realisation that he had never been a brother at all, and that all along he had only been using him to gain trust and influence. If what Mandy was telling him were true, which he consistently told himself wasn't, then all along Max had seen him as a threat in the long run, and would have probably planned to kill him in the end with Mandy. Killed, by his own brother, who he loved as his brother.

He continued to hold his head as tears began to well up in his eyes and ran down his face, making his vision blur. He bought his head up, wiping away the tears on his hand as he sat back in an outwardly relaxed posture, attempting to regain a calm and controlled manner about himself, despite his wet, reddening eyes.

Billy moved across the table to put his hand on Junior's shoulder in a comforting gesture. Junior looked at it distantly, trying on some level to warn Billy away and prevent any more crushing news. Billy though just smiled softly and sadly, letting him know he felt what he was going through.

"Junior, I know how close Max was to you. He was like a brother to me too. And I know that it's hard to face what we're telling you. But I just want you to remember, you've still got us. We won't lie to you and then stab you in the back. You can count on us Junior, just like we count on you. And if you need to regain your trust we'll work it out at your own pace." He spoke reassuringly, seeing the boy's pained gaze begin to soften as his words took effect.

He looked solemnly back to Billy who still held his hand to his shoulder reassuringly. Despite all their faults Billy and Mandy had always been there for him, longer than Max had. Now as they gave him their support he could finally open his mind up to what he ultimately knew to be true.

"He did kill those people, didn't he? He killed Irwin and his family, and Mandy's mom and dad. Everything we ever went through together was… just a lie. He was gonna kill me in the end." He said in a flat tone as he accepted the sad truth. Billy nodded glumly as he let him come to terms with the painful facts. It wasn't everyday that one comes to find that someone you considered family never cared about you at all, and was already planning to kill you the day you stoped being useful. Junior heaved a deep sigh, balancing his head on his hands again. "Okay."

Mandy stayed silent, letting him get over it before she continue on. After a few moments Junior returned his head to its upright position as he sat back in the seat, wiping his teary green eyes under his glasses as he returned to the matter of what kind of hell his friends had been through.

"Alright, so what did you do?"

"We rammed him off the road into a river and shot him when he came up." Mandy replied unenthusiastically. It wasn't quite the same telling it again to someone who had been close to the person responsible. "Before he died he sort of gave in to the power inside him, and it corrupted him. He came back to life and started changing into a monster. He defeated Grim and Billy and almost killed me, but we managed to fight back with a combined attack at the last minute. He took my scythe right when I was about to kill him, and was about to turn it on us when the ghost of my future self came out of it and caused him to burn to nothing from inside."

Junior looked at her slightly dumbstruck, turning to look at Billy and Grim, as if finding it difficult to comprehend what they had said so plainly. They all looked back without a sign as to indicate any sort of joke.

"You cut a lot out of that explanation didn't you?" He said.

"Yeah, we kinda did. But then last night it took us five hours to explain it all, so I think there's a good enough reason to not go into every little detail." Billy answered absent-mindedly and sank his teeth into his ice cream for the first time.

Instantly his eyes went wide and his face twisted into one of horror as he pulled his teeth out of the slush.

"MADNEEESSS! IT'S MELTING ON THE OUTSIDE BUT IT'S SO COLD ON THE INSIDE!"

Neither of the group reacted with any particular surprise as Billy grasped the sides of his head and threw himself skull first through the widow out into the street in a shower of crystal shards. One thing they had all long since come to understand was that Billy was always going to be Billy, and that part of Billy was the random impulsive idiot. Though this was no longer the only side of him, having been largely superseded by the brutal urban terrorist, and the affectionate best friend, it was still one side.

"He's never gonna change is he?" Junior said as Billy continued to run around madly outside, knocking people over in the streets.

"Oh I don't know. He's developed some decent intelligence over de past few years, and he's shown that he can be calm and controlled at de flick of a switch. I tink Billy's gonna continue growing into these new features over de next few months." Grim said as he watched him run across several lanes of traffic, causing a crash between two cars and a light truck. "It'll be good to seewhere he's gonna take dis crazy aggressive thing he's started showing."

Watching he thought back to his displays of malice earlier from when he had spoken to the general when they had left the fortress, and when he had been presented with his scythe for the first time. Until recently they had been wholly unaware that underneath all the layers of stupidity, intelligence, merry silliness and calm focus, there had been a darkness that wished to see the arrogant narcissists and sycophants of the world cower and burn.

Almost as if on cue Billy ceased his idiotic screaming and straightened himself up, making his way back calmly through the carnage, pushing open the door to the ice cream shop. He brushed away several pieces of glass stuck in his face as he sat down beside Junior, almost as if nothing had happened. He sighed happily and resumed eating his ice cream, though taking care to lick, not bite.

"That was nice how I made those two Mercedes' veer off into that dog food truck don't you think?" He spoke in between gulps of chocolate, remembering how the arrogant faces of the drivers morphed into horror as he darted out in front of them, swerving to avoid damaging their cars. Outside hundreds of stray rabid dogs bounded over towards the overturned truck, eager for the tasty freebies spilled all over the road. The two yuppies emerged from their no longer prestigious cars, their thousand dollar suits covered in ground up horse meat and organs. Each of the group watched as they ran screaming down the street as an army of dogs chased after them ravenously. Mandy, Junior and Grim held a blank stare while Billy smiled in sadistic contentment as the two became overrun by a biting, barking pile. From the door of the truck turned on its side the sweaty driver emerged, saw what was happening and ran.

The screams of the two pompous idiots now fading away as the dogs did their savage rabid work. By the time they were finished and fled the scene the two rich men were left almost naked, sporting dozens of scratches and bite marks, twitching and shaking in shock. The group lost interest when they saw they hadn't been reduced to skeletons and returned to face each other a few seconds later. The people out in the street barely gave the two much more than a glance, more concerned with the minefield the dogs had left behind in the feeding frenzy.

Billy narrowed his eyes on one man who walked by with his nose in the clouds. He smiled in satisfaction as said man stepped in one of the mines, shuddering in disgust as he hopped up and down and surveyed the mess on the bottom of his expensive shoe. As he hopped around he overbalanced, falling expensive suit first into several more steaming piles.

'_I love my life.'_ Billy thought to himself blissfully as the man then ran about screaming, falling in the pile of dog food nearby, after which another pack of dogs began to chase him down the street.

Junior regarded Billy's blissful smile with restrained curiosity before shrugging his shoulders as Billy abandoned his ice cream out the window. As this was happening neither of them payed any particular attention to the police car that pulled into a parking space nearby. Had they turned to watch they would have noticed that the two very corrupt officers look into the store and recognise two of them as they sat at their booth.

"So what's been happening in the town? How's school been going since we've been away?" Mandy asked. "Has it gone downhill?"

Junior shook his head in contempt. "I'm not really sure. In the week after you left it started to really get out of control, but I haven't been there since the last Friday. I don't know what it's like now."

Billy, Mandy and Grim's eyes became attentive. "What happened while you were there?" Billy asked.

"The teachers just sat around drinking or doing nothing all day. There are no real classes, except for party doctrine. A few new teachers have started using the classes to instil the whole white supremacist policy. The students have started using drugs in the hallways." He grimaced in disgust, himself scarcely able to comprehend just how far south the school had gone. "Even before Max left Sperg's started to take power. Last thing I knew he was starting to rule the place like a gang lord. And Mindy's now the least popular girl in school thanks again to our so-called friend Max, Trixie, and a photo of her covered in bugs."

Billy and Mandy shared a look of concern at what they were going to do with their time there, before the red headed boy smirked, remembering taking the picture.

"They were talking about merging the high school into it, so if we do go back we might be sharing the place with a thousand teenagers." Junior continued. "From what I hear the high school's just as bad."

"What do the few honest souls there do if it's gotten so bad?" Mandy asked.

"Well on the last day I was there they were going to the city library to study there. I don't know if it's still open but it would be a good place to check up on."

Mandy thought quietly and nodded. _'If the school really has gotten that bad then maybe Billy and I could use that time to prepare for our takeover. Tomorrow we might use the time to maybe find someone to replace Mandark. It would be a perfect cover; that we're both supposedly studying at the library while we're out making our moves.'_ Mandy's facial muscles stilled and her eyes narrowed slightly as she realised the opportunity. Billy also nodded in understanding, following her thoughts.

"Do you think the school would notice if we were gone?" She asked.

"I doubt it." Junior stated. "I doubt many of the teachers have noticed you're gone now."

Mandy remembered back to before they had left. She, Billy, Junior and Max had on occasion left class for hours on end together, and no one had noticed a thing. And if what Junior was saying about what it was like now was true, then she needn't even bother showing up to be counted as there.

"I guess we'll find out on Monday. It'll be interesting to see at least."

The group remained quiet for a few moments. Mandy thought back to how Max had acted around school, always polite but with no hesitation towards beating someone to within an inch of their life, as had been demonstrated on Sperg.

"Hey Junior, did you notice if Max started to act strange after we left?" She asked out of wonder. Junior's eyes widened before he shuddered, the eerie memories of telltale signs chilling him to the bone. And he had noticed them, each and every one of them, right up to his disappearance.

"Yes. After we found out about your parents he started asking questions. He continuously asked me if I had heard anything, and then he started asking everyone else, even if they had told him no before. After a few days he began to start becoming more and more cold and distant. On the last day he actually started to loose that friendly attitude he always showed." He went quiet as he thought back to that one particular afternoon, where Max had practically been bilging them for any information at all. It had been the last time he'd ever seen him.

"On the last afternoon when we were walking here he was trying one last time asking about you, in case anyone had heard anything. When Piff asked why he was so worked up over you guys he went blank, then said that you were his friends and that he was worried about you. He said he wanted to find you before anything bad happened to you. After that the car came past and splashed us all with water, though he dodged it. While we were all angry and shouting at the driver Max just sort of watched the car drive off like there was no one home."

Junior sighed as he sank back in his seat. "The car was driven by a woman named Vicky. Max disappeared immediately after that some time between then and when we arrived. We never saw him again. The next day I found out the police had discovered the body of a woman dumped in the middle of the road. They say she was killed some time late at night at a set of traffic lights. Her neck was broken, but there was a mysterious wound where she had been struck, similar to the ones they found on Irwin and his family. Her car had been stolen from the scene. He paused as they followed where this was going. "I never connected the two until you mentioned a dark blue Camaro."

They each sat in silence. "Well I guess we know who the killer was now don't we." She said, Junior recovering from the sobering realisation to continue thinking over and coming to terms with everything they had been through.

"So… what's it like to fire a gun?"

* * *

A few minutes later.

"Listen, it's been great catching up with you guys again, but I should get going." Junior said rising from the seat. "I wanna see what's changed since I went underground."

"You sure? I mean this place was hell before, what makes you wanna see it now?" Billy asked as they watched him stand from their seats. Junior shrugged.

"Eh, it's a bit like a socio-economic destruction derby." He returned dryly, earning a smirk from Mandy.

"Sounds like a plan." She spoke.

"Alright I'll see you guys later." He called as he walked away out the door. Each of the group watched him pass down the other way they had come.

The tree remaining sat in silence for a moment as Billy fished a few pieces of glass out of his hair and sat back contentedly in his seat, Mandy reaching over to remove one shard he missed. Outside the midday sun was still high in the blue sky, and even if it was tinged grey with rampant pollution it was still good weather for this side of the country. Inattentively she thought back to Junior.

"How long will that illusion around him last for?"

"It'll stop when he wants it to stop. When he returns home to his parents the illusion will dispel instantly." Grim explained. Another thought came to her.

"Say, what did you base his disguise on anyway?" She turned to Billy sitting opposite. He lowered his face slightly.

"I could only think of one person." Billy relented, Mandy scowled in knowing.

"Max."

"Hopefully he won't find out." He answered dejectedly, leaving them to sit quietly.

"Wanna head back now?" He asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Mandy said as she and Grim rose from their seats, Billy following after them.

The intrepid trio made their way away from the table by the broken window, passing the rows of other dreary patrons as they headed for the exit. As they walked the two police officers watching from the parking lot opened the doors to their car and stepped out into the sunlight, shielding their eyes already covered with sunglasses as they too made their way quickly for the door.

As Billy and Mandy stepped through the glass door with Grim behind them, they found themselves confronted by the two quietly smug looking police as they stood directly before them. Billy raised an eyebrow at the two who just gazed back unmoving in a display of superiority. It was common knowledge that two thirds of the police force was woefully corrupt, while the remaining third were simply killers and rapists off the streets given a uniform and a pay check. The two narrowed their gaze from one to the other before looking up to Grim behind them.

Mandy scowled sternly at them as Billy and Grim looked between them suspiciously, seeing they weren't going to go away voluntarily.

"Can we help you officers?" She almost snarled at the two in defiance of their attempts to intimidate them. Undeterred the one on the left spoke up.

"I take it you're the Grim Reaper?"

"Yeah why?" Grim replied wondering where this was going.

"So I take it you two are Billy and Mandy?" The pig on the left asked with a hard face that belied his satisfaction in being able to stand over the kids. The two nodded, never ceasing to look at them in suspicious and hateful disgust respectively.

"Yes, I'm Billy, and this is my friend Mandy. What do you want?" He asked careful to not provoke the situation. He could slaughter them both easily if he wanted, but that would mean tearing apart the life they had just begun rebuilding.

The uniformed thug on the right spoke up next. "The same Billy and Mandy who caused property damage at the Endsville Mall, terrorised a dozen people, blew up a gas station and stole a minivan?"

Billy and Mandy both lost their hostile gazes as they looked at them wide eyed with tension.

"Uuuuuuuhhhhhhh…" They both stammered and looked across at each other nervously as their hearts started to race. Grim remained relatively calm and objective, after all he wasn't a mortal so what he did didn't matter, but the situation was different for the kids.

"Hey listen, you know we aren't to blame for dat mess, we were defending ourselves from attack." He tried to explain. The cop on the right turned his shaded gaze up towards Grim, took out his nightstick and flexed his spare hand around its well used surface.

"Look we really don't care about details. We have no interest in… supernatural creatures like you. You're not covered by our jurisdiction." Grim frowned, suspecting they were only omitting him because they feared they wouldn't be able to keep him under their control. No bully ever attacked someone on par with or stronger than themselves. He became more concerned when the police then lowered their gaze to the kids and crossed their arms haughtily.

"You two on the other hand…" He continued, a sneer breaking out on their features as the two looked back on edge, both trying to keep a level head despite the growing anxiety.

"Mandy."

"Yeah?"

"Are we screwed?"

Each of the police withdrew a pair of handcuffs from their belts and grinned cruelly.

"Yeah we're screwed."

* * *

Half an hour later.

The police Crown Victoria pulled into the front parking lot of the Endsville Police Department building. Gazing out the side window from the back the two saw the headquarters revealed a strange duality inherent in much of the city. Both the car, the building and even the parking lot showed both multiple traumatic experiences, many of which hadn't been repaired or replaced due to the shortage of funds that often goes with massive corruption, while at the same time displaying a degree of wasteful excess not keeping with the dilapidated state of the rest of the dreary complex. For example the two had noticed that while the inside of the cruiser was unclean and strewn with bits of rubbish, and the exterior unwashed and dented in places, it was riding on ridiculously large chrome rims. There was a police Corvette sitting nearby, the personal car of the commissioner.

Stepping out from the front seats the two oafish police stepped back and opened the rear doors, letting the two kids in the back step out. Billy and Mandy held no sign of depression as they swung their legs out, only the anger and inconvenience of having their arms locked behind their backs and being roughly manhandled by the two sorry excuses for cops. Mandy glowered furiously up at the one holding her by the arm as they brutishly led them up the grey concrete steps, while Billy looked back and forth between them tensely. The underlying fear of what this could lead to for their new lives never left their minds. The police pulled them forcefully despite neither resisting as they made their way through the steel barred front doors.

The inside was made of old plasterboard which was stained and rotting in places. To the left of the doors there was a blue reception desk with a small office space behind. There in the reception area they quickly noticed Grim sitting idly off to the side, turning and standing up to greet them as they were hauled past.

"Don't worry you two, I'm here to explain everyting! I'll get you guys outta here soon." He called as Mandy received a brutal shove in the small of her back.

"You better be quick, these gorillas don't think about consequences!" She called back angrily. "And you know how prison changes a person!"

Grim had stayed with the two as they were arrested and loaded forcefully into the back of the patrol car. Upon them being driven off he ported his way directly to the front of the station where they were to arrive. After speaking with the receptionist, a thin lazy guy who didn't take much pride in his uniform with his feet up on the desk, he was informed that he would be able to make a statement a little while later. He already knew that they were all going to be here for a lot longer than necessary. He had even been forbidden from calling their parents. _'No wonder Endsville is going ta hell in a handbag full of cash bribes. Dose two and their parents aren't gonna be happy.'_

Billy and Mandy were hauled through the doors to the office behind the reception, a dull network of cubicles and a half dozen people lounging around computer monitors. The atmosphere was one of mental and social decay, with all the ideals that the force was initially created around long gone. They were the section of the force that weren't thugs and bloated slobs, the ones who took care of the books and paperwork.

"Look Mandy, these people work in cubicles." Billy stated, observing one man as he typed away at his computer, a near catatonic expression on his face. "This is the part of the police that's not about standing over and brutalising everyone else. They all died inside a long time ago."

A thought occurred to him. "Hey one things bothering me, why the hell are you interested in us anyway? I mean your job isn't about upholding the law, why should what happened back at the mall worry you?" He winced slightly as the hand on his arm tightened.

"Cause you piss us off ya little shits! You don't respect our authority!" He spat giving the youth a shake as Mandy watched on anxiously. "Plus that gas station paid us every week, which we're not gonna get now cause of you!"

Dragging them on past the wretched existence these so-called human beings lived and worked in they were led down a flight of metal stairs into the underground level. The walls were a pail cream painted concrete, and showed that even here the despair and inhumanity was eating away the entire place from within, with paint flaking off in huge patches and a network of cracks and chips across every wall. As they were marched through they saw more police, one with two prostitutes in his arms, turning to look in their direction with smirks of glee as they gazed back unflinchingly despite their nerves. It had never occurred to them that their rebellious activity would make them so well known here.

They were pushed through this decaying labyrinth towards the walled in holding cells, which were ironically the most well maintained rooms of the entire establishment due simply because most of their prisoners were better men than their captors. Ahead of them was a single steel door with a frosted glass window at the top.

Opening the steel door the two gorillas unlocked the handcuffs and released the kids, before shoving them forcefully into the empty cell. Billy gasped and fell to the floor, turning upwards in time to catch Mandy as she too fell on top of him. Recovering she looked at him from her position directly over him, his hands still held at her waist as the door was closed and locked on them, the walls and door preventing anybody from seeing in or out. Mandy felt her face going warm as she felt the boy's hands on her sides, opening her mouth to take a sharp gasp of air. In her momentary panic almost didn't notice in her flustered state that Billy's face had gone red too, lowering his face shyly as he held her with her hands planted beside his shoulders.

Rolling off him slowly she allowed her companion to sit up, each taking a moment to still themselves. Moving his gaze from Mandy onto the cell they found themselves in they saw that it held the same painted white cinder block walls, with only one window in the metal door, also white. The paint reflected the glow of the overhead fluorescent light, making for a nearly blinding assault to the eyes wherever they looked. Twisting his shoulders around he saw that directly behind them was a concrete bench for use as an uncomfortable bed. All in all, other than the bright paint, the frosted glass window and the conventional door it was pretty much the same as the one they had found themselves in less than a week ago.

Billy sighed with boredom and frustration. "How do we constantly get into these situations? I'm pretty sure normal people our age aren't supposed to get arrested and hauled off to prison." He muttered as he rose to his feet from the cold floor.

Mandy stretched her legs out in front of her, earning a satisfying pull in her knees and ankles before she too got to her feet. "Billy, I'm pretty sure that if you think back you'll find this isn't really out of the ordinary for us."

Billy stopped for a moment, recalling that this wasn't the first time he had been in prison. "Oh. Oh well. We've gone through far worse before haven't we?" He smiled at his friend, but soon let it slip when he noticed that she wasn't quite her usual dark and controlling self.

The concept of just how much worse they had gone through bought up one particularly harsh memory for Mandy. Whereas Billy had noticed the similarity to the cell from the nightmarish future with ease, this was the first Mandy had thought of it. Now that she saw the exact same dimensions of the cell with the exception of only minor differences, she became acutely reminded of one of the more traumatic moments of her life. She found her breathing grow heavy as her heart began to race, the instinctual fear of what might come through that door making her almost dizzy with anxiety.

"Mandy?" He asked growing concerned as he led her gently back towards the bench where they sat together against the left wall. Mandy continued to breathe heavily as he put a hand on her shoulder. She bit her lip, trying to force herself to calm down, biting back the fear that made her want to run and get out. Turning she faced him worriedly.

"Billy, you remember how close the one we were in not long ago is to this place can't you?" She asked, her commanding voice wavering in anxiety. Billy nodded.

"Yeah I do." He spoke still concerned for his friend as she lowered her gaze slightly, trying to block out the otherworldly dread she had found herself immersed in again.

"Well… you remember what happened next, don't you?"

Billy's eyes widened as he realised what was making her near sick with fear as Mandy looked up at him again, showing how afraid she was at facing the torture again. It had only been a few days since her hands had been stabbed through, and by rights they should still be in bandages. Billy wrapped his arms around her as she moved into his embrace, wanting to be shielded from whatever might come through that door to hurt her again.

"Hey, you don't have to worry about a thing." He spoke in a soft and reassuring voice as she continued to press the side of her face into his arms. "Everything's gonna be alright. I know they wouldn't do anything to hurt you here. And even if they tried, I wouldn't let them. I promise, I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you again. I'll protect you with my life Mandy. Everything will be just fine once Grim explains it all to them."

Mandy's heart rate slowed to a steady beat and her breathing relaxed as she calmed down, taking comfort in his words, and most of all in his presence, being held close by him like she had following her ordeal. Pulling her legs up off the floor she tucked them in behind her as she reclined forward into his embrace, Billy lying back against the corner as she pressed her head back against his shoulder. She closed her eyes and let her worries fade away. Watching her doze Billy smiled lovingly, relaxing back in the feel of her warmth as he continued to hold her.

"Do you think Grim's explaining everything to them now?" He asked.

"I doubt it. He's probably still stuck in the reception area waiting for someone who's probably forgotten all about us." Mandy droned with all her charming cynicism. "Either that or he's being batted back and forth from one officer to another… Yeah, that'll be it."

"Well why don't we just break out of here?" Billy suggested. "We can use our scythes in this one. We could break down these walls easily and waste anyone who tries to stop us. It'll be fun."

"Yes it would, but what would we do once we've broken out?" Mandy answered. "We'd have a third of the countries police looking for us, so they can either lock us up for the rest of our lives or kill us, and that goes for mom and dad too." She paused, the thought of calling Billy's parents hers as well still new to her. "We'd have to go on the run somewhere remote again, outside the country. And I don't think either of us wants to hide out in Siberia until we're ready to take over."

Billy smirked. "Siberia? You've really planned all this out haven't you?"

"I'm the boss, it's what I do." She answered flatly, earning a greater smile from the one holding her. "Once I found out Max didn't have any weaknesses I planned that we could hide out in some place like Mexico or Guatemala, maybe even as far south as Peru, until we were strong enough to defeat him head to head. Looks like we don't have to now. I guess if worse comes to worst we could break out and head south, or somewhere more remote, but I don't want to have to leave behind everything we have here."

She spoke with a deep set love for what she had been given, her new family and the chance to start again. Billy noticed this as she pushed up and turned herself over so as to recline with her back to him, his arms still wrapped around her. Billy felt his face grow slightly warm as Mandy smiled softly.

"It ain't so bad is it, taking a break from being all hard and tough and dark." He said, stroking the hair away from her pretty face and her deep onyx eyes.

"I have to admit, if I thought it was gonna be like this I would have done it a lot earlier." She commented from within his embrace. "It's good being able to feel safe, and to be protected by someone you…" They both stopped for just a moment.

"… trust."

Tensely she pushed herself deeper into his embrace, getting as comfortable as she could as they prepared for the long wait, all the while neither of them spoke or reacted to what had just occurred between them.

Billy though couldn't tear his mid off her emphasis on 'trust'. As they lay together on the cold concrete bench in their bleached white cell, he couldn't help but wonder about everything he felt for her, about how much he loved her, and wanted to hold her just like he was now. Just as much he knew she wanted to be held like this as well. Though he was almost too anxious to think about it, in the deeper parts of his mind he already knew what she really meant by trust.

'_Does trust really mean love?'_

* * *

Two and a half hours later.

Grim sighed in immense frustration, leaning his skull into his hand as he waited for yet another officer to speak to, then promptly fawn him off again.

He had been taken into the interrogation room not long after Billy and Mandy had passed, and since then perhaps one hundredth of his time in there had been spent actually explaining anything. He had barely been able to say a word to anyone as one by one every fifteen or so minutes another incompetent officer, detective, chief or otherwise uniformed criminal was bought in to listen to his statement. One by one they had all passed him off to another simply because they had been either too busy doing almost nothing important even by their standards, or just to screw with him.

In the beginning he had also asked for lawyers before he said anything, and surprisingly they had allowed it. After three different lawyers came and went, the first hanging up the phone the instant she heard Grim's name, the second coming in and leaving after seeing him, the third leaving after seeing the charges, he had agreed to just forget about a lawyer and tell them whatever they wanted to know alone.

He raised his gaze to the door again as yet another obese man walked in. He looked to be somewhat reluctant to do anything more than put his feet up on his desk and go to sleep, and was actually being pushed in the door by another officer not too dissimilar. The one being pushed in was probably one of the laziest of the group of incompetents working there.

"But why do I have to… Can't you do it?" He whined pitifully.

"No fatass, you do it!" The other shoved him in, closing the door behind him. He made his way to the chair with a mixture of grizzles and groans. He paused in thought.

"I wonder if Bob could do this. I'll go get B-"

"Listen you fat sack o' crap, let's just get dis over and done with quickly so you can go back to extorting people or whatever it is you do." Grim said irritably, trying to rationalise with the lazy slob. "Besides to get dis Bob guy you'd have to go and walk to him, and tell him, and den drag him forcefully all de way-"

"Oh alright, fuck!" He grunted, pulling out the metal chair at the other side of the table, where upon he sat himself down. Leaning forward he depressed one of the buttons on the recorder in the middle of the table and began to speak the date and time, the name of the two individuals accused and the name of the speaker, meaning Grim.

"Numerous charges." He wheezed tiredly.

As he waffled on, obviously as inconvenienced as Grim albeit for much lesser reasons, Grim wondered when he was going to be able to call Billy and Mandy's parents. Gladys would probably be furious, at him if not the police, if he ever got out of this room.

'_I wonder if Billy and Mandy are as bored as…'_

A thought struck him. He knew that the two held a great deal of yet unspoken affection for each other. Now that every one of the barriers had been removed and they were locked away together…

'_I wonder if dey'll finally open up to each other? I guess time will tell, and we've got plenty of it.'_

"Now sir, will you please begin on your long and pointless speech." The officer said placing his feet up on the desk as he took on a very bored look like he was about to fall asleep.

Grim sighed, rubbing his skull with his hand again. "Alright. It's all because of this guy called Max." He delved into his story as to why everything happened and how it wasn't their fault, knowing that from the moment he started he was more or less talking to a brick wall. All the while he kept wondering about the two kids locked away together, a slight smirk crossing his features.

* * *

Billy opened his eyes to find that still, after what was very slowly becoming an eternity, no one had come to release them. He hadn't really been asleep, not with what was on his mind. Neither was the girl resting her head back against his chest as they waited out their imprisonment. She kept her eyes closed out of little more than boredom, content to just pass the hours by staying in Billy's arms.

The idea of actually being so physically and emotionally close to someone, to surrender herself so completely to another's care and affection, was something that before she would never have even considered. Before she would have mercilessly crushed the concept as reliance on another person for support…

'… _and thus a weakness.'_ She frowned slightly for a moment, careful to not follow those old habits. She recognised the school of thought easily. _'To break away from the reliance on human companionship and go it alone is the only way to acquire the necessary strength of mind and character to rule.'_

The memory of her actions to that end came back to her and made her insides tighten, and soon she remembered why such thinking was inherently flawed. '_But in my irrational fear of weakness and failure I forgot that love is a human need, like oxygen. I do have weaknesses, all living creatures do, and if I try and deny them out of fear then I destroy myself, and the people I care about.'_

She remembered how long she had wanted to be held in this boys embrace. She had been aware that she had a connection to him following their fight against Boogie, and though she had buried them under her drive for power, she had eventually become so drawn to him that it tortured her night and day knowing that she would have to leave him. Even now she could feel the heartache of all those times she had struggled to keep going despite the pain of what she had planned for him. It was so much like what Max had done, his plans to betray those close to him without any regard to their own rights.

And now here she lay, nestled ever so comfortably in Billy's arms. Once more she felt the sense of warmth and happiness wash over her, making the world seem absolutely perfect, no matter that they were locked away in a cell in the heart of a corrupt police department. She leaned her head over to nuzzle into his shoulder as he tightened his hold around her a little.

Meanwhile Billy was occupied with the fervour of a debate within himself over how the girl nestled into his embrace thought, of how she felt about him now. He knew with certainty what she felt was displayed obviously in her actions and choices, but just what did the writing on the wall say? Mandy had specifically stated that while she would be fully integrated into the family she was not under any circumstances to be his adoptive sister. He toyed with the possible concept that had occurred to him shortly after hearing it.

'_I suppose it would be awkward to be in love with someone, and then have them officially become family, even if you weren't related. What other reason could there be for it?' _The youth remained silent as he concentrated on any other possible reason more credible. Try as he might though after thinking on it on and off since yesterday he was yet to find any other reason at all. And more importantly than that, she had been all too happy to snuggle up to him at every possible opportunity. He still remembered how they'd watched Blade Runner together, and that was days before she had ever heard about her imperfect future and all the faults in her thinking came out. It was obvious that she found happiness in having his arms wrapped around her as much as he did in holding her close.

Finally there was the true meaning of _'trust'_ as she had spoken of it, something that pressed itself on him harder with every minute.

Billy continued to devote every corner of his mind to figuring it out. Though the writing on the wall was more or less clear to him, he could not risk mistaking her friendship for love, and accidentally driving her away. When he'd told her how he'd felt before he'd had nothing to loose, but now, with the absolute love and light of his life with him again, he had so very much to loose if it went wrong. What would happen if he voiced his feelings to her now? Would it really be so bad if she wasn't looking for what he was? But then how could she not feel the same after all they had been through together, and how close it had bought them.

More than anything it was just the sheer nerves of taking that one step over the edge from which there would be no going back. Why here, in a jail cell in the belly of the most depraved cesspool on the planet of all places? Suddenly he wanted to take her and go, to be somewhere safe and peaceful with her, so he could tell her everything.

As he thought it through over and over he felt Mandy move herself so as to prop her head up a slightly higher on his shoulder to be closer to his face. Without giving much thought to it he moved his hands further across her waist, earning a soft smile and a sigh of contentment from the girl. It was then that he came to realise with complete certainty that he had been right about everything.

He smiled softly down at her. Bringing his hand in he stroked the blonde hair of her fringe out and down the sides of her face, letting him see her eyes currently closed in a blissful state of serenity and peace.

"Mandy." He called to her in a soft tone.

Mandy opened her eyes, turning to look up to where his face gazed down upon her. Gone was the hard and cold tyrant of a girl who people respected and feared. Now those deep black orbs held a longing that he himself could feel. She could see in his wide blue eyes that he was seeking confirmation, desperate to know that she felt the same way as he did, the same innocent desire to simply stay close and never let go, to spend the rest of their time together in each others warmth, yet nothing came out of his mouth.

"Yeah?" She asked softly in reply. As she continued to gaze up at him, his wide eyed features formed a heart warming smile as he relented.

"Nothing."

Watching him Mandy saw as his eyes yielded and he remained silent. He may not feel able to speak what was on his mind, but she was. They were alone together at last, just as she had wanted them to be when the time came to tell him. If only the world around them could be one of peace instead of this cold and inhumane place they were trapped in now. But this was the right time, she was as sure of that as she would ever be.

"Billy…" She began timidly as he gazed into her. Suddenly she noticed his eyes dart upwards as if distracted by a thought. "There's something I have to tell-"

She stopped as he raised his fingers for her to be still. Returning his gaze to her she saw a new feeling of life and excitement in his eyes.

"Hold that thought for just a second." He spoke with hushed life.

Moving where he lay he retracted his arms from around her body and began to push himself upright in his seat. Regarding him baffled Mandy moved off him, sitting up and watching him intently as he swung his legs out to touch the floor. He stood up. Reaching down he began to untie his shoelaces one after the other, before stepping out of his shoes and socks. Standing barefoot he set them aside together, turning around back towards her with a growing smile.

"Take off your shoes."

Looking up at him questioningly she followed, hesitantly reaching down and untying her boots, Billy watching her as one by one she withdrew her feet and looked up to him again. Smiling reassuringly he held out his hand for her.

"Take my hand."

Pushing upwards against the nervous tension Mandy stood and took a step towards him, reaching out and linking her right hand with his. Moving around Billy led her so they stood parallel to the bench in the centre of the room, reaching out to her with his other hand which she took hold of. Mandy felt her heart starting to race as they stood facing each other with their hands linked, opening her mouth to take deeper breaths. She found it hard to meet his gaze with her own as here yes flicked down away from him tensely and up again, but the sight of his caring visage reassured her. Billy remained still as she placed her trust in him, looking up to him wide eyed and almost scared, but calm in his presence.

"Close your eyes."

She did so, shutting her eyes and lowering her face, taking calm through her breathing as it slowed again. Billy smiled with happiness as he saw her features turn to peace, and momentarily he wanted to kiss her then and there, but not yet, not until he had done this last thing.

"Relax."

His features stilled to neutral as he turned his minds eye towards the place he sought, drawing on the images and memory's that he held so very dear to him, remembering every sensation, every sight and sound, and every smell, except taste. That was still to come. Taking one last look at his partner's face he opened himself to the mystic force inside him, his eyes turning vivid green the fleeting moment before he closed them. Concentrating on the place he remembered, and the presence of the one he cared for more than any other, he willed it out, drawing it around them in a perfect field, and then let it go to do what he'd asked of it.

With her eyes closed Mandy reached out into the darkness with her other senses. She could hear only their collective breathing, and unless she was imagining it the buzz of the fluorescent light, but then a sudden rush of nervous energy came across her body through her hands and skin, filtering in throughout her body. She took a soft gasp of air at the sudden sensation, before she adjusted, the feeling fading away quickly. As it passed she felt on her exposed arms and legs, and the inside of her mouth, the air had become cool, and a sweet condensation that washed over her, touching her under her dress. She could smell trees, and found the air was suddenly dense with the scent of woodlands. Beneath her feat she felt the flat concrete turn to a surface of many smooth cool rocks. And as time passed and the electric haze in her nerves dispersed, she heard to her left toe sound of rippling water.

"Mandy." She heard him speak, sensing the joy within his soft voice. "Look where we are."

Taking a deep breath of the air Mandy opened her eyes, seeing his welcome and happy face, and behind him blue sky and trees. Stunned she turned to look across to their left and gasped. There in front of her was their river. Billy had bought them to their spot by the side of the river where they had come every day they were in hiding. Gazing awe struck and silent she watched the crystal water shine and sparkle as it flowed across in front of them. Beyond the other bank there was the tree line, a mass of pine trees that turned the horizon a lush green, with the green and white peaks of nearby mountains rising above. And below her feet around them she saw the pristine white pebbles as smooth as pearls that stretched like a road down the length of the stream, disappearing into the water's depth and ending at the tree line on their right.

Turning back to him she looked at him in silence wide eyed, her mouth shut for lack of anything that could describe what she felt now, that her heart was ready to brake apart for him. Billy smiled lovingly as her lip shook and her eyes filled with tears.

Mandy surrendered herself to what her emotions wanted. Opening her hands she let her fingers slip out of his hold. Billy paused with bewilderment as she stepped back away from him to stand facing him where he could see her entire length. There she took a deep calming breath in, set her mind and her features and took hold of the bottom hem of her dress, letting him watch as she lifted it up over her shoulders and off her, dropping it to the bank to her right. Billy gasped in and out and shook as she gazed back at him, lowering her black shorts down her legs to set them beside her as well, revealing her body to him.

Standing in her white bra and underwear before him again this time she did not feign strength, bringing her arms across to shield herself, crossing her left over her breasts and the right down over her waist. She lowered her face as a deep blush crept over her as his eyes trailed down across her figure, before he returned to her face again and smiled heartfelt. Standing her ground through courage and trust in her partner she watched as now he took hold of his blue and white shirt by the shoulders and pulled it up and off him, followed by his jeans as he unbuckled and pulled them off, tossing them all aside, leaving him in his boxer briefs. She saw the lean build of his otherwise modest figure, watching as his shoulders rose and fell rapidly as he breathed nervously. But in his face she saw the same trust and devotion she held for him, and lowered her arms to face him openly.

Settling himself Billy stepped towards her, Mandy following as he reached out to her r with his left hand. She met his hand in her right, both turning towards the river while keeping their eyes on each other. Together they began to walk out into the water, feeling its cool tingle nip at their feet and ankles, gradually moving up their calves as they stepped in deeper. Neither Billy or Mandy ever moving their gaze off the other as they walked out until they were up to their thighs.

There Mandy watched her partner as Billy stepped around behind her, letting his hand slide out of hers to gently place his palms down on her shoulders. He stopped to breathe, Mandy holding hers. Moving his left he caressed her shoulder back and forth up to her neck, while he traced his right down her arm. Mandy breathed shallowly in and out as his fingers moved down over her elbow, running across her hand and her fingers. She closed her eyes and smiled in bliss as for a moment their hands connected again, before he continued up the inside.

Billy watched her as his hand stopped, moving across to the side of her body. Instantly Mandy's eyes flicked open on edge at his touch, and her breath came in gasps as he moved his hand across her with all the care and tenderness he had ever felt for her. He held her shoulder gently as she shut her eyes and melted back into his arms, a soft cry of delight escaping her as he caressed the front of her waist, moving down across her navel, causing her to gasp.

With her eyes shut she reached up and around, wrapping her arms around the back of Billy's neck and shoulders and pulling herself in closer to him as he continued to touch her body. Arching her neck she rolled her head back against him, allowing him to bury his lips into her soft blonde hair. She didn't see him smile as his heart opened for her, or the tears that welled in his eyes. This was the happiest moment of his life.

Continuing he traced circles lightly across her body, moving across to the other side, crossing areas where she was sensitive. Mandy sighed in and out as she leaned her lead across to her right, unsure of how much more she could take of his beautiful torment. An almost desperate smile opened up across her face as she struggled to hang on to some kind of control, which she knew she had already relinquished to his hands. Moving his lips out of her platinum hair Billy bought his gaze down to the side of her neck as he let go of her shoulder, moving his other hand down her left arm to link passionately with her hand. He gazed upon her vulnerable porcelain skin with longing, his mind gone with his adoration for her. Bringing his open mouth closer he breathed gently on her exposed flesh, causing Mandy to tighten her hold around the back of his shoulders and writhe in pleasure. She was at her limit, she couldn't take any more of his gently probing touch, or she was going to loose what control she had left.

And then he moved in and placed his mouth against her, kissing her vulnerable neck below her ear.

Instantly her eyes open wide and she froze as it took her completely.

"Billy!"

She tightened her hold on his hand as she cried out. Billy stopped his experimenting touch as he felt her stop solid in his arms. Mandy remained still as he withdrew his lips from her vein, watching and waiting with wonder.

Everything was right, Mandy realised. Everything was perfect in this moment with him.

"Billy…"

She moved around in his arms, turning to face him with her body pressed against his. Billy looked upon her silently as he placed his hands on the sides of her body and held her, while she placed her hands on his shoulders.

"I should have told you so long ago." Mandy spoke to him, gazing into his eyes. "I love you."

She stayed there in his gentle embrace for another moment just to take in the sense of absolute love in his eyes, and the softness of his hands on her waist. Hearing her finally say it Billy stared at her stunned, before he too let himself go. He reached around to place his hands on her bare back and pull her in deep as Mandy pushed herself up towards his face to where they met at eye level. The two didn't hesitate to move into each other in a soft and deep kiss which they held together for what felt to them like an eternity of complete and perfect bliss. They melted together into each others warmth and closeness as they continued to explore this new and wonderful feeling they had found in each other. It was a feeling of absolute heaven of which the two gave themselves more and more completely to. Billy held onto Mandy more passionately, spreading his hands out across her back, careful that he wouldn't hurt her, Mandy moving her hands up to cradle his neck as they both continued to taste each other. This was something they had both wanted and needed for so long, and now it was theirs, the two finally finding peace in each others mouths. For the first time in their lives they actually felt complete, like what had been missing in each of them for so long was now there.

At last when they separated and their eyes opened, they found their gaze locked on each other, like it was a reflection of their other half, the part neither of them had ever been able to see in the mirror alone. After just a few moments apart they moved in again, kissing each others mouths with steadily greater passion and dedication. Mandy moved her face to the side so she could connect with his lips even more, raising her hand to hold him by the back of his neck as she pressed her body into his. Billy traced his fingers up and down her back, moving across and under her bra strap as he pulled at her likewise, feeling the softness of her breasts pressed up against him, and how warm her elegant body felt in his hands. Mandy wrapped her leg around him as she separated he lips from his.

"I love you too Billy." Mandy spoke with conviction as he kissed her neck, returned her face to bring hers into his again, feeling his hot breath on her lips as they bought their mouths together again. Billy continued to trace his hands across her body before he separated again.

"I love you too Mandy, with all my heart." He spoke softly to her ear, kissing it as she nuzzled his shoulder, returning to face each other again. They looked between each other for a moment, knowing they had truly, finally said and done and expressed everything they had ever wanted to with each other, closed their eyes and came together again in a kiss.

They each revelled in the soft warmth of the others lips, and the taste of their lover's breath, as they continued to hold and kiss each other while they stood wrapped up in each other's arms, alone together in their river.

* * *

Half an hour later.

Grimacing severely Harold forcefully swung the old Caprice station wagon into the driveway of the police station, with Gladys almost foaming at the mouth in the passenger seat beside him.

"They arrested my kids?" Her hiss held a piercing, icy edge to it, evidence that she was mere seconds away from another episode of extreme violence and madness. "My son, and my daughter?"

Harold answered with a sense of pity for the poor souls inside the building, vile as they may be. "Yes honey, they did."

"DAMN THEM ALL! DAMN THEM ALL! NO MERCY!"

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And woman scorned hath no fury like Gladys after her kids had been arrested for a multitude of crimes all related to them having to survive on the run with a killing machine out hunting them. Add to that the fact that the ones who took them were probably no better than street thugs themselves, the prostitutes, the snorting on whatever drugs they wanted, the murders and beatings and intimidation, and you've got one middle aged woman who was now turning red with murderous fury.

Despite how Harold feared her wrath when she was in these states this was one time he agreed with her one hundred percent. He did tend to want to see her open up someone's ribcage over this. The thought of what those depraved lowlifes would be willing to do to the kids given the chance formed a pit in his stomach. What the so-called defenders of justice had done, taking two minors into custody illegally without parental supervision, was enough to wake him want to do the Mabuhai Shuffle on their graves, then promptly drop his pants and defecate.

As he approached the parking lot he set his sights on one parking space directly behind a police cruiser with large shining rims.

"RAM IT! RAM THEIR CAR!"

"Gladys, I can't." He tried to calm the raging woman as she bayed for the blood, or oil, of the white car in front. Harold pulled in slowly behind it, keeping a few feet between the two vehicles. "If we did that we'd be in the cell next to them, and that ain't no fun at all lemme tells ya."

Shutting off the engine they both stepped out of the old car. As Harold made his way up the steps towards the entrance Gladys stopped by the right hand side of the patrol cruiser. Extending her hand towards the front quarter panel she tensed her middle finger against her thumb, releasing it to give the side of the car a sharp flick.

"_Tunk!"_

"_CRACK!"_

The vehicle sagged as the front-right wheel broke off, lying limply along with the brake assembly beside the empty wheel arch. Content that she had caused at least a few thousand dollars worth of damage to the city's largest organised crime syndicate she made her way up the stairs, joining her husband as they marched in through the door. Turning to the reception desk they saw an uninterested little man sat reading a smutty magazine on the desk before him. Gladys stormed up towards him while he simply kept his eyes downcast.

"Two kids were bought in here a few hours ago. We're their parents and we're here to collect them. Where are they?" She kept her voice relatively calm, even if the veins in her forehead had swelled. She forced a nice smile to her face in an attempt to converse with the little prick, who did nothing more than ignore her altogether, keeping his eyes on the magazine. It didn't take long for her smile to slip to a scowl of anger.

"Where are they!" She hissed maliciously.

"Fuck off!" The little toady fool spat. "I'm on break."

Gladys' face contorted in rage. The little fool's eyes widened as he felt her hands grasp him by the back of his head, ramming his face down into the magazine. She continued to hammer his upturned nose into the desk, ruining both the magazine and his face, before bringing him up to eye level with her so he could cower at the sight of her furious gaze.

"_I WILL BREAK YOU, UNLESS I GET MY KIDS PRONTO YOU LITTLE FUCK!"_

She screamed into his battered and bloody face. Cowering in terror he managed a nod before she let him go, and immediately scurried off to inform his superiors of the she-demon.

A few tedious minutes passed of waiting, with Harold nervously keeping a small distance from his explosive wife as she darted her head back and forth impatiently. Eventually the chief made his appearance through the doors to the office. He was as they'd expected, fat, slothenly dressed, with stains of sweat and foot adorning his old uniform. He held a look of utter contempt for the woman and her kids on his plump, oily features, one which persisted even after Gladys turned her rage on him.

"_WHERE ARE THEY!"_ Her rage made the flies that hung around his filthy head disperse. He remained unaffected though, having dealt with plenty of rightfully furious people in his time of bribery and professional incompetence. This murderously angry woman was nothing he hadn't dealt with before, and as such it didn't particularly bother him.

"I'm not at liberty to talk about all that." He gestured the words to come rolling out. "You're going to have to wait until they are put on trial for multiple criminal offences. If they are found indecent, uhhh, inn-oooo-ssent…" He struggled with the word. It wasn't one that was used often in Endsville's conveyor belt legal system. "… If they didn't do it then you will be allowed to see them. If not you can always visit them in juvie." He spoke with a lazy tone.

"Listen here you money grubbing piece of shit, if you don't…" She paused in her threat as Harold moved in. Seeing that this slob was simply too uncaring of anyone else to be influenced by anger, and that his wife's approach might just get them killed, he decided to try a different tact, reaching into his walled.

"I'll give ya fifty bucks if you let em go." He spoke flatly and handed it out to him. He took it instantly.

"This way." Without a moments pause the greasy man who even Harold found revolting led them through the door to the dingy office. Seeing him he wondered for the first time if he should take better care of his body. Inside they were astounded by the level of depravity going on in plain sight, people dealing drugs, prostitutes, and a number of people counting large amounts of cash, and that was only on the ground floor. After a short walk down the stairs, passing more people in the middle of various illegal and suspicious acts, including two officers savagely beating another man with nightsticks, they encountered Grim sitting idly outside the cell block.

"I called as soon as I could get out of de interview. De idiots wouldn't let me call until after dey were done wasting time." Grim groaned and stood to accompany them as they made their way towards one of the cell doors. Reaching for the key the pompous man unlocked the door and opened it outwards for them.

Looking in the three were surprised to see what they both had to admit was the cutest sight they had ever seen in their lives. Billy lay propped up against the far wall with his mouth hanging open asleep, with Mandy held in his arms face down, her cheek nestled into his collar, with her hands placed on his shoulders as her back rose and fell gently with her calm breathing. Both held each other with a delicate care that accentuated the tired, blissful state displayed on their features.

'_I knew they'd get together.'_ Grim thought to himself as he smiled and withdrew a camera from his robe. A brilliant flash later and he had captured a very personal moment between the two for use as blackmail for years to come.

Stirred by the flash which permeated their closed eye lids the two youths winced at the sudden unexpected brightness. Opening their eyes they fought to gain focus as they realised someone was at the door. Upon gaining that focus, finding their parents and Grim there watching them, they each went wide eyed, with a deep scarlet blush spreading across their features. As Mandy pushed herself up slightly in Billy's arms she fought for control once more, turning a menacing stare on each of the group.

"If anyone says 'awww', then that person will have their vocal cords torn out, then given to Billy to blow on, so as to hear you scream." As expected no one made a sound after her chilling little threat. Gladys gave a disapproving glare, but smirked nonetheless. As hard as she tried to be menacing she couldn't pull it off, not while she still had her hands on her son's shoulders, and were both still blushing madly.

"Hey Grim." Billy called out with a sickeningly sweet voice and smile. "If you show that photo to anyone, nothing will ever save you from the horrible things I will put you through." Grim's bones turned a slightly whiter shade as Mandy reached up and patted the grinning psychopath on the head as they sat up and separated.

Rising from their seat they each made their way out of the cell. Mandy took the opportunity to scowl hatefully at the corrupt police officer as she and Billy walked out towards the front of the building again. Billy lingered behind a few steps. He scanned the entire building with his gaze, pouting softly as he silently took everything in, an idea forming in his head as they ascended the stairs. Ahead watching them were the two police who had arrested them as they passed through the office, grimacing angrily as they toyed with their truncheons. Grinning as he passed them both he made sure he stomped on their feet with his heels, pushing a slight bit of his demonic strength into his feet as he did so.

"ARGH!"

"AAAH!""

"Oops, my bad, sorry!" He called back to them as they hobbled away nursing their broken feet. He sneered darkly when they were gone. "Not as sorry as you're all going to be." He said under his breath as he ran to catch up to Mandy as she watched passively at the display.

Gladys glanced back at them as they passed through the foyer, out into the afternoon sun. She noticed them slip their hands into each others grasp as they descended the stairs towards the car. One by one they filed into the car, Billy and Mandy hopping in the back seat together. Seeing them together Grim decided to give the two some space by opening a portal for himself directly back to the house. As Harold started the car and began to pull out, Gladys turned around to see the two of them sitting close along the rear seat, still holding hands. They looked back to her without saying anything as she began to smile again

"Mandy." She asked as the girl looked back silent. "Did you tell him?"

Struggling to hold on to her composure Mandy looked out the window to her right, bitting her lip before a big grin broke out across her features. Lowering her face she reached across and held Billy's arm.

"Yeah I told him." She admitted as her face started to turn warm again. Billy looked across to her as happily she smiled back and pressed herself into his side "While we were there Billy took me back to the river where we used to hang out when we were in hiding, and I told him there. We're a couple now."

Both women smirked as they waited for a gap in the chaotic traffic, Billy surprised that his mother had known beforehand. Mandy looked across to her lover beside her, seeing him equally joyous over their finally getting together. He reached around to put his arm around Mandy as they pulled away from the halls of vice, Mandy all too happy to snuggle into his embrace again.

Harold looked into the rear vision mirror as he drove away from the decaying building through the centre of town and smiled at the sight.

"Awww."

"What did I just say!" She barked aggressively as Billy sniggered.

"Uhhh, I mean… uhhh… I said argh! Like as in frustration, like at those damn corrupt cops! Raaargh!"

Billy's attention perked as that reminded him. In an instant his irises turned green as he let go of Mandy to wind down the window via the button on the door.

"Hey dad, could you slow down a bit?" He asked. Frowning Harold complied, easing back on the accelerator.

Smiling viciously he poked his upper body out the window to look back at the halls of injustice. Mandy, Gladys and Harold watched as he summoned his new weapon into his hands. Lowering the blade at the grey building he forced a wave of electrical energy to blast from the blade towards the police department. Before it impacted it dispersed into a large green wave, which swept through the structure, entering into every level and into every cruiser parked out front. From outside and within no one could tell that anything had happened at all.

"What did you just do?" Mandy asked as Billy sat back down next to her, his features fully human as he wound the window up again.

"Nothing yet. I just made it so that they couldn't get out of the building or contact the outside in any way." He gave a sly, dark smile at what was imminent.

Each of the family eyed him suspiciously, though Harold kept his eyes on the road half the time. Billy shrugged and flashed a smile. "Hey, they had it coming."

"Whatever." Mandy said flatly as Billy sat by her left again.

"Okay." Gladys chirped as she sat back in her seat without any more thought to it.

"Alright! AHHH!"

Harold as he swerved the car violently to avoid a head on collision. Both the kids fell over onto their sides, Mandy now looking up at Billy in surprise as he lay on top of her. With a blush and an awkward smile from Billy he pushed himself upright again, Mandy hoping that neither of her guardians had noticed. They did, Harold and Gladys smiling all the way back to the house.

* * *

Evening.

"We spoke with a solicitor today. We're gonna start getting your inheritance." Harold said in between mouthfuls of stake and onions.

"Mmmmm… This is good." Billy called as he shovelled the sweet food into his mouth.

"How much?" Mandy asked as she devoured the meal with slightly more order, customary to her style of perfect control.

"We don't know, we're not at that stage yet." Gladys replied.

"How long do you think it'll take?"

"We don't know that either. The legal structure responsible for those things is in shambles. If we want anything to happen we'll probably have to make all the connections ourselves. So it'll take time."

"Just hope the government doesn't step in and take it before then." Billy added. "They have to cover their asses for all their terrible policies somehow. Cannibalising on people's inheritance would be one way to go."

"They still need people to support their rule. I don't think they'd be stupid enough to go that far until their supporters are drunk on pride and hatred enough for them to get away with it." Mandy answered.

The idea of the influx of funds didn't particularly excite her. She had been in possession of large sums of money before, such as when she melted almost a hundred backyard Schlubs for gold bullion, and when she stole a jewel sneezing fake nose from the Mexicans. Then there was that deal she made with the North Koreans about a year back, which was where she had gotten her emergency funds from. And yet, through all the illegal activities she had engaged in, it was the events of the last two months the police were worried about. There was something slightly moronic about that.

"But I could be mistaken. Bigots were never ones for reason. What about the house?" She asked as she swallowed a mouthful of meat and onion.

"That goes to your name." Gladys answered. "We could sell it and give you the money from it, or we could rent it out. But with the real estate market and the economy the way it is now I don't know what we can do. Either way it's your choice."

Mandy shrugged. "I'll keep it for now. It was mom and dad's house, and I don't want any lowlifes desecrating it. I'll take care of it myself if I have to until we have something better to do with it. " She answered as she and the rest of them finished off their dinner.

Over the next hour they readied themselves for bed. Gladys had insisted that they go to school tomorrow, and Mandy had the idea to agree with her. She wanted to go herself, if only to see what it was like now. If what Junior told her was after only one week of their absence, what about now? She figured Billy and her would at least call through, then continue on elsewhere, donning their regular clothes to start on the business that really needed to be attended to. But right now though that didn't matter, she entered her room, and was soon tucked away beneath the sheets of her bed.

Lying there with her head resting on the soft pillow she recalled what she had experienced today. She had been kissed before, three times in fact, but she had never just given in to the flood of emotions within her. When she met his lips it had felt as though her head was in a concoction of adrenaline and loving bliss, an indescribable high. Even now she silently wanted to feel the warmth of his mouth and his breath on hers.

Now that she thought about it her first kiss, if it could be called that, was also with him, though she had fainted and tried to spit out his saliva in disgust afterwards. The next two of course had to come from Irwin, which profoundly spoiled the whole experience. She gave a soft chuckle to herself as she put the thought out of her head, content to just wait until tomorrow.

Settling herself in she was disturbed by a knock on her door. Rising from her bed in her skimpy tee shirt nightie and shorts she made her way to the door, opening it to reveal Billy standing in his day clothes with a smile on his face, with Berserker lying relaxed in his hand.

"I have something to show you." He said quietly, revealing nothing, though Mandy could quickly make out the gleam in his eyes. Regarding him questioningly she moved from the door and closed it behind her as he gestured for her to follow. She joined him as they made their way down the stairs, out into the cool night air. She found herself shivering slightly as her choice of clothing didn't do much to protect from the cold. Billy couldn't help but glance downwards every so often, if only for a moment, at the expanse of skin the top exposed.

Mandy soon caught on, looking across to him knowingly, wherein he now started to honestly look up and down her alluring figure as he stood side on to her with a slightly awkward smile.

"There's something I've always wondered, don't you ever get cold in that thing?"

Mandy gaped in shock and pouted, crossing her arms over her waist and looking away annoyed.

"Get on with it Billy, and yes, only when I'm outside at night, like now."

Billy sniggered. "Well that's what I'm here for."

Mandy puffed her cheeks, secretly trying to suppress a smile. Billy saw it though.

Pushing such thoughts from his head he lowered the staff to near the ground, low enough for him take a rough seat on it. Mandy followed, sitting down on the staff of the bladed weapon as Billy mentally asked it to rise into the air. It rose steadily, taking the weight of the two youths on its back as it climbed up above the second story of the house, up to the top of the roof looking out towards the centre of town. Steering it over to the peak of the tiled structure he set it down on the end facing the front yard, he and Mandy hopping off to keep a slightly uneven footing on the edge.

"What is it?" Mandy asked as she crossed her legs, wrapping her hands around her elbows to keep out the cold. Billy turned to her, the proverbial gleam of excitement in his eye shining brighter.

"I have a fireworks show prepared for you. I set it up as we were leaving the police station." He replied. Mandy gaped as she remembered the green flash that swept through the corrupt establishment. At the time she had failed to see why he opted to only stop the corrupt scum from getting out. Now though she began to see where he was going, and in a dark way she liked it. "I told you about how the energy seals off the station from the rest of the world. What I didn't tell you is that it also turns the entire building into a giant powder keg just waiting to go off." He raised the scythe. "And I have the detonator."

Billy turned around to face the city in the distance, its lights still aglow in the star studded darkness around it. He smiled as he raised his scythe into the air. "I'd like to dedicate this act of revenge to the love of my life Mandy," Said girl smiled at his choice of words, "and also to the Endsville Police Department. I just wanted to honour the contribution made by the vile, corrupt officers trapped inside that building, who work hard every day to uphold their extortion racket, and who risk other people's lives to beat, rape and murder the few innocent people left in this vermin infested shithole, all so they can feel good about themselves." His features curved into an evil sneer, and the girl beside him knew anarchy was imminent.

"Hey Mandy, did you know that for a long time I wanted to be the Joker? I mean I know I could never be better than Heath Ledger, guy's acting so good it killed him, but I always thought I could be more realistic and genuine about it all. What do you think?" He looked back to her with slightly demonic features, seeing her scowl back.

"I think… that talk is cheap. Prove it." She spoke sternly, challenging him. Grinning manically he snarled.

"I was hoping you'd say something like that. Let's gives it a go shall we?" Looking out to the city he raised his scythe at his side, with its base a few inches above the roof top. Mandy took a step forward as she tensely awaited something she knew was going to be good, waiting for the snap of the staff striking the tiles.

"And here we… go."

"_Tok!"_

Immediately much of the skyscrapers became black shadows against a brilliant white glow that made Mandy shield her eyes. Immediately the earth began to emit a low rumble like that of thunder, only smoother. Within seconds the piercing white light subsided, leaving a brilliant green glow rising from the city centre, and a hail of bright green starbursts soared upwards. Within another few moments a ball of green flame became visible through the skyscrapers billowing up from where the halls of corruption had once stood, with more flashes of green emanating from below sending more burning stars out into the air like fireworks. As it grew an enormous white cloud cap formed over the city centre. The light reflected off it, casting the dome of vapour and the surrounding clouds in a neon green glow.

Mandy stared agape at the mushroom cloud of supernatural flame as it towered over the city, numerous smaller explosions of orange and green taking hold throughout the city as many patrol cars erupted in flame, the uniform wearing criminals driving them incinerated and sent to a place they belonged. The headquarters continued to burn and billow bright green smoke up into the night sky, each bursts sending out a hail of burning debris. Billy gave a darkly satisfied smile at the display of anarchy and retribution, his red hair buffeting in the blast wave that washed over them. As she moved up next to her partner Mandy watched the light reflecting off his green eyes as he gazed out at the scene of death and destruction. This was an act of terrorism against those who were arrogant and corrupt, the emerald flames still glistening in his blue eyes as he returned himself to human to look across to where Mandy stood at his side. He embraced her, his arms linking around her soft bare waist as she stared at the sight that had so captivated her mind.

"Billy… It's so… beautiful." She could barely make out the words as she looked into the flames not overhead but reflected off her lover's eyes.

"Mandy, you're looking at me." He added with a smile.

"I know."

The two bought themselves together in a warm and loving kiss under the glow of the emerald fireball as it darkened and billowed up into the night sky. It was a perfect metaphor for the love shared between the two living bastions of darkness and power.

* * *

**Wasn't that just magic? The original idea was for them to just hook up in their cell, but that wouldn't do. After I did the chapter when Mandy strips in front of Billy the idea of them getting together at the river sounded much better. I kind of wish I didn't make it quite so squishy in the language I used to describe what they were feeling, it kind of made it cliche. Not that it ever stopped me before. I hope you liked it.**

**Oh, and please, please, _pleeeze_ review this one, even if you're reading this long after it was put up. I really appreciate it, thanks.**


	39. Recruiting

**Hey guys. Did you enjoy the last chapter? I hope so.**

**This chapter marks the beginning of the second part of the fanfic. Now that Max is dead, and Billy and Mandy have finally hooked up, the next task is to begin getting their plans back on track. Key features of this will be the introduction of some new yet familiar characters, some now very unfamiliar, the continued decay of society towards its ultimate final stage, and some minor characters so far ignored finally get their time in the sun. I won't say any more at this stage though, you'll have to keep tuning in every fortnight to see for yourself.**

* * *

**Recruiting.**

Next morning.

Billy emerged from the bathroom dressed in an old white shirt with blue jeans. The shirt was part of the old school uniform, wearing it seemed like the right thing to do. It was Monday, the first day back to school since their return, and though he had every intention of going with Mandy on the bus, like Mandy he had absolutely no intention of staying there for anything academic. Two months gone and he wanted to see what it was like as much as she did, like the socio-economic destruction derby Junior had spoken of. He didn't quite know what they would do next. He still wasn't half the planner his girlfriend was.

'… _Girlfriend…'_

He remained still in the doorway as he remembered the events of yesterday. Mandy, the strong willed girl he had known since he was three years old, the girl he had grown up with side by side, was now his lover. Already he could feel his heart calling out to her with the desire to hold her close, to wrap his arms around her small waist, and to taste her lips again. Not just that, he wanted her to enjoy it. He wanted to see her give that soft, almost shy smile she gave only for him so he knew he was making her as happy as she made him. Before he even knew it the familiar emotional high took hold again _'I didn't think I could be so sappy about a girl. But then she's not just any girl.'_

His daydreaming was broken when the door at the end of the hallway ahead of him opened to reveal the girl of his real life dreams. Mandy's short blonde hair was partially dishevelled and her eyes were bleary and unfocussed with sleep, but even the sight of her in her rough state fresh from bed was enough to bring a warmth to Billy's heart and a smile to his face. As she focussed her eyes on him she too felt the warmth that flushed through her at his presence. She showed a faint smile as she made her way slowly over to where he stood.

"Morning." He spoke meekly as he knelt down to tie his shoelaces.

"Good morning." She spoke in return as she approached the bathroom. Stopping momentarily a few feet away she reached out and up with her arms to either side, stretching herself out with a big yawn.

Billy's eyes widened as he glanced up at her from his position knelt down and instantly became captivated by the sight of the hem of Mandy's small tee shirt nightie rising up as she arched herself back. His sight became locked on the vast expanse of tantalising silky skin of her abdomen shown by the skimpy top as she stretched herself. He somehow knew that it was forbidden, that he shouldn't be staring so openly at her ever so shapely waist, all the way up to the bottom edge of her bra. And yet he couldn't bring himself to tear his gaze from her, the thought of running his fingers across her body like he had down at the river yesterday, hearing her gasp and sigh in delight and melt into his arms, refusing to go regardless of how he admonished himself against such thoughts.

As she opened her eyes after her yawn with her shoulders and arms still held back and up, she saw her partner staring up at her from the floor with his mouth open in astonishment as if he were in a trance. As he followed his gaze she noticed it was situated not on her face but on something below. Trailing it down she noticed with a start how much skin she was showing. Looking back with her eyes wide she saw he had torn his gaze from her figure and was gaping up at her eyes, caught red handed. Blushing like a tomato he lowered his face as he continued to gaze up at her, seeing the similar expression in Mandy's face as she lowered her arms to her side, pulling down slightly on the hem of her top to cover herself a bit more as she too blushed deeply.

Tearing his mind off the subject of Mandy's figure he hurriedly finished up on his shoe laces, all the while he tried to hide a smile at being able to give her such feelings. He quietly moved aside from the doorway to allow the suddenly shy girl to make her way in, looking away as she gave a small smile. As she made her way through the doorway past his kneeled form Billy suddenly smirked and reached out for her. Mandy took a sharp breath as he slipped his arm around her waist and held her still. She looked down in surprise as he leaned in close to her figure and breathed on her, before giving her a soft kiss on her belly.

She gasped audibly at the feel of his lips on her sensitive body, and her face relaxed as she gave a sigh of bliss. Closing her eyes she smiled softly and put a hand on his hair as he placed his hands on her sides and continued to trail kisses across her waist.

"Come on Billy, what… if… hah… someone sees?" She stammered as he continued kissing her.

"Maybe it'll inspire them." He spoke softly and nuzzled her belly. Mandy smiled warmly, grabbing him by the hair and leading him up to his feet again facing her.

"Romantic idiot." Leaning in she placed her hands around the sides of his neck and kissed his mouth.

Billy's eyes widened at the sudden emotional flood that overwhelmed him, causing his heart and mind to both skip a beat. He could see Mandy's serene features and calm closed eyes so close in front of his own, and the feel and taste of her mouth as she kissed him gently but passionately.

She separated from him, giving him a soft smile as she let him go and disappeared into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Billy still gasped for air as he staggered in shock. Though it wasn't the first time they had shared a kiss, it was the first time she had been the one to kiss him herself. It had carried his mind away to a strange place regarding everything that had happened in his life since this time yesterday. The whirl of conflicting love, desire and affection he held for her, the light-headed joy of having her so very close with him, and then a sudden terror.

'_What if we screw this up? What if something happens and we ruin everything? What if I screw this up?'_

The thought instantly cleared his head and filled his stomach with dread at the same time. Soberly he made his way down the stairs to keep going. He needed to think about some things, and would have to talk to her about it later.

* * *

A few minutes later Mandy herself, dressed for school, descended the stairs to where she could hear the news playing on the TV nearby. Rounding the corner she saw that Billy was sitting on the couch eating a bowl of cereal while watching the television, with Gladys and Grim standing nearby.

As she approached she looked into the screen, seeing the face of the balding man who presented the local news broadcast. After a few moments it became largely obvious as to what event they were talking about, and it didn't surprise her in the slightest.

"So what's this about?" She asked with fake interest.

"Someone blew up that police station full of corrupt cops last night while we were asleep." Billy said without taking his eyes off the screen. Moving in closer she saw a clip of the explosion taking place. The security camera recording the image remained still for a moment before everything became a blur of shock, followed by an enormous column of ash and smoke in black and white footage. For a moment she pursed her lips.

"Did they say who did it?" She asked with an air of objective indifference with a raised eyebrow, though inside she was slightly alarmed at the prospect of being found out. He shook his head.

"The usual crap. Last time they were saying it was the Asians, but that'll probably change to someone else in a moment or two. My guess is that they have no real leads except that it was against the police." He said apathetically though with a slight smirk tugging at the side of his mouth.

Gladys stood with a cruel look in her face, smirking with her arms crossed as she saw pictures of the devastated wreckage from a helicopter. Billy and Mandy both watched her with satisfaction as she nodded to herself and sniggered quietly.

"Hah, take that pigs! No one arrests my kids and gets away with it!' She sneered and raised a fist at the set with a slightly deranged gleam in her eyes. The two looked across at her questioningly, off-hand wondering if she was ever one of the more radical counterculture types in her youth. She relaxed her stance contentedly. "I just wish I could have watched it last night. I wish Harold and I could have gotten up and watched it together from the rooftop."

Their eyes widened and darted towards each other momentarily. Of course they remained silent, doing nothing to give themselves away before they returned their gaze to the screen, trying to diffuse the situation by pretending it wasn't there. Changing the subject ff Gladys turned to them beaming and optimistic.

"Speaking of which, you'll never guess where your father is."

"Hey yeah, I haven't seen him this morning. Where is he?" Billy asked as they turned to her again, seeing her grin.

"He's out jogging!" She spoke while her face lit up. The two looked at her surprised as she nodded.

"… Jogging? Him?" Mandy stammered.

"After he saw what the police were like he decided he was gonna start taking better care of himself, physically and spiritually, starting with his body. He's also saying about getting back into meditation like we used to a long time ago. I've never seen him this fired up and fixated about something before. I expect it'll be a long and hard rode for him, so I expect you both to support him. He's doing this as much for us as he is for himself."

The two nodded earnestly.

A second later Gladys had returned to her sugar-sweet motherly self. "Now Mandy you should get some breakfast before the bus gets here. Is your bag packed?"

"Yes, thank you." She replied, leaving her to continue on to other things. Billy handed her another bowl already filled with muesli and yoghurt as she moved in to sit by his side. Grim eyed them both with curiosity.

"You do realise she knows dat it was you, right?"

"Duh." Billy spoke as he shovelled another spoonful enthusiastically into his mouth. Grim shrugged, leaving them to get on with their eating.

"By de way, before you little maniacs go off terrorising de town, I'm gonna be gone fer most of the day, and the next few days after. I have to catch up on all de work I missed while we were in hiding. I'll see you two later dis afternoon, so until den you'll ave to look after yerselves." They nodded.

"Have fun." Billy called as he left out the front door, leaving them watching the local news.

"_Official reports put the death toll at one hundred and thirty three people so far, all of which were police officers. It is estimated that the attack has wiped out approximately two thirds of the police force for the city of Endsville."_ The professional news presenter droned on. _"This morning Mayor Roachspam had this to say on the attack."_

The scene changed to the outside foyer of the Endsville Finance Tower, where a portly balding man who looked like every corporate fat cat in the world put together stood with his chins held high and a proud pout on his round features, surrounded by a handful other such men and reporters.

"_This bombing has been a direct and unprovoked attack against the supremacy of our white race! I assure you that the ones responsible will drown in their own blood for this insult against our superiority, but not before they watch as we rape and butcher their vile families and children in front of them! We all know who it was! It was the Jews, and the niggers, and the Asians, and the spics, and the faggots! They will all suffer for their difference to us! Until that time I am proud to announce that we have the situation well under control. Endsville High school is to be closed down immediately, and will serve as the new headquarters for the police department until the wreckage of the old building can be cleared away and a new one built on top of it."_

Mandy turned off the television, placing the remote on the couch besides them as she finished her breakfast.

"We have a problem Billy." She spoke in a serious tone, drawing his interest.

"What do you mean? Is this about us, or how Milkshakes and Saliva are still missing, because I'm sure they'll turn up somewhere or other, even if it's in a car compactor or woodchip-"

"No Billy, we're fine, and they're sitting right beside you. They returned last night." Looking down beside the couch he was indeed greeted to the sight of the pink cat and the salivating dog sitting lazily together.

"Huh. See, I told you they'd turn up. Now what's the problem?"

"Mandark's dead. He was the one responsible for developing everything we'll need to take over, including the antideath. Now that he's no longer with us that all grinds to a halt." She explained the issue bought up by their scientist's death at the hands of the demon in disguise.

Billy nodded in understanding, taking on a thoughtful appearance. "So what do we do?"

"We need a new one." She spoke with a knowing air, having calculated what was needed earlier. "But we don't need just any technical genius. We need someone who is as intelligent and capable as Mandark, but is also narcissistic, arrogant, short sighted, and generally far more up themselves than he ever was. Someone who thinks the world rightfully belongs to them."

Billy rubbed the base of his skull as he considered the idea with a frown. "But why do we want someone like that? I mean aren't we doing this because of shit like that? Plus all those major character flaws would be severe weak… nesses." The moment he finished his eyes lit up with understanding. Mandy saw this and nodded in confirmation.

"Yes. If we can get in their ear and tell them everything they want to hear, then they'll practically fall into our hands just to feed their ego." She sat her empty bowl on the couch beside her. "Guys like Mandark are hard to come by. We don't have time to befriend one, or the money to pay one, so our chances are better if we deceive one. And if they think they're doing it all for themselves, then they'll have that much more incentive to work productively, and everything will hopefully move along much more quickly and easily."

"Yeah, but if they're working for themselves towards their own god complex, then won't they be likely to betray _us_ before we're done with them?"

Mandy again nodded. "You're smart for an idiot." She watched as a cheesy grin broke out across his face. "We have to have it so that we're done with them before they're done with us. If at any stage he could do away with us and go it alone then it's safe to assume he will, unless he either change his ways or we do away with him first. You understand?"

Billy nodded. "Yeah, we have to get our army and our immortality before he gets whatever it is he wants, and has no more use for us except as slaves. That way we can get rid of him before he gets rid of us."

"Correct. We should go to school for the first few minutes, to see if it really is as bad as Junior says it is. If it is then we should ditch the place and go to the library. There…" She waited as Billy made a pained expression. "There we'll look for any information available on people who fit the bill of a stuck-up evil genius. Once we find a good one we'll gather intel on him, then pay him a visit."

"Okay!" Billy replied as he rose to head up the stairs to pack his bag. He stuffed his old blue and white tee shirt to change out of the old button up shirt he had on. In addition he packed some items he figured would come in handy, a malicious grin forming on his face as he loaded each object.

* * *

After a few minutes they headed out the door for the school bus, bidding their parents goodbye as they left. The crater in the front lawn remained, all be it with the water main repaired. Making their way towards the nearby bus stop down the street they were surprised to see Junior waiting there for them, a fowl grimace on his bespectacled features.

"You better be grateful I'm here to accompany you back to that hellhole." Junior growled in his cultured semi-Germanic accent.

"Nice to see you too ya stuck up Eurotrash." Billy chirped in response. "Come on, we all know you wanna see how far to shit the place has gone just as much as we do."

He shrugged casually. "I'm a man. I like to see things destroyed."

It was another fifteen minutes of standing around bored before the bus showed up, and immediately there was a surprise. They looked on wide-eyed as instead of the badly dented and scratched yellow school bus that they had used before, a heavy grey prison bus with armoured slats across the side windows rolled to a halt before them, with the words Endsville Elementary School written on the side. The three gawked at it mutely as the doors opened and one badly bruised student tumbled out, landing at their feet. They watched with morbid concern as he huffed and sprung up to scamper back inside, followed by the sound of several heavy punches and screams of ire. Giving each other a concerned glance the three made their way in through the double doors. Facing them with a grimace the driver pulled a sawn-off shotgun on them.

"Five bucks each or I kill ya." He grunted.

Gazing wide-eyed they each dug into their pockets and hesitantly handed over a note each, which he took and placed in a box beside him. Gradually they continued past him as he kept the barrels on them, lowering it to his side as the doors closing after them and the bus lurched forward again.

Looking down the isle they almost wanted to jump out then and there regardless of the speed at which they were travelling. Sperg sat reclined at the back with a small revolver in his hand, surveying his kingdom as before him two of his minions rammed their fists repeatedly into the scrawny mad-looking boy's face from before, followed by another fist to another crazed face, before they tossed both unconscious bodies down the isle where they landed near the two young lovers and Junior behind them. Billy scanned the maelstrom of ultraviolence, disgusted as much as he was amazed, while Mandy simply scowled darkly. It came as a slight reassurance to them that so far Sperg was too engrossed in watching his gang enforce his dominance to notice they were back. It would be a shame to have to turn the bus into a bloodbath after just getting settled down into their lives again, especially before they even got the chance to see what the school was like.

"Over here." Junior spoke behind them and moved to lead them towards a vacant seat a third of the way down on the left.

Stepping over they both followed hurriedly towards his position, squeezing themselves past him to sit by the window as Junior kept an eye out in case someone recognised them.

"So Junior, you glad you came after all yet?" Billy called as he and Mandy kept their heads low so as to avoid any aggression.

"I have to say the prison bus is a nice touch, beyond what I was expecting." He commented dryly.

"I just can't believe it's gotten so bad." Mandy remarked.

"As I said this all started to go south after you guys left. That left just me and…" He paused as he inwardly shuddered. "… Max to keep the place together. Once Max and I left there was nothing to stand up against the tide of madness. Who knows, depending on how bad the school itself is maybe now that we're back the place can start to go back to how it once was."

Mandy shook her head. "I doubt it. Considering what I've seen so far it's probably almost time to cut our losses and abandon it to its fate."

Billy sneered aggressively. "Heheh yeah! It'll be cool to see this place tear itself apart." He had to focus on keeping himself human as he shuddered with destructive desire. He looked across to his friend. "You know now that I think of it I'm surprised that bus driver didn't pull the trigger on you when he saw you."

Junior thought for a moment. 'It must be the illusion you placed over me yesterday. It must have started again when I left this morning."

"We're going to the public library after staying for a few minutes so we can do some research on a new partner for a business venture. You want to come with us?" Mandy asked.

"Not today. I was planning to go back to Max's old apartment and see what I can find there." He replied, the bus beginning to slow down again to pick up another desperate life gone wrong. Not wasting time the three immediately filed off the bus as they got on, continuing the few blocks distance on foot instead.

To sum up what they saw upon arriving out the front the school had become a very strange and very disturbed place in the time they had been gone. While the building itself was mostly unchanged in its overall layout, the entire school had been extensively remade, and had become what looked to be an insane asylum. The grounds were surrounded on all sides by a high wrought iron fence. They could see a guard armed with a truncheon on patrol. The building itself had been repainted grey on the outside, with the windows now either blocked out with metal plating or barred over. Atop the entrance they noticed school was now spelled with a 'k' presumably because of rapidly falling levels of intelligence within the inhabitants.

Looking up they noticed the flag hanging limp atop its mast. Something was off about it. As they scrutinised it they realised what it was, the colours were wrong. The star spangled banner was now red, white and black. It was a subtle yet ominous indication of what was happening to the once great nation.

Making their way cautiously in through the heavy gates they walked along the concrete path across the lifeless ground leading up to the building and pushing in through the doors. Oddly enough it seemed to be in better shape and order as a place of madness than it had of learning. Though many of the walls were still decaying and showed areas where the outer layer had crumbled away, and the pipes still leaked in places, there was a sense of greater order in the few students in the halls around them, despite the obvious hostility sent in their direction by those that recognised them.

The sound of a shrill barking voice met them from somewhere. Moving to peer through one of the door windows into a nearby classroom they saw several neat rows of students, all sitting quiet and attentive in the dark, bathed in the flickering light of a television set at the front of the room while a party instructor sat back. Listening in they quickly realised the shrill voice was coming from the TV, blasting out a constant stream of mindless hate speech and white supremacist propaganda, which the students sat glued in rapt attention to.

Looking around them they saw that not only were the walls plastered at every corner with posters and more hate speech, but the same screeching mad televised voice was coming from every classroom around them. This was why the school was so orderly; it had become the place they came to get their daily ego fix. It was an insane asylum where people went to be made insane.

Elsewhere they smelled a strange kind of smoke, not of wood or tobacco, or of any other drug that was smoked here, but incense, coming out around the door to the boy's lavatory. With it came the sound of heavy chanting in Latin. Stepping over curiously Billy nudged it open slightly, where the three saw nearly a dozen boys and girls sitting cross legged around a pentagram drawn in blood on the floor, with incense sticks and black candles spaced periodically, and in the centre a pile of several severed human body parts, arms, legs, and organs. Several of the worshippers wore black executioner like masks over their heads. The inhabitants of the Satanic cult had their eyes closed and were too engrossed in their ritual to notice they were there as they slipped away, with the exception of one, watching them go through the all encompassing mask.

They bypassed their lockers, seeing that all three had been beaten in at some point and had their doors torn off their hinges. Abandoning them they made their way towards Billy and Mandy's classroom while Junior kept watch behind them. They stayed close so as to avoid the aggression of their classmates as they moved towards the door.

As Junior kept watch down the end of the hall, a pair of eyes locked onto them from the other side. An orange-haired girl wearing a white designer tee shirt, denim shorts and jacket, with an abnormally large amount of makeup on her face to cover the heavy bags under her bloodshot eyes, watched with bile as her absolute worst enemy Mandy and her worthless accomplice Billy made their way into class. Mindy, once queen of the popular and beautiful, was now but a shadow of her former self, propping up her delusions of prestige via other methods.

'_They're back! At last those two treacherous, lying vermin are back! Now I can make her pay for how she ruined my life!'_

Though she had lost most of the popular girl prestige she had previously held, she still had the money her wealthy parents showered her with. This she had used to pay Sperg and his gang into doing her bidding, essentially forming her own private army of psychopaths. The tactic had worked remarkably well so far. Though people had resumed treating her with all manner of supreme reverence she was still not known for her beauty, her status bought by cash and enforced by her thugs.

Also there was the ugly matter of what happened to the unfortunate souls who happened to invoke the mad girl's wrath, namely Trixie Tang. She and her family were forced to leave after she had her gang beat her family and repeatedly attacked their house and cars with rocks and baseball bats. For poor Trixie herself though Mindy had a far more horrible punishment inflicted on the vain and shallow girl, which she herself watched on in satisfaction as it was carried out. She left a traumatised wreck when the family fled town. It didn't serve to calm her narcissistic frenzy, it just served to satisfy her ego enough for her to feel as though she were the most popular and most important again. Now though, with Mandy's return from exile, her ire and mania to cause as much anguish as possible started all over again.

'_She deserves to die for what she did to me! Nobody makes me look bad! I'm better than that common scum! They should be worshipping me! I'm a god compared to them! How dare they not worship me!'_

Mindy began to plot and plan their demise as she made her way into another classroom. The first thing that came to her mind was to call in Sperg and her army, and confront them both when they were alone.

As Billy and Mandy opened the door to their class they saw it too was bathed in darkness with the flickering television barking hate speech at the front beside the teacher. The group of juvenile scum turned to stare at them hatefully, but none challenged them with any attack as they stood inside the doorway facing them. The teacher was apparently a leftover from before they reformed the school into what it was now, a burnt out drunkard more lazy and irritable than he was prejudiced. He turned to them with a look of contempt.

"What the hell are you two traitors doing back here?"

One thing that had changed, aside from the mindless decay of humanity into this state, was themselves. Before it felt perfectly natural to sit here and research world history and the rise and fall of great nations and empires on her own while the teachers got drunk, but now there was no place for them here. She and Billy were above all this now. They weren't going to let themselves rot in this horrible place, not when there was a world of arrogance, corruption and decay to destroy. Now they had no purpose here, and it was time to let it go.

The teacher stood, seized a baseball bat from under the desk and took a staggering step in their direction. "Hey bitch, faggot, who the fuck do you think you traitors are coming here?"

Billy gave a sinister smile as his eyes flickered green for an instant. "You better watch the way to talk. For all you know we might be the people who're gonna teach you some respect you waste of organs."

Acting before the dumbstruck drunk could react he latched onto the bat and tore it out of his hand, channelling a small iota of the force in his body into crushing the end in his fingers. He dropped the bat and turned around facing Mandy.

"Let's go." She spoke.

They payed no heed to the many angry glowers their former classmates sent them as they both made their way out into the hallway. Junior regarded them both silently as they continued on towards the front doors, until a single student raced out in front of them and held them up with a small knife.

"Gimme your bags or I'll kill ya!" He spat at them. Mandy and Junior remained detached from it all while Billy sneered, holding out his right arm.

"You should pick your victims better." He looked down to the two inch long steel blade held in his hand, the crazed grin taking hold on his face again. Before the little thug before him could do or say anything he clamped a hand around his wrist, gripping it hard enough to earn a flash of pain, his sadistic grin widening as he toyed with his prey.

"So you were gonna kill us were you? Little shits like you shouldn't be carrying knives!" Twisting his clenched hand upwards he snapped the bones in the thugs arm, earning a shriek of agony as he let go of the blade. Revelling in his victims terror and pain he released his arm, using the power of his scythe through his body to form a blade of dark green crystal, stabbing it down violently through the little thug's foot, pinning it to the to the floor.

"KYAAAAAHHH!" The violent delinquent screamed as a pool of blood began to form around his foot, his broken arm hanging limp at his side. Smiling cruelly Billy left him there as he summoned his scythe. Acting swiftly he ordered it to form a swirling green vortex behind the screaming thug.

Stepping into it they both vanished from the hellish school, the vortex closing immediately after,.

Junior looked down on the poor sociopath aloofly as he gazed desperately up to him.

"Help me, please…" He reached out for him. "Max…"

His eyes darted upright and into space with the realisation. Of course Billy had chosen that form for him, it matched his stature, and wouldn't be unexpected around town, it would have been the only one to come to mind. That he was inhabiting the form of his old friend, it felt to him like the ghostly hand of his false companion from beyond death. A cold sort of calm overcame him.

"Please, I won't do it again!" The bleeding thug begged. Once again Junior looked down upon him disdainfully, remembering the last time he had chosen to be merciful to someone like this.

"You made your choice. Live with it. And I'm not Max."

Stepping around him he walked away down the madness filled hall, exiting out the doors into the daylight beyond, leaving the injured thug pinned to the floor wallowing in his pain until someone helped him. Considering the poor quality of the people infesting the place, he was most likely going to be there for a long time.

* * *

The public library near the central business district was one of the few uncorrupted places left in the city. Though it was more or less the same as any other council library, rows upon rows of books, a dozen computers, lounges and places for people to congregate, it was the mindset of the people here who were different. This was the haven for the youth of the city who were not mindless, pride consumed lowlifes. Here they would come to do research on every available subject, and discuss all manner of topics in an atmosphere of peace and mutual respect. There was no loud hushing for people to be absolutely silent by overzealous librarians; rather it was a bustling forum of activity and joy and debate. It was a place where what little good still left in the depraved city shone through, and where those branded traitors or different by their ravenous peers for being either the wrong colour, or for thinking too much, or just not fitting in with the blindly hateful masses, came to escape the assault from outside.

Several people turned from their conversations to watch a green portal form above the ground. Their interest peaked when two well known pre-teens stepped out of it as the green whirlpool vanishing behind them. Throughout the room conversation ceased as Billy and Mandy stood looking across their number.

Mandy was well known here, as was Billy to a limited extent if only as her accomplice, because not only did she frequently attend the forum, but because of her powerful and commanding aura. People could feel that though she was dark and powerful, and had great ambitions of forcibly binding others to her will, they also knew that she was not arrogant, pompous or overly proud like the rest of the lowlifes that spilled their hatred on them at every opportunity. To them she represented not just order and responsibility, but she also embodied the strength of character that so many of them wanted, and vengeance against the people who wanted them all dead for being different. For this reason she was highly respected and revered as a strong and intelligent young woman beyond her years, and their informal leader.

"Hey Mandy you're back!"

"Mandy, good to see ya again."

"How are you?" Several people took notice of her arrival and welcomed her back, including a group of a dozen boys and girls of various ages sitting around a table together. At the head of the table sat one boy they did recognise, though she couldn't quite remember his name. She knew he used to call himself Wiggly.

"I'm fine, thank you. It's good to be back with a few sane people after so long." She answered the crowd.

"What was it like? Where did you guys go?" One girl at the group asked them.

"If we had a good few hours free we'd tell you all about it, but right now we've got stuff to do, another day." She answered. Taking a moment as the group got back down to business she and Billy surveyed their surroundings. She was saddened to note that many familiar faces were missing, and even here there were few people of different colour or background, evidence that the bigoted crowds and riots had taken many good lives.

"Anyway we were talking about this new age guru Eckhart Tolle. What he's saying I think is that people's shallow ego is constantly in need of reassurance of its own existence in the eyes of others and the individual themselves." Mandy listened in as the boy at the head of the table spoke. "It needs an identity, based on social class, possessions, thoughts, the roles we play, anything. It can even use victimhood to give itself a false sense of existence in the eyes of others. He says that underneath the shallow ego is the simple fact of existence. He's saying that being is a different level of consciousness than simple thought, and that every time we recognise the meaninglessness of identifying with our ego we move towards that more enlightened level of existence, which is where happiness comes from."

A few nodded and looked up to them. "What do you think?"

Mandy considered it momentarily. "I see plenty of sense in what he's saying, I mean a lot of it is little more than common sense put into words. I don't think being is a separate state of consciousness as just another level of thought. I mean thinking about thinking is still thinking. But still it's definitely something good."

"Have you heard about what's happening? Australia? The dictatorship?"

"Yes I heard. What's the situation in Australia now though?" She asked. Standing he led the two away, taking them towards a board with a map of the island displayed with Indonesia to the north. Marked in blue and red tacks were the positions of the Australian and Indonesian armies, as well as the current battle lines, locations of known military bases and airfields, as well as those that had been destroyed. There were cities marked over with black smoke to signify which had been bombed. The situation was grim for their former allies.

"As you can see, bearing in mind we don't know how accurate our information is, the Indonesians have taken Sydney and are closing in on Canberra. They've taken everything east of the Great Dividing Range, and it's a similar story on the other side, they've already taken Perth. The Australians are ridiculously outnumbered, they're alone, and they haven't got any supplies or aid coming in from anywhere. Their numbers and equipment are severely depleted. They've only got a handful of fighters and tanks left, and the Indonesians have already destroyed many of their bases, meanwhile they've got tones more coming in through captured ports." He pointed out each position on the map. Billy and Mandy both noticed that for every one blue thumbtack there were three or four red.

"They're pouring down along the coastline, but the Australians are fairing slightly better in the interior of the country where the flat expanses lend towards the Abrams tanks. Refugees are pouring out of the cities into the desert and south to Tasmania."

At this point he turned the board over, revealing a similar map of South-East Asia. "One thing we noticed though was that in the last few weeks the Indonesians haven't been willing to commit their full forces to the invasion. There's been trouble between them and Myanmar, which have been expanding in their direction." The map showed the Burmese had already taken over Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and were now bordering on Indonesian held Malaysia.

"This'll be one to watch in the future." Billy remarked.

Leaving the boy to return to his work Mandy led Billy past the group towards one of the private study rooms. Despite her ever stern expression she relished the chance to get back here and be a part of the small group of respectable citizens in the city. She knew these people aspired to show the same strength of mind and spirit as she, and for that she respected them all. _'I won't find my governors and officers in academies; I'll find them in places like this. These people are competent and level-headed, they deserve better than this.'_

Entering the room they shut and locked the door behind them, closing the slats over the windows, making sure no one could find out about what they were doing. If they were caught they could be charged with treason, not that the remains of the police force were competent enough to catch them. But it wasn't so much the local police they had to be worried about, more so the myriad of surveillance organisations now given extraordinary powers.

"They treat you almost like a celebrity." Billy commented.

"Yeah well, I treat them with respect, and that on its own is worth a lot in this city." She answered as she dug into her backpack, withdrawing the laptop they had bought while away. "Billy, lend me your scythe for a moment." She asked as she held out her hand.

Billy summoned the weapon to his own fingers, transferring the slightly damp tool to her hands. Letting her get on with contacting the underworld library he got to work setting up the machine. As he did so Mandy levelled the scythe at a vacant patch of air in the room. She could sense the different personality of this weapon to her own. It cried out for destruction and to cause chaos and terror, rather than her scythes stern, dark quality of power, control and revenge. She willed the artefact to connect with the underworld, forming another portal in the air.

"I request information on known evil geniuses for a computer to be deposited here now." She spoke clearly to the portal. After a few moments a single lone flash drive fell to the floor. Letting the green whirlpool dissipate she leaned in and picked up the black pod of data, handing the scythe back to Billy as she plugged it in and began to open the long list of names. There were about fifty individuals advertised.

Mandy scanned over the string of files. Both of them noticed General Scarr was also there as they had expected. She didn't bother looking into his file. Their relationship was too tense for him to be of any use, and the threat of betrayal from him was much greater.

Billy set his backpack down and opened it, taking out his shirt. Undoing the buttons he took off the one he had on and replaced it with his regular.

Mandy sighed and reclined back in her seat. Moving the cursor across the screen she typed in the criteria she was looking for, a god complex, a serious character flaw they could use to bend their supposed genius to their will in the hope of narrowing down the selection.

Entering the search parameter she watched as the list was replaced by another showing the same names scrambled into a new order according to how delusional they were. Narrowing her gaze she looked intently upon the first name on the list, a strange foreign name she could not recognise as being from any culture she knew of. Entering into the file she began to read through the data. As she scanned through it her eyes began to widen. Her interest deepened as she continued to comb through the data on the person she had discovered.

* * *

Meanwhile.

Out the front of the house a team of five workmen made themselves busy unloading a pile of dirt off the back of an old F-150 ute. Each of them dug away at the pile with shovels, throwing each load into the hole in the ground as the patriarch of the house, a dim-witted man by the name of Harold watched on.

One of the workmen, a mid thirties man of less portly build than the others, continued to stand atop the tray of the vehicle as he shovelled away. He would glance across to his workmates and the owner every few seconds, before sending his gaze towards the window to the living room, beyond which part of the kitchen was visible. He subtly kept track of the woman as she worked away inside, wiping down benches as she cleaned up from breakfast, all the while trying to appear like he was keeping his eyes on the pile of dirt.

As he discreetly kept an eye on the woman he noticed her leaving the kitchen, out towards the staircase. From the broom closet under the stairs she procured a vacuum cleaner, heading on upstairs a moment later. From where he stood he could faintly hear the sound of the electric motor starting as she began her next laborious task. With the owner out the front here before him and his wife engaged upstairs, the entire downstairs floor was left unoccupied.

"Augh!" He spat, letting go of the handle to examine his right hand.

"What is it?" Harold asked. "Did a lethal death ant get you?"

"No it's a splinter. A big one." He replied holding his hand out. "Do ya mind if I go wash it out?"

"Sure buddy go right ahead." The owner said, indicating towards the door.

"Thanks." Stepping down from the vehicle he quickly made his way inside, closing the door after him. Stepping through the living room he made his way into the kitchen, careful to make sure others couldn't see him.

Checking one last time to make sure he was alone, he lowered his completely uninjured hand and got straight to work. He began to search for a spot somewhere along the walls where the family was not likely to see often. He considered the back of the fridge, but discontinued it, figuring the fan would make too much noise. _'Perhaps if I put it on the top… No, they'd see it easily.'_

Hurrying his pace he scanned the room. He set his eyes on a small tier of shelves sitting out in the open, with various trinkets splayed across them for regular use. A small picture frame of their son Billy sat in the corner. If something were put just behind there it wouldn't easily be found for some time.

Stepping over to it he pulled forward the small picture frame, exposing the back of it. Digging his hand into his pocket he withdrew a small black object no bigger than a button, partly buried in a wad of putty. He bought it up and secured the lump of putty to the back of the frame, hidden just behind the stand, the black object still facing outwards.

He quickly replaced the picture, making sure it was as he had left it. Stepping back towards the living room he looked out to where the four real workers continued to unload dirt, the owner still steadfastly keeping track of them. Upstairs the woman was still pushing the vacuum cleaner around. No one was there to see him. _'Time to go.'_

His job done he passed back into the kitchen, stepping into the back room. Sliding the glass doors open he stepped through into the back yard, closing them after him. Off to the side the family dog continued to sleep away in his kennel, oblivious to his presence as he stepped on through. Quickly he approached the wooden fence on the left, clambering up and over into the yard next door. He set off across their yard, hopping up over the next fence into the next yard, before coming out onto the street. He stepped over to where a black Crown Victoria lay in wait. Opening the passenger side door he stepped in, his white collar clad partner starting the engine, driving off away from the house, disappearing soon after into the maze of suburbs.

* * *

Billy closed his bag up and looked to where Mandy sat at the desk, leaning in towards the laptop screen intently. He moving in towards her.

"What's that?" He asked intently, seeing her concentrating on the lists of data on the screen.

"I think I just found our guy. Look at this." She spoke in an entranced state as she cycled the page up to the top, where the basic information of their crazed mastermind could be seen. Alongside the simple information was a picture of a green skinned creature with red eyes and two antennae atop its bald head, wearing a strange red uniform.

"His name is Zim. He's an alien of a species called the Irkens, and was exiled to Earth under the cover of being sent to take it over. He has access to advance technology, and has the skill to create powerful and complex war machines. He is well known throughout the Irken Empire for his extreme incompetence, arrogant sense of superiority, short-sightedness and general stupidity, which led him to be exiled in the first place." She and Billy gazed intently on the green alien, turning to face each other, their anticipation on what they may have just uncovered plain in their eyes.

Mandy read on. "It says Zim was originally trained to be an Invader, a special operations soldier sent alone to infiltrate a planet and take control from within. Due to going on a violent rampage on Irk in the mistaken belief that it was another world, he was demoted to a food service position. After reapplying personally to the Tallest, the heads of the Empire, they sent him out into space in the hope he would die, while telling him he was to invade an unknown planet. Accompanied by GIR, a defective robotic aid, he accidentally found Earth, and assumed it was the planet he was sent to take over. He set up a base of operations and began attending skool…" She raised an eyebrow at the word figuring it may have been related to why the name had changed here, "… until his lack of growth forced him to leave so as to not draw attention to himself. He has been on Earth for four years, and still plans to take over for the Tallest and the Irken Empire in the belief that it will prove his superiority."

Mandy leaned back in her chair as they both thought in silence, contemplating what they had just stumbled across. _'And here I was thinking this would be hard.'_ She thought to herself. Billy leaned in to rest his head on the back of her chair.

"Okay, so he's smart enough to design and build machines of war, has access to extremely advanced alien technology, but is so drunk on his own ego he can't see the truth in front of his face. He has been abandoned by his leaders and his people, and in his delusional state doesn't even realise it." He gave a sinister smile. "Mandy, I think we just struck gold."

Said girl remained quiet as she considered it. Leaning in again she scanned down the page, taking note of a picture of Zim in his pitiful attempt at a disguise, scrolling on down to a list of enemies.

"It says his main rival is a guy named Dib Membrane, a fourteen year old paranormal investigator who has known about him being an alien since he came here four years ago." She narrowed her eyes. "He is prejudiced, and has an extreme hatred for any non-human intelligent life form. He desires to capture and dissect Zim, and to exterminate all alien life. Then there are the Tallest, the leaders of the Irken Empire due to them both being… the tallest of their species?" She raised an eyebrow at the idea of an advanced race having a government system based solely on height. "They despise Zim for his incompetent and annoying nature, though Zim remains unaware. They share Zim's arrogance and believe themselves to be living gods, and also wish to exterminate all other forms of life in the universe."

She took particular note of another enemy listed on the screen. "Tak, an Invader in training blamed Zim for causing her to miss the graduation test. After failing to defeat him she was exiled by the Tallest for treason due to her logical and free thinking nature, and commanded her SIR unit MiMi to strip and kill her for their entertainment. After dispatching MiMi she went into hiding, and currently resides in Townsville."

"Isn't it terrible? Why is it the idiots of the world rise to the top while the smart ones get crushed?" Billy commented on the mysterious Irken's plight. Mandy nodded in agreement.

"I think we should have a word with this Dib guy before we talk to Zim directly." Mandy suggested, despite her already justified discomfort at the prospect of having to deal with anoth proud, blindly hateful idiot. "He could tell us more about him. We could use the information to find out about his weaknesses, and use them to better turn him to our side."

"Alright, but considering what this is saying do you really think it's necessary?" Billy asked.

"I don't take chances." She replied and stood up, making her way around behind him to begin changing out of her old uniform.

"Okay, we'll go talk to the Nazi boy." Remaining in his seat Billy read back and forth over what was displayed. His eyebrow perked up as in the reflection on the screen he could see Mandy undressing without her knowing. He smiled softly as he watched her strip, eyeing up her figure as she set aside her shirt and dress. She stopped and faced him.

"Billy I'm okay with you watching me undress, but at least be honest about it." She commented. Smirking Billy pivoted around to face her.

"You didn't seem to think so when you were watching me the same way." He replied having known all the time. Mandy's eyes widened and she blushed as he smiled and turned away, leaving her to get dressed again in her pink dress and black shorts. Facing the screen again his smile slipped, as he became reminded of what had occurred to him that morning. As Mandy finished and returned to her seat in her pink flower dress and black shorts she noticed him sitting back with a quiet thoughtful visage. She raised an eyebrow.

"What's bothering you?" She asked. He sat forward and rubbed his fingers together.

"I was thinking, back when you kissed me this morning, what exactly is it that I feel for you?" He struggled to find the right words hoping he wouldn't say anything that would hurt her. Mandy frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Well it's like… Love is supposed to be selfless right? It's about both people caring more about each other, and not about what they want themselves. It's not about wanting, it's about giving."

"So how is that bothering you?" She asked perplexed. He turned in his seat to face her anxiously.

"Because I want you, a lot."

The awkwardness of what he was expressing to her was still apparent, both in his hesitant manner and in how Mandy sat up slightly taken aback. They had only been together as a couple for a short time. But his concern was also apparent.

"If real genuine love is supposed to be selfless, then does that mean what I feel for you isn't really love?" He spelled out with rising worry, all the while Mandy listened calmly. "I just don't want for you to get hurt later if I end up screwing up somehow. I mean what if this doesn't work out?"

Against everything Mandy actually gave a slight smile. "You're actually a lot wiser than anyone ever gave you credit for, you know that?" Billy's anxious expression softened slightly at that. "I see where you're coming from. I don't blame you." She sat back in thought of how to explain it to him.

"Remember Irwin? Remember how he used to look at me? He desired me, but he never cared about me at all. That wasn't love, that was just an obsession. If you care deeply about someone, but without feeling any kind of attraction for them then I guess that makes it friendship or family love. You however want me and care about me all the same. You're careful about the way you treat me because you want me to enjoy us being together just as much as you do. Am I right?"

Billy's eyes lit up in understanding. "It's the wanting and caring together that makes it love."

"Feel better now?" She asked. He nodded with a smile.

"Yeah. Thanks for understanding. You're actually really good at this."

Mandy relaxed back in her seat. "Yes well after I stopped denying the way I felt about us everything became a lot clearer to me. I could see the truth. I wasn't afraid anymore."

Looking between each other contentedly Billy began to notice her calm visage start to change. Her eyes became alert as she sat upright gazing back at him intently, her thoughts of how she felt towards him bringing up a renewed surge of emotion and longing, something Billy picked up on and then started to mirror in himself.

They sensed each other's rising tension through their heightened nervous breathing, and knew they both felt and wanted the same thing.

Mandy moved across as Billy reached out and wrapped his arms tightly around her, the two coming together in a passionate kiss. She sat herself down on his lap facing him, placing her hands on his shoulders, while he cradled her around her back, pushing and moving his mouth into hers, both frantically trying to kiss and taste as much of each other as possible, separating every few seconds to draw breath.

"I love you Billy!" She only just managed to gasp out through his constant rain of loving kisses, coming together again to continue their mutual search for what they needed from and for each other. They continued this for another minute before separating. Billy watched as Mandy smiled back, a look of indescribable happiness in her face. She watched him as a shimmer of tears formed in his eyes. Leaning in he nuzzled her affectionately, feeling the warmth of her presence in his arms as she lowered her face to rest her forehead against him.

"We should get moving. We've got a lot of work to do if we wanna get this psycho under our hand." Billy spoke softly, Mandy nodding, giving him one last kiss before moving out of his arms up off his lap.

Returning to the task at hand they packed the computer away back in her bag, Billy sealing them both away for safe keeping until later. Returning the chip to the underworld library he formed another whirlpool in the air towards the distant city, stepping on through to where their contacts lay.

* * *

Out the front of Billy and Mandy's house Harold continued to watch over the workmen, careful to make sure they were doing what he was paying them to do. It was a good thing he was, after all he knew how people in this city were always lazy and incompetent, never putting in honest work for honest pay, like the guy he sent inside the house earlier. Looking back to the house he narrowed his gaze.

"Jeez what's keeping him? That better be one hell of a splinter."

By this stage the CIA operative was already long gone.

* * *

**I really liked turning the school into a crazy house. I especially liked the prison bus, and the TVs drilling propaganda into the students heads, kinda like the two minutes hate out of Nineteen Eighty Four, only six hours a day. I only just added the black mass at the last moment.**

**I also got to put Australia on the map agan, literally, and flesh out our own story of doom, as well as what was happening elsewhere in the world. And that Eckhart Tolle discussion group was just something I wanted to throw in after reading part of A New Earth. It's better than old religious texts for me because it's simple, non contradictory, and it doesn't just advise to do something without explaining why.**

**Another thing I wanted to do was make it so that Mandy was proactive in the new relationship. I didn't want it to be just Billy initiating every encounter. As a result Mandy's character might become a little soft, but that's part of the learning curve I wanted her to go through. I still intend for her to be menacing and domineering.**

**Anyhow next chapter we catch up with two of our favourite characters from Invader Zim. A great deal has changed there, but that will all pan out in its own way. Hope you enjoyed, please review.**


	40. Gasoline and Genocide

**I think this chapter is another one that needs a quick warning, it gets very nasty, and mainly concerns sexual assault and rape. Also fans of the Dib might not like what I've done here with his character. I don't have anything against Dib, he's the star of another fanfic I've got in the works, but I always liked the idea of a really evil version of him.**

**Anyway here we go again, getting back to reintroducing some of the Invader Zim characters which we've only seen in that one chapter a year or so ago now. Hope you like it.**

* * *

**Gasoline and Genocide.**

The clear midday sky shone a bright and healthy _yellow_ upon a bustling pizza restaurant nestled within the fat folds of a strange city. Without warning the front doors of the restaurant burst open as two preteens bounded out to stand outside gasping and gagging.

No pizza should ever look, smell or taste like that. And the grease, there was a small puddle running off from it. Not only the pizza, but the horrific characters made it feel like they were in some drug induced nightmare, the worst of them being the unfathomably fat man in the pig suit.

They had arrived in the metropolis roughly half an hour ago, and after taking to a phone book to track down Dib's surname they decided to try Bloaty's Pizza Hog to eat while doing further research on their first contact.

Dib Membrane. The information on him was oddly scarce. It wasn't that there wasn't much there of him, but what was available to go on was three years out of date. The only clue as to why this may be so was that around three years ago he had begun worshipping and calling upon deities known throughout this world and others for their evil, learning how to channel the dangerous and utterly corrupt energies they saw fit to lend him. That was the last piece of information able to be discerned on him before whatever entity it was keeping track of him lost contact.

Once they were finished with all that was available on him they started on other notable personalities connected to Zim, right up until their pizza arrived, which led them to where they were now.

"How can anyone…" Mandy covered her mouth to stop herself from puking. "… eat that garbage?"

"I swear the base was made out of used napkins." Billy wheezed. Straightening up after a moment he looked out across the urban expanse down the path before them, extending a hand for Mandy to take and pull herself up. "Come on, let's get this over with."

Starting out again the two youths made their way through the suburbs of the technologically advanced city, towards the residence of the Membrane family. It hadn't taken long to locate them, especially after learning the Membrane family was well known in the city. It seemed the patriarch of the family was a local celebrity, an egomaniacal scientist with his own television show, and owner of a major corporation. He was one of the primary supporters and funders of National Unity, as per his own ideas of racial group superiority.

It hadn't surprised them that they had never heard of the name Membrane before today. The city had a very unique and distinct culture, due largely to a habit of cutting themselves off culturally from the rest of the United States and the world in general. As a result they had developed a very unique set of customs, of which included their technological innovations, their obsession with piggies, and their tradition of offering meat on Valentines Day. Another oddity of the metropolis was that technically, according to the many incompetent bureaucrats that governed it, the city didn't exist per se. The urban mass had developed from three nearby towns in separate counties, and even now the three separate local governments jostled with each other like monkeys for control with each side claiming ownership over the entire metropolitan area, which was roughly the size and population of Endsville. Thus the dangerously polluted urban sprawl had no official name, and with the three corrupt council bureaucracies bickering and fighting against each other it had grown a particularly harsh and gritty personality.

There were various similarities to Endsville that could not be overlooked, the propaganda posters on the walls, the billboards, speakers, and the occasional SA group of three or four spread out on each corner. The collective mania pressed upon them all around, but Billy and Mandy were interested to note the different nature of the people they passed. They were weathered and had a bitter gaze in their eyes, if they weren't too dumb or bigoted to know how to be cynical. A dull rumble came up from behind, and the two turned to watch as a large gang of outlaw bikies on Harley Davidsons and Victorys cruised on by and continued away. In the sky above a gleaming silver-grey rigid airship drifted across the city skyline, with Membrane written in red on its side.

The racist ire was much weaker here than in Endsville. Instead of clumping their egos together into an enormous collective frenzy they divided into individuals, shutting out the rest of the world and thinking exclusively of themselves. Yet despite their abstract nature the people living within its concrete confines still had much the same weaknesses as those of Endsville. The majority of them were lazy, dim-witted, egotistical fools who didn't think of much beyond the fridge or the television, or whatever way they tried to define themselves.

It didn't matter, one day this city and its inhabitants would succumb to their weaknesses, and each person would be bought face to face with their demons. One day they would be hammered into taking responsibility for their actions and behaving with respect, wether they wanted to or not. They hoped to be the ones to enforce it. But right now that day of reckoning was far off. They had other tasks to do before then.

The house they came upon was a two story building with a curved roof, purple concrete walls and a garage off to the side, oddly small for a family so powerful. There was evidence of the advanced technology the Membrane family dealt in sticking out of the roof in the form of what Mandy guessed to be a sensor array, along with an electrical field around the front lawns. The garage door looked to be more akin to a reinforced blast door for a military installation.

The two narrowed their eyes disbelievingly at the sight of a two metre tall bronze or possibly gold statue of the person they were here to see, standing proud in the middle of the yard with his foot positioned on the body of some defeated enemy.

"Well this looks like the place." Mandy spoke mockingly as they stopped to survey the structure from the footpath.

Without further ado they made their way forwards, past the statue and the lamp posts dotting the front lawn, towards the burgundy coloured front door. Pausing they made sure they were presentable, Mandy preparing herself for what she needed to do. Though she didn't like it, she felt it best to show a polite, neutral face to their contact.

Reaching forward Billy pressed the button for the doorbell, earning a 'ding-dong' sound that echoed throughout the house. They waited for a few moments, listening for any sign of movement inside. After a short time they heard the distinct sound of someone grumbling irritably, before heavy footfalls began to approach from behind the door.

The metal panel swept open outwards missing the two by a foot. Looking upon the face of their greeter they found a girl roughly their age, sporting dark purple hair, a black dress and purple leggings, with a prominent skull pendant around her neck. She held a look of utter disdain and spitefulness on her face, as if insulted by their very existence.

"Speak!" She demanded in a gruff tone. Mandy tilted her head as she eyed the girl curiously.

"You must be Gaz. I read about you."

"And you must be distracting me from my game, so either get lost or I make you regret coming here for the rest of your worthless life!"

Mandy held up her hands for calm, trying again to be diplomatic. "Can you tell us is this were Dib Membrane lives?"

Immediately the girl's sour expression turned to one of fear, her narrow eyes widening as some kind of dread welled up inside her. They both observed the change with wonder.

"What do you want with him?" She asked now much more reserved.

"We would like to talk to him about an old acquaintance of his." Billy answered the girl.

"I'll tell him you're here." She motioned them to enter as she turned and began to hurriedly ascend the nearby staircase up towards her brother's room. It didn't take a genius to figure out the girl deeply feared and hated her brother, but considering what little they had to read of him on Dib's profile they found it difficult to imagine why, especially when it stated she had been constantly riding roughshod over him. They could also sense that she held the same contempt for all living creatures outside of herself. As they milled around just inside the entrance to the house, closing the door after them, they thought about the strange neo-Gothic girl they had encountered.

"What do you think of her?" Mandy asked in a hushed tone as Billy frowned up at the staircase where she had disappeared.

"Mmmmm…" He struggled to put his thoughts together into something that made sense, but found the concept to be quite difficult to describe accurately. "She's weird. It's like there's a lot of you in her, but… I dunno. It's like something's missing."

Mandy knew exactly what he was talking about. She could sense that while they were both dark and unforgiving young women, this girl lacked the logic and partially level head that governed her, hating others on the impulse of some antisocial raw nerve. Furthermore she could sense she lacked the will to do anything great, and with no ambitions or ideals she was little more than an angry puppet with no one pulling the strings. Another thing she noticed was the sense of disdain and aloofness she held of them, as if they were unworthy of her presence, evidence of a great deal of pride and conceit. In short while Mandy was dark, Gaz was corrupt. Though they shared many similarities, they were in fact chalk and cheese. But then again, they had only just met her, and they were here to speak with her brother instead.

Seconds later said girl descended the stairs, standing at attention by the staircase facing them without a word, her eyes wide and alert not quite looking at them. Looking from her back up to the staircase they heard the sound of slow, heavy footsteps descending. Emerging from around the corner came a tall, bespectacled youth roughly fourteen years of age, perhaps a few months older. He was cloaked in a luxurious long black trench coat, trousers and shoes of an equally dark shade, and a jet black tee shirt that held a stylised picture of the Earth from space, the continents in red against the black oceans. He looked down on them with a serene face, and it gave the two guests the impression that he was giving them the chance to bask in his presence. Mandy raised an eyebrow reservedly. His gaze made her insides crawl. She already found herself angered at him, his mocking show of humility to hide such a superiority complex greater than as she had witnessed in people such as Mindy, though she did not know for sure. He smiled and welcomed them as he made it to the bottom of the stairs, advancing up towards them.

"Good morning." He spoke in a soft, welcoming tone, smiling warmly though it felt cold. "I am Dib Membrane. I hear you were looking for me?"

"Yes we are. We wanted to talk about someone you might have known." Billy replied politely.

"Well then let us talk. I'm sorry what were your names again?" He asked as he moved back towards the staircase.

"I'm Billy."

"I'm Mandy."

"Well thank you for coming to me. I'm sorry about Gaz, she's like that around everyone." He gestured towards his younger sister as she stood nearby, lowering her head slightly though her neck muscles were visibly tense. "Now you said you wanted to talk to me about someone. Who is it?" He asked getting straight to the matter at hand.

"We're looking for any information on someone named Zim… I take it by your reaction that you have met him before." Billy spoke. Indeed Dibs eyes had widened with surprise and simmering anger, and even Gaz had become interested, glancing across on edge.

"You could say that." Dib replied with a lingering sense of loathing for the alien. "Why don't we go upstairs to my room. I have plenty of information available on it."

Turning he began to ascend the staircase with his guests trailing after him. They both caught on the way he called Zim 'it' rather than 'he', as if he were unworthy of being talked about like a person. For the time being they chose to ignore it, filing it away in their brains for later.

He paused. "Gaz." The girl looked up to him tensely. "You can do your own thing until I call on you." Keeping her head lowered slightly she returned to the couch to continue with her game, though they could still sense her fear.

"So why do you want to know about Zim?" Dib asked as they continued to ascend.

"Well…" Mandy began, searching for an easy story. "We're both amateur paranormal enthusiasts. We know he's an Irken, and that he desires to take over Earth. We know that he was banished from his own world by his leaders for his incompetence, but is still loyal to them, that makes him a danger to the entire human race."

"We also know he's a psycho little guy who thinks he's the best thing to ever happen to Irk." Billy chirped in.

"Yes, but we've never actually met him. We need to know more about his personality so we can figure out what to do with him." Mandy completed.

Dib thought of everything he had experienced with the Irken since he arrived four years ago.

"Well you probably know enough about it now to know what to do with it." He started. "If you've come to decide wether or not to kill him or let him go, you should kill it. Don't make the mistake of thinking about it like it's a person. It doesn't have any of the rights that actual _real_ people have." Dib spoke in a manner that belied the bloodthirsty hatred he felt for all aliens. "You see, Irkens, like any and all alien species, do not have the right to exist. They are inferior beings, and they are a danger to the purity of the human species. Only human beings have the right to be sentient life forms. The concept that there are other intelligent species is a crime, and they must be exterminated like the vermin they are." Billy and Mandy's eyes widened as his rant took a much fowler turn, his blind hatred and prejudice pouring forth despite his features remaining calm.

"Only humans have the right to be intelligent. Other intelligent species are a stain on the universe, and it is our duty as masters of everything that is good and true to make sure they are erased from existence."

"What makes you say that?" Billy asked. "I mean if they're trying to kill us sure but if not then why can't we just live in peace?"

"Because every non-human creature that exists is in clear defiance to our supremacy in the universe. Their existence corrupts and contaminates everything they touch, just like any sub-human vermin." He spelled out forcefully. "They all deserve to die for what they've done. That way the universe can be clean and pure for humans to populate, and I mean real Aryan humans like me, not like those degenerates that have taken over most of the planet. But they're now getting what they deserve."

Smiling fondly on his racist vision of the future he led them down the small hallway towards his bedroom door, his guests struggling to hold in their discomfort at his presence. Opening it they both realised just how deranged, how absolutely _sick_ this person they were in the presence of had become over the years. On the main wall opposite the door there was a flag set in a frame, consisting of a black background with the same stylised Earth from his tee shirt. The continents of the Americas, Europe and Africa making up the side view of the planet were all blood red, while the oceans were black. And most ominously of all, crossing this perverted image of the world was a red Nazi swastika outlined in black. Dib Membrane was a neo-Nazi. All his enthusiasm in the paranormal had long since faded away in his feud against Zim. That, combined with the lack of pity, remorse or any kind of conscience due to his unnatural creation and the sociopathic society that nurtured him, and it was no wonder he'd become as diseased as he was now.

"What does that flag belong to?" Billy asked, hiding his growing nervous disposition.

"That is the flag of the nationwide Pan-Aryan Network, the evolution of the Swollen Eyeball Network, created from my own teachings. We seek to put an end to the alien disease whatever way we can by gradually cleansing and building up our powerbase on Earth, and when the time comes one by one annihilating every last bastion of alien filth!" He grinned viciously, curling his hands into fists as he thought about how many innocents he personally would butcher and rape, all for the good of his all powerful, all superior Aryan race. "But first we have to clean up our own species before we can cure the plagues of aliens that are infecting the universe. You can't purify the universe without getting rid of our own diseases. Once this is complete the Aryan race can take our rightful place as masters of the universe, with myself of course as their ruler." Mandy found herself disgusted by the open display of the worst of human's vices.

"You see I'm living proof that egalitarianism is a myth. I was originally engineered by my father to be the perfect human being, in order to reflect on his own greatness. He succeeded beyond his expectations, and I was created as a living god far superior to himself and all humans. I am the peak of existence, with the Aryan race subservient to me. All else are to be properly disposed of. My father now obeys me. He works towards my future, developing different chemical and biological weapons, and funding National Unity. They may be weak, but they're good enough for now, at least until I can take over myself later." He smirked. "He also sends me bitches when I want them."

Mandy turned away from him in disgust.

"You know, I think I'm gonna wait outside. Billy, you deal with him." She ordered as she stepped out of the deranged room, closing the door behind her to calm her outrage. She gasped and heaved, struggling to keep from screaming or killing someone. To think that people could be so absolutely pathetic and so arrogant as to believe that the entire world revolved around themselves, and that all others should be killed simply because they weren't like them. It sickened her, and despite her prior experience she found herself drained from the encounter. She leant against the wall just outside the door, and tried to imagine the day she would crush these vile people out of existence, and hammer humanity into shape.

Billy watched her close the door, trapping him in the room with the deranged youth who didn't appear to sense the twisted nature of his musings. Such was typical of people ruled over by their own evil, rather than keeping their sanity through self-control.

"Okay so let's talk about this… _creature_ that calls itself Zim." He tried to imitate the same disrespect for the alien as Dib so as to gain his favour. "What's he like?"

"Zim's a freak who thinks it and its race are superior to humans." Dib snarled slightly as he spoke of the crimes of the Irkens, crimes that he himself was guilty of. He shook his head with a look of righteous contempt that masked his hatred and insanity, causing the young terrorist to inwardly shudder with disgust. He moved over towards his desk, complete with lose files and a laptop computer. Digging into his trench coat, he withdrew a chromed Walther P38 from its holster, its black grips adorned with the same map and swastika as the PAN flag. He set the weapon down on the bench as he continued.

"He always talks big loud words to draw attention to himself, pathetic narcissist. He's hopelessly incompetent, paranoid, and has delusions of grandeur. He always keeps telling everyone he's human, which is a pretty big indication that he's not, if you missed the freakish green skin and lack of nose or ears. And despite that he constantly feels the need to shout out about his supposed superiority to me, arrogance!" Dib growled and shook his fist with fury, the only time his rage had begun to surface, before recomposing his poise. "I suppose the best way to describe it is that he's convinced he's the greatest evil genius in the universe or something. Heh."

"I got that from what we read of his file." Billy nodded in agreement. "That he was arrogant and stupid like that."

"Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Zim's a pathetic, wretched excuse for an intelligent being. He's so pompous and arrogant and bigoted. He thinks that anyone not perfect like he and his race supposedly is should be exterminated. Vile monster!" Dib spat. Billy smiled and continued to nod, his lips curving into a grin as he clenched his jaw in frustration at the bigoted young man's unbelievably hypocritical views.

'_I wonder how Mandy's doing? Maybe I should've gone out instead. At least she doesn't have to deal with this…'_ He found himself at a loss to find a word insulting enough to describe his extreme dislike for Dib Membrane. All the while Dib remained unaware, continuing in his smug, supercilious and blindly hateful speech on Zim's personality. Billy continued to listen as he described how Zim was allergic to water, a clear example that he was an inferior being. He continued to grin, his eyes contorted in a look of great irritation that Dib completely missed.

* * *

Outside the room Mandy leaned against the wall, her arms crossed in front of her. The scowl that usually adorned her cold features had grown noticeably more severe, and her lowered face and slumped shoulders added to the dark aura of impending doom. She could still hear everything the two were saying, and found herself being driven ever more irate by the boy's self-satisfied musings. But she would not leave the door, not when her partner was still trapped inside that mad place with that murderous psychopath.

She didn't know for the life of her how people could be so small-minded. How could someone allow themselves to become so deranged by pride and contempt and hate that it came to completely control them? How could a person choose insanity over reason? But more than that, how could he live with himself knowing all the things he had done, let alone be so pleased with himself? In a way it didn't matter, Dib was just one of many heads of a giant monster, and like all the others one way or another he would come head to head with all he had done.

Her little muse was interrupted when the girl they had met earlier appeared atop the staircase. She regarded Mandy with a frosty glower of suspicion and hostility, which she matched with her own scowl of cold and objective indifference. She marched on down towards her position, taking a spot on the other side of Dib's bedroom door as they continued to eye each other with quiet hostility and indifference respectively.

"So…" She began, leaning against the door frame. "You said your name's Mandy, right?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes. And you are Gaz, am I correct?" She asked in a calm, flat tone suggesting control. She waited for her to answer, only to be met by silence. "A pleasure to meet you too."

After another few moments of pointless silence Mandy let her gaze travel back to the opposite wall, studying the line where the plaster met the carpet as all the while Gaz and she continued an unspoken standoff. Logically it didn't particularly matter to her, she let her play her stupid game of trying to intimidate her; nothing major would come of it. She couldn't help but find herself listening to Dib's ranting on the superiority of the human race.

"_You see, it is only humans who have the right to exist." _Dibs voice came muffled through the plaster walls to reach their ears. _"Anything and everything different, anything alien or monstrous like that, is a crime against nature. Aliens and mutants and demons and any other creature that is sentient and is not human is simply wrong! They are a perversion and a blight on the universe. They must all be purged for the good of humanity and the universe as a whole."_ Mandy heard him sigh. She imagined that he probably had some blissful smile on his face now. _"I like to think that some day it will be I who will lead the genetic cleansing of the universe."_

Mandy involuntarily shuddered in sheer disgust and revulsion. _'Cleansing. He actually used the word cleansing.'_

Looking across she took note of the wooden door separating her and Gaz from the sheer madness within. With her gaze to the side she again made eye contact with Gaz, who in return continued to look at her with eyes that seemed to permanently squint. Mandy gazed off below in thought.

"You've got an interesting family." She spoke coolly. "Interesting house. Interesting city too."

Gaz shrugged. "Where you from?"

"Endsville. You heard of it?"

The purple haired girl thought for a moment. "Yeah. Biggest cesspool on the face of the planet. Doesn't Nergal Junior live there?"

Mandy fixed her with a progressively darker scowl. "What if he does?"

Gaz responded in kind, stepping up her own hostile mental barrage. "Who says I care?"

Staring at each other the two women gradually escalated the level and ferocity of the dark and caustic waves they were sending in the other's direction. glaring and scowling at each other with enough intensity to make any ordinary person wet themselves, though neither reacted or showed any apparent activity in their facial expressions. If not for the dark forces emanating from between them it would be seen as nothing more than a stare-off. Eventually though they saw fit to break it off, before the walls started to crack.

"What do you really want with Zim?" She asked in an attempt to get this insubordinate girl to open up.

Mandy considered the question, how best to answer it to appease her, and yet not give away anything. "We came here to find information on him so we can figure out what to do with him." She answered, giving her the reason they were here talking to Dib instead.

"Don't lie _to me!"_ Gaz pressed forcefully for an answer. Again Mandy looked upon her with the same blank objective face, with her disdain for this foolish girl hidden away.

"It's really none of your business now is it?"

Gaz didn't bother answering back, her threatening gaze telling her that she didn't intend to back down from getting what she wanted. Abruptly her mood changed again, becoming more reserved.

"You've made a mistake in coming here, in thinking you could fool Dib." She spoke quietly now. "You shouldn't underestimate my brother. He's very powerful, and dangerous. He's the most dangerous thing you will ever meet."

Gaz turned to face her sternly with distant eyes. "It's probably too late for you already, but if not you should get out of here now, and never come back. Once he has his eyes on you there's no escaping him. You'll just end up another naked body dumped at sea, if you're lucky."

Mandy frowned at her. "What are you talking about?" Gaz's face turned more frantic.

"You don't know the things he does, how many people he's killed and mutilated just for fun. How many girls younger than you he's already raped and… eaten."

She gauged the fearful girl's response carefully and looked away. "Don't worry about us. We've dealt with powerful creatures before. I don't like to be arrogant, but it has always ended the same way. I think we could handle him if he tried anything."

At that Gaz began to glower at her again. "If you try anything against him, that would be an even worse idea, because even if you survived, then you would be dealing with me as well."

Mandy listened in silence, giving nothing away. "I'll take that into consideration."

Gaz stepped up her pressure once more. "You know, shit like you should pay a little more respect to what I'm saying. Maybe me and my bat should beat some into you before Dib makes you his next piece of meat."

Mandy now began to tire of this misguided girl's uncontrolled antisocial hostility. Her cold scowl took on a more menacing quality, a sign of boding evil if she continued. "You should be careful Gaz, you and your brother." She spoke in a low and heavy tone, something she hadn't done for a while now. "Pride comes before the fall."

Gaz looked at her aghast for a moment, taken off guard by her dire warning and her refusal to fear her, before crushing it under all her blinding wrath. Her features morphed into an outraged snarl, bearing her gritted teeth as she glowered at her enemy. "Rrrrrr… YOU-"

She was cut short when the door opened behind them. Distracted she turned to look at the open door with Mandy. Stepping out from Dib's room Billy smiled politely at each of them, his partner seeing he knew full well he was interrupting Gaz's anger trip.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting anything. We've got what we came here for." He announced to Mandy, instantly diffusing the situation, for now at least. He turned back to the older boy.

"Thank you Dib for your help. We should have enough information now to figure out what needs to be done." He told the boy, extending his hand so Dib could grasp it in his own. Their handshake was firm, to Dib seemingly a sign of respect by one of his inferiors. For Billy though it was a cover for the extreme loathing he felt for this supercilious bigot and his sly shit-eating smile. He felt he was holding a venomous snake.

"You're welcome. Remember me. Maybe someday there will be a position in the Network for you, to crush all the abominations out there. Someday they'll all face the punishment they deserve for being so different." Dib spoke in a dreamy and hopeful manner, to which Billy gave a slightly unnerving smile.

"Oh I guarantee it. One day all the arrogant, pompous shitheads out there will face their day of reckoning." He chuckled slightly, a deep, low laugh that Dib would have found extremely ominous, had he not been too caught up in having converted a new sheep to his murderously hateful flock. He turned towards the blonde girl with his guest, her hair fixed in two low peaks with a black headband, and with a scowl of focused resolve and dignity on her pretty features. He hid a sneer of desire, and began to fantasize about all the ways to tear apart that dignity.

Turning away Billy beckoned for her to join him. Moving out from behind Gaz she walked past her and Dib, sparing neither of the two so much as a glance as she returned to her young partner's side. As they both made for the stairs down towards the front door they began to pick up on a festering evil intent directed at them, and Mandy turned to face the two one last time before they left. The dark haired girl stood staring with open frustration and hostility at her, coupled with a knowing contempt, while her brother kept his eyes glued to her figure. When he locked eyes on her she felt the sickening intent grow.

They made their way down the stairs quickly without being in his presence a second longer than they had to, all the while they could feel Dib still watching them, stepping over to the top of the staircase as Billy held the door open for Mandy, looking up at him guardedly and shutting if after him. As soon as they were gone he let his face divide with a twisted grin. Gaz looked on silent while Dib smiled with built up evil energy, still incensed that the girl had defied her, all the while knowing her brother was going to need a nearby outlet until he got his hands on the blonde. Gritting her teeth she turned and went back inside her room, slamming the door behind her as her frustration reached its peak.

GAAAUGH!"

She roared in fury, punching the plaster wall with her fist, putting a large hole in its side. She stalked up and down the corridor outside their bedrooms for a few moments, silently fuming, livid with outrage that those people had dared stand against her. They, the obnoxious, corrupted bastards that had made the world the hellhole it was today, who had grated on her since the beginning, had looked upon her with contempt as if she were the one in the wrong.

It was just so outrageous on so many levels. She was better than these people who would ravage each other at the drop of a hat. She was a higher form of being than those vile murderous bastards like her brother. And yet those two, who lived at the expense of others, had dismissed her for her failings? The hypocrisy of it all made her fury explode again.

"DAMN THEM!"

She was so angry, more so than usual when it came to dealing with the degenerate scum that pervaded her life. It wasn't just the hypocrisy of that blonde wretch and her stupid friend. Though Gaz shared the same hatred and disdain for humanity as Mandy, whereas she controlled her emotions carefully, Gaz, in her apathy, had let her hatred blind her to reason. As her brother slowly decayed and delved into his supremacist madness, her hatred had only swelled, and surrounded left, right and centre by the lowest of human behaviour, she had come to see herself as superior to everyone around her, her hatred blinding her to what she was becoming.

Now she found herself unable to even face the fact that she had become the very person she had hated her entire life. Unable to break free of her own insanity, or even recognise it, her frustration shifted from the two visitors to herself. Gritting her teeth she pressed her clenched fist up against her wall, leaning in against it as she suddenly grappled with the inexplicable, unexplainable sense of self-loathing. And yet, as she leaned her head in to rest her forehead against the wall, the exact reason why she felt so angry at herself all of a sudden was completely beyond her understanding, tensing as her rage flared again inside.

* * *

"_RRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

"Someone's unhappy." Billy chirped as Gaz's latest roar of fury bellowed from the house behind them, echoing throughout the neighbourhood for miles. Mandy took note of her enraged outbursts, though attached little care to them. Hopefully they wouldn't be going back there again, hence whatever the dark haired girl in the house behind them was thinking which wasn't hard to figure out, really didn't matter at all. At least he managed to eke a faint sense of satisfaction in having seen his partner rile up someone so arrogant and aloof. He wished he could have done the same with Dib. "

They were soon walking away down the street, off towards where they presumed their next contact's residence was, all the while Billy's mood deteriorated following the encounter..

"You know, I really, really, reeeaaaaly hate that guy Dib." He spoke with a grimace.

"I can't imagine why." Mandy answered equally flat.

"You saw how he always has that little smile on like it's an honour for us to be in his divine presence?" Billy clicked his fingers in realisation. "I mean, he thinks he's a god!" He sniggered as he patronised the hateful man. "Heh, the all powerful, all superior Dib Membrane, fighter against the evil of anything different to him. You know he's so full of himself you could almost say he was… _big headed_… Hahahahaa! Or maybe it's a side effect of sticking his head up HIS OWN ASS AHAHAHAA!"

"I'm sorry I left you trapped in that place with that psychopath." She admitted apologetically. "I got talking to Gaz after I left. It turns out Dib's a lot worse than what he said."

Billy frowned and looked to her. "What do you mean?"

"She said that he's killed and mutilated people, and raped girls. She told me he even eats his victims." Mandy looked across at him sternly, Billy regarding her with a similar wary expression. "I still feel like he's watching us right now."

He nodded in response.

"_Huurrgh!"_

Gaz's muffled grumbling was barely audible now as they continued on, the house fading into the distance. Mandy turned her head around as she walked, sparing the house one last look, remembering the dangerous creature who lived there, and his sociopathic sister.

* * *

Dib smirked as he stood listening to her rage and anguish outside her door. Stepping away he moved past her door, passing his room as well, making his way towards the blank blue-grey wall at the end of the hallway ahead of him. Stopping before it he closed his eyes and bowed his head in silence. Several seconds passed, before an invisible presence sensed his request, and obliged him. Opening his eyes Dib saw as the illusion of the empty wall faded away, and a pair of heavy white doors were revealed before him. Taking hold of the handles he cautiously opened them inwards, stepping through and closing them after him.

The room in which he now stood was roughly two and a half times larger than his bedroom. The walls were white, ringed on all sides with a multitude of small boxy old television sets all displaying vertical colour test bars. On the left wall was a gleaming golden Faravahar-like emblem with a Sonnenrad carved in the centre. Below was a small marble table, on which sat the grisly remains of a small human torso, stripped of meat with its ribcage exposed and open, a bloody knife and fork sitting on each side. On the floor in the centre of the room was a wide satanic pentagram drawn in blood, likely from the young owner of the torso on the table.

Sitting cross-legged in the centre of the pentagram was a young man his age and build with his back to him, wearing a pristine white suit, with his black hair fixed in the same prominent spine as his. He lowered his head once more before the calm figure, feeling his twisted mind centre on him even though his eyes were closed.

"Master." He spoke with reverence, as the young man opened his eyes.

"I know."

Dib Membrane rose from his meditation spot and turned to face his clone double with a soft but evil smile. "I watched over everything."

"I wasn't aware that they had returned to Endsville." The other remarked.

"Neither was I." Dib thought for a moment.

"What will you have me do?"

"Nothing for now. Continue with your duties as per normal. I will continue to observe them, and consult our contact in Endsville as to why he didn't tell me they had returned." He responded calmly. The clone Dib bowed and exited the room.

Dib Placed his fingers together quietly in contemplation. Looking back to his last victim and breakfast on the table he smiled cruelly and looked to the doors. Stepping over he exited his room, making his way over to Gaz's door.

Gaz looked up wide-eyed in fear as Dib opened the door and stepped inside. The way he smiled at her instantly made her stomach tighten. Dib could taste her overpowering fear, and it satisfied him like a drug, empowering him.

"You were very rude to my guests. You dishonoured me." He stopped to stand before her as she cowered back. "What are we gonna do about that?"

"Dib please-"

She didn't get the chance as Dib gave her a brutal back hand across the face, sending her reeling back against the wall. Gaz pressed herself back with her face turned, fresh tears running down her face as Dib leered and stepped in. Reaching up he clamped his hand around her jaw, forcing her to face him.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry Dib! I'll never do it again! P-Please, I'll make it up to you! I'll…"

"Shhhhh…" Dib held up a finger for quiet, smiling at her with a gentle façade. "It's okay. Your big brother understands your failings, it's in your nature." He petted her purple hair affectionately releasing her head. Gaz wiped away her tears with her hand and faced him apologetically.

"Thank you." She squeaked. Quickly her terror subsided, and a strange feeling of love and adoration welled up inside her towards her protective brother.

"Now, just to make sure you're okay I'm going to ask you some questions. Just answer as quickly and as truthfully as you can." He waited until Gaz nodded meekly. "Good, now tell me, who is your master?"

"You are." She responded immediately with reverence in her teary red eyes.

"Who is supreme above all beings in the universe?"

"You are."

"Who is the one true god?"

"You are."

"What is truth?"

"What you say it is."

"What is good?"

"Human suffering."

"What is evil?"

"Peace and equality."

Dib nodded in satisfaction as Gaz looked up to him with brainwashed worship.

"Who do you love?"

"I love you."

Still smiling he reached up and touched a finger to his lip thoughtfully. He frowned slightly at her, sensing that despite her forced adoration there was still fear and hostility.

"Oh Gaz, what am I going to do with you? I hear you say all the right things, but you don't fully know and feel these things." Dib saw as her fear increased.

"I'm sorry. Please forgive my worthlessness." She bowed before he caught her chin and pulled her face up again.

"Don't worry. Another session of re-education will return you to the path of truth." He responded calmingly as she looked up at him with another flare of anxiety, but playing her assigned role regardless.

Moving in towards him she kissed her brother softly on the lips, holding the sides of his arms as he placed his hands around her shoulders. Smiling Dib kissed her back, seeling the total devotion in her submission to him. Opening his eyes he watched her face close to him, seeing her eyes closed gently. Watching her eyes he moved one hand down her arm, moving across to caress her waist, all the while observing her reaction. He saw as her eyes and brow scrunched momentarily in distress, smiling evilly into the kiss now that she had given herself away.

Checking to make sure Dib was satisfied with her submission Gaz opened her eyes to look. She was surprised and horrified to see him staring right back with a twisted smile.

Dib reached across and bashed her brutally across with his fist, his face contorting with sick joy as she cried out in anguish.

"HahaHAHAHA!" He latched onto her wrist and pulled her around, punching her again in the face backwards. Letting go he hit her again, forcing her down onto the bed. He quickly found himself unable to stop his mindless laughter, grinning madly as he got down on the bed on top of her, rolling her over to face him. Gaz struggled to push herself back away from his advance even as he clamped down on both hands.

"NO! PLEASE! STOP!"

"EAHAHAHAHA!"

Reaching down to the bottom of her dress he began to rip it upwards off her.

The phone in his pocket went off, ringing a familiar tone that denoted that it was their father trying to reach him. Gaz looked up at him with fearful hesitation, watching as he thought to himself, before letting out an ugly snarl. Moving up off her he stood and retrieved the iPhone from his pocket, holding it up to his ear.

"This better be important, feeble old man!" He growled into the phone.

"_I'm sorry. Forgive me my glorious son, you asked me to call you when-"_

"Do not talk back to me lesser being! I was in the middle of a raping! Now what is it?"

"_The test subjects for nerve agent eighteen are ready, all two hundred."_ The illustrious professor Membrane addressed his son fearfully. _"The party representatives are here."_

Dib scowled with focus. "Good. Send the Vril One."

Shutting off the call he returned the phone to his pocket. Casting his gaze across to the bed he smirked as his younger sister lay with her back to him, sensing the waves of pain coming off her with delight. Stepping over he seized her roughly by the jaw and pulled her bruised and tear streaked face towards him.

"One day you will learn to worship me. Until then, we'll do this again and again. Don't learn too soon though, it's more fun when you resist." He smiled cruelly as she gritted her teeth and shuddered. "We'll resume this session when I return. I'll let you think that over while I'm gone."

Letting her go Dib turned and left, pulling the door shut behind him as he went to await his personal transport outside, all the while casting his minds-eye out over the two visitors again. Alone once more Gaz was finally able to curl up in a ball and cry out her ruined heart and soul.

* * *

Mandy paused mid step for just a moment, the sensation of the cancerous presence suddenly there again. Billy and her shared a look and continued to walk along beside each other down the footpath, the house eventually disappearing behind them. Looking up every so often as they walked they noticed saw the polluted yellow sky had turned grey, and were growing steadily darker, not due to more dust being pumped into the atmosphere but of rain forming in the dirty clouds. A thin drizzle began to descend from the choking sky, slowly dampening the two's skin, hair and clothes.

A sound like thunder occurred, only more metallic. It ebbed away, them began to grow rapidly. They looked up and to the right as the sound changed to a rumbling whir. Out of the clouds a wide silver-grey metal disc appeared, with a ring of green light on its underside, a flying saucer of earthly construction and occult magic, coming from the direction of the city centre. Watching the strange vessel they saw it soar over towards where they had just come from, indicating who it was who owned it. A flash of green light rose from the ground up into its underside.

Billy and Mandy watched as and the disc began to move back towards the city, disappearing into space a moment later.

"What do you think? Bad for us?" Billy asked. Mandy frowned and shook her head.

"Let's just keep going. I don't like this rain."

They saw that at the rate at which the small droplets were spitting down they would not get any wetter, the water evaporating at the same rate as it came. They largely disregarded the trivial annoyance as they continued on down the path, but as it began to pick up they began looking for a place to take shelter. One thing they hadn't quite taken into consideration on coming was the nature of the rain here. As they walked on they began to feel it, the growing itching and burning sensation over the parts of their skin in contact with the water, getting progressively worse as the rain came down stronger.

Billy stopped and looked at his arms.

"Are you feeling this?" He asked as he began to try and wipe the water on his skin off with his hands while Mandy did the same, the burning showing up on their exposed arms the worst.

"It's the pollution!" Mandy reasoned now with a slight edge. Due to the massive levels of pollution and grime choking the clouds, the rain had become highly acidic, far more so than anywhere else. They picked up their pace, hurriedly taking shelter in a nearby bus stop just as the rain started to come down in a torrent.

"This must be what Dib was talking about, how he said Zim was burnt by water. But it's not him; it's the water itself that's burning. All the pollution in the atmosphere's getting washed out with the rain, it's contaminated everything." She explained, the two gritting their teeth as they wiped, scraped and shook off the dangerous chemicals as best they could. "The people living here must have grown immune to it, but because we haven't we're getting burnt too." In his rant though Dib had said that the rain had caused Zim to smoke and smoulder, so he was probably far more sensitive to it than they, likely having a more alkaline body. Not for the first time they found themselves thanking the fact they had human skin.

Or the second.

Or third.

…

Cleaning away the last of the irritating industrial fallout they took a moment out to study their environment. The corrugated roof and clear plastic sides of the shelter had been scratched and gauged by both the rain and the local lowlifes. It didn't look to be that old though. It, along with the clouds of caustic filth now falling from the sky, remained a stark testament to mankind's ability to self-destruct out of their own short-sighted hunger to satisfy their superficial egos.

"Quaint little place isn't it?" Billy remarked sarcastically as they sat down on the cold metal bench behind them.

"You could say that. It's kind of like what I expected my city to look like. I guess someone beat us to it." Mandy replied. Billy turned to her as she sat in contemplation.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Just wondering, is this still what I really want my rule to look like?" She drawled in thought. "I mean I still wanna make people wallow in darkness for the things they've done, but not everybody's like that. Not everybody deserves to suffer a life in a world like that, and I'd be a hypocrite if I said they did. I want to bring a plague of darkness upon the world, but I don't want to destroy places like our stream."

"So why not have two empires?" Billy suggested. "You could have your main cities like giant prisons for the shit, just like we both wanted, and we can have other places for the responsible people who deserve better. If a guy grows up in a hellhole trying to do the right thing then they can move to a place they belong, among people who respect each other. And if one of those people is an arrogant prick we can send them back to where they belong. The responsible side can have special privileges like being able to partially govern themselves, even if you have the final say, while the crazies on the other side are kept in a constant state of fear."

Mandy thought about with intrigue. "What about the pollution?"

"We'll have our scientists develop scrubbers that remove it from the atmosphere, and station them where we want them to be. One city can have clear blue skies while its neighbour can be grey every day. It'll take time and constant surveillance on both sides, but I know we can do it if we keep at it."

She nodded silently beside him as a smile formed on his face buzzing with activity.

"You have a point there."

After they finished with that they sat waiting for the pouring rain to end. The sound of the hundreds of heavy drops continuously landing on the corrugated roof grew to a rate enough to make hearing difficult. The smell of the toxic rain was like that of blood, likely filled with iron oxide, along with something harsh like vinegar. The vapour prickled and burnt at their skin every so often when a gust of wind would blow the spray in on them. As they stood waiting for it to pass, Mandy found her thoughts drifting back to the strange girl with the gasoline image and personality.

"What did you think of Gaz?"

"Dib's sister?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"Hm…" He had heard much of what Gaz was saying even as he spoke with Dib. From his impression she hated everyone rather than everyone who wasn't like her. "I don't know. She's kinda like how I remember you used to be, before you figured yourself out. She's got this 'I'm-better-than-you-so-fear-me-or-die' type thing going on. There's no force of will inside her to do anything."

Mandy shrugged slightly. "I guess she just lost her way at some point. It's not hard considering what she's living with."

"She would have been like you were once, but she let herself go. Now she's just a stuck-up… bitch." He faltered and trailed off at the end, another memory coming to mind.

Mandy gave a quiet nod, her thoughts summed up perfectly. "It's not all her fault though. I know Dib has done something to her that scarred her. It's just a waste, we could have made quite a team."

Letting the issue go they continued to wait as the rain began to subside, and the thick clouds began to break up, showing a light grey sky. The wind overhead began to dissipate the clouds, causing rifts and cracks where the ravaged yellow sky could be seen, polluted by aerosols in the stratosphere where it would disperse into nothing to the east. As Mandy stood absent-mindedly waiting for the acid to stop falling, Billy continuously thought about what he had said about Gaz. He remembered that he had said the same thing to his own Mandy once before, and it quickly began to weigh on his conscience.

'_I SAID YOU'RE A BITCH! FUCK YOU!'_

He winced as he remembered how she had reacted to the fight over the next few days. He had seen the anguish of the loss she had felt, and at the time he had tried to tell himself that that she didn't matter anymore. It still did then, and it especially mattered now as his heart began to wrench for how much pain he had caused her.

"Mandy?" He spoke in a solemn tone, bringing her gaze around to look upon his sombre downturned face. "I'm sorry for what I said to you back at the cabin, when we had that fight. I shouldn't have said those things. I know it hurt you."

Mandy's eyes widened as she took in his words. _'Wait, he remembered what he said to me, and even now it cuts him up inside?'_ She turned herself to face him as he lifted his head to look her in the eyes. The sense of guilt over what he had said had the effect of making him look tired and worn out, just like he was after the fight.

"Hey." She brought her slender hand up to cradle his face as he continued to look across at her, his eyes still showing regret. "I'm sorry that you were right." He could sense the guilt she held over what she had put him through over the years in her gaze. Her once strong features formed a solemn visage as she turned her gaze down from him. "I've done a lot of things to you that I'm not proud of Billy. I made you suffer at my hands for my own amusement, and time and again I chose myself over you, even after everything you had been through for me. You were right to say those things about me."

Billy's eyes widened as she faced him equally remorseful. His lips curved into a soft smile and placed his hands on top of her shoulders affectionately.

"I understand." Said girl smiled in return. He moved in to wrap his arms around her back, drawing her in close. Mandy moved in so their lips were a mere inch apart, her breathing heavy and warm against his lips. Hovering there for just a moment she moved in to kiss him as he kissed her back, sharing in the soft texture of his mouth on hers, and the overwhelming sense of closeness shared between the two lovers. They saw fit to continue their soft embrace, exploring each others mouths, taking comfort in having their hands around each other until at some point a minute or so later they realised the rain had stopped.

Pulling apart they both cast their gaze upwards towards the yellow sky. They continued to hold each other close as the acidic clouds drifted apart, leaving a relatively fine day in the wake of the downpour, or as fine as the weather got in this city at least.

"Come on." Mandy spoke as she stood out of his grasp to the footpath, Billy keeping pace with her as she led him down towards Zim's residence, slipping his hand into hers as they continued walking.

* * *

**Voila, occult neo-Nazi Dib! I actually read a book a few months back about the Nazi's occult war. I don't know how much of it was actually true but some of it was pretty amazing and twisted, like how Hitler supposedly thought of himself as the Antichrist, who'se entire moral sense was turned upside down. And of course we have the references to the Nazi UFOs, the Vril power, the Schwarzsonne, and that will all be expanded later. Also I heard in this podcast from Thinking Atheist 'Harry Potter is of the Devil' that there were groups who believed that demonic spirits could be chanelled into homes through television colour bars.**

**Also who thinks bikies as opposed to bikers is a funny name for a roving gang of crazies? That's Australians for you. Ever noticed how the outlaw bikie community always insists on non conformity, and yet you never see them riding anything other than a Harley? Those Victory Hammers are crazy though!**

**Anyway hope you didn't go too insane reading this, especially considering the sick brother-sister kssing and almost rape thing, that was sick. But still hope you enjoyed.**


	41. Zim

**I was thinking about how I wanted Billy to evolve through this part of the story. My general idea is for him to be a half-demon punk with supernatural powers, itching for a good fight and who doesn't take shit from anyone, but maybe I've been focussing too much on the outright aggression part of him. Maybe I should add a more relaxed and laid back flavour when he's not having to deal with dickheads. I was thinking of using Tommy Vercetti as a model for the part in addition to various others, he was such a great part of such a great game.**

**Anyway, thanks a whole lot for everyone who wrote reviews, I know I can't get back to all of you sadly but thanks for your thoughts, now on with the show.**

* * *

**Zim.**

Early afternoon.

"For an Invader he's not really that inconspicuous is he?" Billy spoke mockingly of the purple and green hued 'house' that stood before them, apparently wedged unnaturally between two others seemingly as if it had just popped out of the ground one night, which was of course a completely absurd idea regardless of the fact it had actually happened.

"Oh? Was it the giant cables and power leads coming out the sides that alerted you?" Mandy asked sarcastically. "Or perhaps it was the giant radio transmitter sticking out of the roof?"

"It makes you wonder why people haven't noticed this." He added.

"People have to be interested in the world around them if they're going to open their eyes to anything out of the ordinary. These people don't think beyond themselves, so why would they want to notice?"

Billy smiled at her cynical comments. "Heh heh. So what now? I mean other than that he likes to shout his own name, we didn't really learn much from that sick freak Dib that we didn't already know." He spoke recalling the less than fruitful encounter.

"We did learn something Billy." Mandy added in. "He confirmed what we had read was correct. If we hadn't gone to him we could've just as easily been going in blind. We could end up dead or on someone's wanted list again if we can't persuade him to join us."

"Yeah but we didn't learn about any huge weaknesses or sore spots we could use to get a better hold of him."

"We don't need any more. We already have enough knowing he's extremely arrogant and that he thinks he's all important, like Dib. You managed to sway him to your side without even trying, so it shouldn't be too much harder to do this." Mandy explained of how he had managed to present himself as a collaborator, agreeing to every one of Dib's prejudiced rants for the benefit of the mission. "Come to think of it, you were better at it than I was. I couldn't stand the guy. On top of that we also know Zim was exiled by his leaders and sent out to die here. That's gotta be a sore point we can work with."

Billy had to admit he saw sense in what she was saying. He had actually found it to be a strange sort of thrill, to be able to twist and manipulate people as he had. It gave him the ability to take all of their fears and small-minded intolerances which drove him mad and turn them back against them. He would tell them what they want to hear; that they were great, that it was an honour to meet them, and that they deserved more than what they already had. He would rile up all his rage and anger at those who betrayed him, and give him fear of wether or not they would come and strike him down while he slept, if Irkens ever slept that is. Then finally he would give them a way out by joining their cause as a friend. Once he was their friend and working towards his own ambitions, they would provide him with a discreet show of force, a warning against any betrayal he might be planning. Once that was finished and their control over their new ally was consolidated, all they need do was give him his two assignments and they would be set for their impending takeover in years to come.

He rolled his head around over his shoulders as he faced the bizarre house, ready to take this vital step in securing their most crucial asset to their plan. For the first time their plot lay entirely in his hands, on wether or not he could fill this deluded creature with enough whispers of power and glory for him to voluntarily side with them. He knew Mandy was far too blunt for this task, being more likely to kill their new key asset than turn him to their side.

He felt nervous, with a thin film of sweat breaking out on his palms, but he was confidant that he could accomplish this for their future.

"I'll take care of this." He said to Mandy as he held out his hand and focussed, drawing his backpack out from oblivion and knelt down in the street. Mandy watched on curiously as he opened the top flap to stick his hand down in its depths. Her curiosity was sated when he withdrew the TT-33 he'd procured from Grim's other trunk months ago.

"You bought that to school?" She asked him half disapprovingly as he loaded one magazine up into its belly.

"Come on Mandy, do you really think I was the only one?" He asked, raising an eyebrow mockingly. She opened her mouth to speak but deadpanned, reminded of how far their school and society as a whole had degraded in the last few years. There had to be at least half a dozen such weapons in the place in the short time they were there.

"Fair enough, but I wonder how mom would react if she knew?" Mandy relented as he grinned and racked the slide. Reaching into the bag he pulled out another magazine, slipping it into his back pocket, sliding the gun down the back of his pants. He pulled his tee shirt down where it normally sat in the hope of concealing it from view. Turning around he presented his back to Mandy.

"Well, can ya see it?" She looked intently on the back of his shirt where it lay over the top of his pants. The bulge at the back was nowhere to be seen.

"No, but this guy Zim would probably have technology that could detect it." She pointed out.

"I guess if he finds it…" Billy bought his hand to his face in thought. "… Well… I'll say it's a gift, a token of friendship, traditional among humans. He should believe that right?" Mandy remained silent, largely unable to give an answer.

He took another look back at the house, taking note of each feature on the front yard, particularly wary of the lawn gnomes, their big beady eyes staring out in a way that looked slightly less than natural.

"Okay, you should go and hide so no one sees you. It's probably better that I talk with him one on one."

Nodding she leaned in to give him a light kiss on the cheek, before taking the bag, turning around to make her way across the street. Selecting a row of shrubs she ran up and dived into them.

A moment later she emerged again, gritting her teeth angrily against the painful presence of several thorns lodged in her being. Billy sniggered at her expense while Mandy threatened him with an ominous glower and a looming fist to keep his mouth shut, not that it made a difference. Pulling the spiny projections out of her skin she walked around to the back of the plants, kneeling down out of sight.

Seeing Mandy no longer in his field of view he turned is gaze back to the door of the house before him. Calming himself he began to make his way forward warily, passing the fence out the front onto the lawn. As he walked down the pathway to the front door he kept a keen eye on the gnomes. As he neared the door his suspicions were confirmed when he noticed their bulging eyes rotating in their sockets to watch him approach.

Keeping himself ready to summon his scythe or go for his gun at any moment he stepped up to the purple door. Finding no doorbell he carefully extended his hand to rap five times on its surface.

'_So far so good.'_ He thought to himself, having survived the first obstacle of the perimeter defences. Now he had to face whatever it was that would soon hopefully greet him.

"_Pizza! YaaaaaiiiiiiiiIIIIIIII!"_

Billy backed away from the door slightly at the metallic shrieking voice. He had a fairly good idea as to what it might have been that caused it though. He cast his gaze downwards as the door opened hurriedly inwards.

"_Aww, no pizza?"_ Came the disappointed voice of a little… green… dog… thing standing in the doorway. It looked up to Billy with two enormous eyes that looked to be upset.

"Yeah, sorry little buddy, no pizza." He replied kneeling down to pat the little thing on the top of the head.

"_Sniff… Sniff…"_ The small green alien… thing began to sniffle as tears welled up in its huge eyes. _"Ohhh…"_

"Hey, hey, don't cry little guy." Billy comforted him as he continued to sniffle sadly. "Ya know a little birdie told me about you." The whimpering creature immediately forgot its melancholy to look up bright eyed at him in wonder.

"_Me… told about… little birdie?"_ He muttered confusedly to which Billy nodded with a smile.

"Yep. He said you're name was GIR." He spoke, noticing the robots eyes widen further. He had planned for this having read the file on him. Still he found it amusing at just how childish the small robot was being. "Is that your name, GIR?"

"_Yeah, that's me! Hehehehehe!"_ GIR replied enthusiastically, nodding his large head.

"No way! He said you were, like, the most awesomest little robot guy ever!"

"_Really!"_

"Yeah! Oh I can't believe I'm actually talking to you!" Billy continued to suck up to the stupefied robot, making him jump up and down in excitement. "Anyway what do you like GIR?"

"_I LIKE TACOOOS!"_ The green clad machine screeched so loud it was all he could do to not cover his ears and back away.

"No way, I _love_ tacos! They're like the bestest thing ever!" Billy replied eagerly. GIR turned and ran back into the living room, wherein he began to run around in circles screaming…

"_TACOS TACOS TACOS TACOS TACOS TACOS TACOS …"_

Billy slipped in the doorway to go and calm the small machine down so as to get something other than Billin… silliness out of him. He held out his arms to catch the little ball of energy mid run, sensing his metallic construction as he slammed into his palms.

"Hey settle down little buddy. Listen, why don't you go get your master for me. Tell Zim that there's someone here who has something very special to offer him." He explained it to the scatter brained droid as simply as he could, yet so it would still sound tempting to his target when regaled to him by GIR. "After that maybe we could make some tacos!"

"_YAAAAYYYY! TACOS TACOS TACOS TACOS TACOS…"_ Billy watched with a self satisfied smirk as he ran excitedly past him towards the bathroom. He watched him carefully, paying attention as he lifted the lid on a waste bin, diving head first into its depths, the lid closing after him.

'_Oookaaay… So an alien agent lives in a base poorly disguised as a house, with a robot minion that's like a mini Fred Fredburger.'_ He found himself wondering if wether or not this alien was actually of any use to them if this was the nature of his work. _'I hope Mandy was right about this freak. At least he'll just be continuing with Mandark's designs, that way he can't screw up too much if he's as stupid as he looks. Why can't I meet someone who's not a complete asshole for a change?'_

He was soon shaken from his thoughts as in the kitchen ahead the bin opened up again, revealing a green humanoid with blue-purple contact lenses and a black wig, Zim in his poor attempt at a disguise. GIR sat atop his shoulder, now stripped of his disguise revealing him in his metallic form. Zim glared at Billy, enraged that his security had been breached by one of the weak natives that inhabited this planet. Billy could already sense the overwhelming pride this thing gave off, as well as his own pent up frustration at his long string of failures, and had to force himself to remain smiling.

"GIR, the whole idea of walls are to keep _out_ intruders! And you let one in here?" He yelled at his metal minion as he hopped down off his shoulder, rushing across to play in the toilet. Billy and Zim shared a deadpan look as he frolicked around. "Why does Zim bother keeping you around anymore?" He asked himself tiresomely before fixing his gaze back on the human in his lair hatefully. Immediately Billy began playing the role.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion but I just had to speak with you great Zim." Billy spoke in the most sincere tone he could muster. "It is truly an honour to meet a warrior as fearsome and powerful as yourself. I've come here to give you an offer, a chance to have what you have rightfully deserved your entire life, but was wrongfully denied to you." He tried to emphasize his imaginary sense of anger for what he had been denied, trying to gain his interest as best he could so he wouldn't be thrown out. So far it didn't seem to be working; Zim continued to eye him with hatred. Suddenly he didn't feel like Broadway material after all. "Forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is-"

"GET OUUUUUTTT!" The thinly veiled alien screamed, pointing his finger at the door for him to leave his abode. "OUUUUUTTT! GET OUUUUUTTT! OUUUUUTTT!"

Billy raised his hands in surrender, bowing his head as he backed away towards the door behind him as Zim continued to scream at him. Turning he stepped through the doorway outside before he faced the alien again.

"Zim, the Tallest are treating you like a fool. You deserve better than that, and I'm offering you more than they ever w-"

"_SLAM!"_

Billy looked glumly upon the door that had been shut in his face, blocking him off from his target audience. Turning back to the bushes across the street where Mandy poked her head up in wonder. She frowned and cocked her head at him and he raised his hands at a loss.

"I never did drama."

He gestured for her to wait, intent on putting his impromptu backup plan into action now that he knew his way around Zim's base to an extent. Focussing the energy in his body from when he first laid hands on his scythe he ordered his form to liquefy, as he had seen Junior do before. Immediately he felt his entire being change structure as he quickly flattened out into a pool of dark green liquid in front of the door.

Mandy looked on in interest as Billy willed himself to mimic the colour of the terrain beneath him, instantly becoming almost invisible against the concrete walkway, except for a few minor details that didn't quite liquefy with him. As he urged his way forward he slipped underneath the doorway back into the house, before he became stuck on the Tokarev and magazines he had been carrying with him. He abandoned them at the doorway, the rest of him slipping underneath, going unnoticed as he made his way across the carpet towards the bin in the bathroom.

* * *

Zim exited the elevator into his underground laboratory, striding out purposefully across the raised steel platform above a sea of wires and cables. He made his way towards the super computer console he worked at. Planting his hands against the console he leaned forward and breathed heavily.

"To think that a filthy human would get inside my base." He pronounced the name of the vile inferior species with scorn and hatred. "I will have to give GIR a thorough re-programming at some stage. When I'm done he'll never speak of those disgusting Tacos again. Finally I'll have the robot slave the Tallest meant to give me!" He knew all about how the advanced prototype they had gifted him with had serious programming bugs that they did not foresee. By fixing these faults he would have done the Tallest proud, another clear case of his superiority as an Invader that they had recognised. The fact that he had reprogrammed the little droid many times before was left absent from his mind. Nothing could disturb his fragile status quo bubble.

"Yes, I will honour the almighty Tallest for having recognised my skill. I owe it to them." He began to type commands into the computer, ordering it to link with his divine leaders on the Massive.

Within another few seconds the screen became filled with the two lazy despots, who had single-handedly ravaged the entire Irken Empire through their incompetence with anything related to war or government. That, along with their blinding fits of rage, their voracious, appalling sexual lusts, their compulsive habit of building monuments to themselves, and their fervent beliefs of divinity and absolute supremacy, and they had bought an empire that had taken centuries of struggle, death and genocide to create to the very brink of ruin. Red and Purple sat lounging back in the sofa on the bridge of the Massive, looking into the screen before them with boredom. To anyone else their contempt would have been painfully obvious, but to Zim the thought never crossed his mind, his bloated ego getting in the way.

"_What Zim?"_ Red asked in an irritable tone thick with contempt, none of which registered in Zim's head. He didn't know how lucky he was to be able to irritate the crimson emperor and get off with nothing more than a bored glare, especially considering Red possessed a level of insanity enough to make Caligula, Dracula and Hitler shake their heads in dismay. That he'd survived to this day was in itself a miracle.

"My Tallest, moments ago GIR, the prototype you gifted me with for my superior skill in relation to the other Invaders, let an enemy right into my base. A human! In here!" Zim explained the outrageous situation to his leaders, unaware that their bored expressions had any apparent meaning. "I regret to inform you that the advanced model has been suffering from severe programming faults ever since it was given to me."

The two looking in from the other screen on the Massive had tuned out to such an extent that they didn't notice the pool of green slime rising up into a human shape behind Zim outside the elevator. Zim was far too engrossed in showing them how incredible he was in comparison to everyone else to notice it either.

"Never fear, for I will re-program GIR myself so as to erase all the defects those fools in the research and development sector left in it. When I return from single handedly conquering this feeble planet, I will return the robot to you in perfect working condition ready to go into full production. That way my comrades may reap the benefits of my amazing exploits." He stated with all the pompous arrogance his corrupted mind possessed.

"_How many times do we have to block your messages for you to stop calling us! How do you keep getting through anyway?"_ Purple yelled with half-arsed anger.

"Eh, I can get around that easy enough. You need to get a new tech guy, someone keeps blocking me, and is doing an _inferior_ job of it too."

Red and Purple groaned inwardly. Zim had called them every day to report or rather gloat about how wonderful and great he was, even after his defeat at the hands of Dib had forced him to retreat back into the confines of his base. And still he had continued with his self-assigned mission, producing one plot after another, never leaving the house, and reporting on every one. They had tried ignoring him, letting his calls go unanswered, but that hadn't worked because he would hang on the line for hours on end. When they tried sending him to message bank he would fill it completely with his nonsensical ramblings in hours with one call after another trying to get through to them. They would have killed him except he was so far away now. Eventually they had learned to just accept the daily irritation, and get it over with.

Outside of their view Billy grinned slyly. _'He managed to bypass their every attempt to cut him off with ease, and he doesn't even realise it was them. He has real skill with advanced technology, just the stuff around the base is proof of that, but his mind's a wreck. He's ripe for the picking.'_ He awaited his turn speaking in the shadows. _'But that over the top crap from before won't do, I have to be straight with him, sort of.'_

Many times they had told him he wasn't as great as he thought he was.

"_Zim,_ _we gave you that little scrap heap so we wouldn't have to waste a good SIR unit on you." _Purple spoke up now slightly calmer.

And still it had little effect on the miniscule maniac at all, even when it did get through to his little ego suffocated brain.

"Oh. Really? Oh well. I will continue to report on my progress with the re-programming of the prototype, as well as my ongoing takeover of the planet Earth. I will honour your faith in my inherent superiority over my poor, sad colleagues my Tallest."

"_Ugh!"_

"_Hrrr…"_

Purple and Red growled and groaned respectively as their most hated annoyance continued to rave about how important he was.

"This is almighty Zim out." He said saluting as the computer hung up the connection, relieving the two arrogant dictators of his video presence.

"You deserve better than that Zim."

His eyes widened in surprise at the voice he thought he'd gotten rid of. Spinning around where he stood he faced the intruder ready to defend himself. Billy remained standing at the other end of the walkway, solemnly looking at his alien contact with a serious gaze.

"Wha? You! How did you get…" He stammered as Billy raised his hands for calm. Zim was acutely aware of the fact this enemy was now able to see him without his disguise.

"Zim, I'm not your enemy. I didn't get the chance to explain earlier so I had to come down here." He explained as Zim continued to regard him suspiciously.

"Explain what? Who are you, answer!" He barked, readying his spider legs should this meat sack try anything even more foolish than coming down here.

"My name is… well, that is irrelevant right now. My associate and I have been doing some research on you, and we were amazed at just how excellent you really are." Billy immediately noticed a change in the alien's demeanour. His piercing gaze lifted, replaced by one of wonder at having been called excellent by another.

"Excellent? What are you talking about, of course I am excellent. I AM ZIM!"

"Yes! That's exactly it, you _are_ Zim. You are the one and only Zim, the greatest Invader to have ever come from the Irken Empire!" He continued to emphatically drill his mark with ramblings of his awesome superiority, feeding his ravenous ego like never before. "Don't you see? You are a level above in comparison to every other Irken. By right they should all bow to your wisdom and power."

Zim's hostility towards this intruder was now gone, washed away by his words of greatness and superiority. He had long known it himself, and the Tallest had acknowledged it distantly, but never in his life had anyone actually prostrated themselves towards him. Whereas the Tallest had only grudgingly accepted his skill, this human, this filthy degenerate vermin of all things, was actually telling him what he had wanted to hear all his life. This little abomination was giving him the respect and honour he had deserved all along. A sly smile came upon his green features as a strange spine tingling sense of incredible power and satisfaction began to take hold. It was a feeling he instantly became addicted to.

So far Billy was liking how this was progressing. In less than a minute he had placed Zim at the centre of the universe, where any ego saw itself as belonging, and all he had to do was feed the great warrior image he held of himself.

"I have to wonder though why you're taking orders from Tallest Red and Purple of all people." Billy add a slight hint of distain towards the names of Zim's two worthless leaders.

"What do you mean human? The Tallest are my leaders. I am to serve them as their subordinate. They have seen my overwhelming superiority and have given me this special mission because of it." Zim answered, surprised as to why he had bought up the names of the two people who he had devoted his life to. He was surprised again when Billy shook his head.

"Zim, do you remember how they looked at you when you contacted them? Can you explain to me how they looked at you?"

He opened his mouth to begin sprouting words of honour and trust, but faltered. Now that he allowed himself to truly think about it, after having been given the respect he craved, he began to notice the strange sense of distain in their eyes. They had spoken to him as if he were himself a lowly human. Before now he would never have noticed it because he needed every ounce of the little respect he was receiving from them to prop himself up now that he was locked away within the confines of his own base. But now things were different; he was being honoured the way he rightfully should, having someone bow to him as they all should have done so long ago. Now he could open his red eyes to the truth he had never allowed himself to see before.

He narrowed his eyes as memories of their previous encounters began to leak into the forefront of his mind. Billy kept his solemn face as he saw the gears beginning to turn in his head, barely suppressing a smile at how their plan was coming together. He hadn't quite expected it to all snowball this easily. He could thank the two pompous pricks that called themselves the Tallest for that.

"They… They were mocking me." Zim spoke as if he were in a trance, images of his assigning coming to mind. He remembered how GIR had been crafted from spare parts and tossed to him and told it was only meant to look bad. Furthermore the mystery planet was now beginning to seem less and less plausible by the second. It was almost as if they had…

'… _sent me out to die.'_

"They sent you out to die Zim." Billy spoke his own thoughts, earning him a shocked gape from Zim. "I've read the data on you. The Tallest lied to you, took you for a fool. They didn't want you around because they thought they were more important than you. They never respected your superiority to them as an Irken warrior, and tried to do away with you for good. It was only by luck that you stumbled here to Earth."

Slowly all the pieces began to fall into place. He saw through it all now, all the years worth of disrespect and scorn, all their contempt and arrogant disdain for his entire existence, even in the face of all of his greatness. He had been told before of their wrongful abandonment by Tak, but he had refused to take any notice of her. Now he saw everything. Now he saw what they had done to him.

"They betrayed you Zim."

"HOW DARE THEY! Curse them. Damn them! DAMN THEM ALL!" He roared in all his fury. The combined mixtures of extreme arrogance and self-importance, and those of a lifetimes worth of lies, insolence and all round backstabbing, had bought on a madness the likes of which Irk had never seen before, aside from its current rulers of course. "This is the worst betrayal of all! I must have my revenge! They must pay. I'll make them all pay for this betrayal!"

"And they will my friend. Rest assured they will pay with their blood." Billy cooed as he moved towards the fuming Irken across the platform. "But right now we have bigger problems to deal with. We have to understand what dangers you now face from them."

"Yes, yes, they will regret dumping me on this worthless planet… Wait, dangers?" Zim looked uncertainly up towards Billy as he moved in to confront him face to face.

"Yes. What if they found out about how you know about their betrayal? They wouldn't hesitate to send someone to kill you where you stand." Now he began to weave fear and paranoia into his target, making it so that he would be trapped by an imaginary threat. It appeared to be working as the green creature immediately began to appear flighty and panicked. "You won't be able to let your guard down once, even for an instant, while the Tallest are still a problem. Though you can hide it from them easily, eventually they'll still tire of you, and kill you while you sleep."

"What do I do? you have to tell me human! How do I take my revenge and defend myself at the same time?" Zim asked terror stricken. Billy couldn't believe how easy this was coming along, how he had played right into his hands.

"Oh don't you worry about that." He spoke in a reassuring tone, placing his hand on Zim's shoulder. "That's what I've come here for."

He saw Zim again narrow his eyes guardedly as he began to lay out his proposal. "Talk human, what are you saying?"

"Zim, I've come here to give you the opportunity of a lifetime." Billy began to put the hook in him. "You know that you deserve to rule over all the weak little fools beneath you. You know that the Tallest and all the other Irken's stole this from you. What if together we could get it all back? Think about it, how would it feel to be able to crush the Tallest beneath your feet, to humiliate them a thousand times over for how they humiliated you, and to take your place as ruler of the Irken Imperium. How would you like to be able to hold the entire universe in the palm of your hand?"

Zim listened in silence as Billy wrapped his mental hold around him. Stepping around he began to step around to his back, encircling him like a predator would its prey. "I'm here to offer you the life you have always wanted. Join with us Zim. My partner and I are dedicated towards forging an empire where depraved scum such as your betrayers are hammered out. Our plan is to build up an army here on Earth, take it over, and use it as a stepping stone to gradually take over one world at a time. But we need a ruler, a man of vision and enthusiasm, a warrior prince who can sweep in and command people's obedience through respect and fear. You are that ruler, the one who will bring the empire into its golden age. You would have more power and personal glory than you could ever begin to imagine. Just think for a moment, what would it be like to be the supreme master of all things, and to be respected and revered as a living god?"

Again Zim remained silent and still throughout the entire process, this head thick with haughty thoughts of megalomania. It was then, with his target right on the edge of do-or-die with nigh on any resistance at all, that Billy decided to finish him off. Moving up close behind him he placed his hands on the back of his shoulders, leaning in close so as to whisper in his… where his ear should be.

"_All hail Supreme Overlord Zim."_

Zim's eyes rolled back in their sockets as he shook and shuddered with the sheer rush of god-like power his words bought on. He felt like he was already towering over all the lowly weaklings of Irk, and being hailed and worshipped as he was supposed to be for his superiority. Arching his back slightly he rolled his shoulders and clenched and unclenched his hands. He let go, his pride and conceited nature overwhelming all sense of logic in the flood of power.

"I'll do it. I'll join you. Make it happen." He answered at last.

"Not so fast. You have your own role in bringing this future about as well." Billy spoke stepping around to face him sternly. "If you want to bring justice to the arrogant narcissists of the world with us then you're going to have to help us."

"What do you want me to do?"

"We have two tasks we need you to complete if this is to work. First, we need you to take the computer files on Mandark Astrominov's computer, below the Dark Systems building outside of Chicago. He was a previous partner of ours. He was designing an army for use in taking over the Earth, demonic cyborgs, tanks, gunships. He was nearing the end of his work when he was killed by a traitor. We want you to complete his work. Finish them for us so they can be put into production right away."

"Done." Zim replied without hesitation.

"Second, we need you to develop a serum for genetic immortality for humans, namely my partner and I. Mandark was beginning work on this too, and with your superior skills and equipment combined with our own access to the supernatural world, you should be able to finish what he started. Once you have all the data from the lab you are to destroy the building so no one catches wind of what we are planning to do. There can be no evidence." Billy explained his key tasks to their new ally, all the while he listened on intently.

"I will."

"Great!" Billy spoke up with an upbeat smile, moving away from him down the walkway again. "Once my partner and I are immortal we will take over this world followed by others, and then when our powerbase is built up enough we will launch a coup d'état against the Tallest to place you in power where you should be."

"Hang on. Stop right there!" Zim demanded as Billy made his way to the elevator, pausing midway. "First, I need to know that I can trust you." Billy turned back to face his target, seeing him eyeing him intently again. "What do you think I have brain worms in my brain? You must prove yourself to me before I will even think about becoming part of anything you and your partner are doing."

Billy smirked and narrowed his eyes at him. "Weren't you eagerly agreeing to join us just a few moments ago?"

"SILE-_EEENCE!_ DO NOT QUESTION THE MIND OF INVADER AND FUTURE SUPREME OVERLORD _ZIIIM!"_ He roared clutching both hands out and shaking with wrath. Billy forced a flat smile; he hadn't even formally joined them yet and he was already getting too big for his boots. Whatever bitter taste there had been in his mouth regarding having lied to the conceited bigot was long forgotten.

"And what would that be?" He asked slyly.

"If you want me to do anything for you, then you must first prove both your loyalty and your ability to me. Now I have an enemy that needs to be taken care of, a very powerful, very influential, and very dangerous enemy." He explained gravely while Billy now listened. "If you kill him for me, then you will have my trust, and I will do as you have asked."

Billy considered it. "If you have enemies and you side with us, then they automatically become our enemies. Who's the guy?"

"His name is Dib, Dib-"

"Membrane." Billy finished with a detectable snarl of loathing, and a cruel sneer of delight formed at just how good his luck had been today. He had this stuck-up egomaniac fall right into his hands like a tower of cards, and now he got to wipe out one very depraved little sadist. Not only did he get to sate his desire for revenge and punishment, but he got to test his new abilities against the very pinnacle of the frenzied Aryan supremacist madhouse. "Done, heh heh heh."

Zim watched intently as Billy made his way into the elevator, the door closing after him. Turning from the door he returned to his console, intent on contacting the Tallest again to tell them of a new long term plan that demanded a communications blackout, thus justifying not speaking with them until he showed up on their doorstep ready to kill them.

He smiled evilly to himself as he began to type in various commands. _'I'll kill him too once I'm in charge and he's of no use, and his partner. No one will tell Supreme Overlord Zim what to do!'_

"NO _OOONE!"_

* * *

Inside the elevator Billy managed to hold himself together for another few seconds, before a twisted grin took over his energetic features.

"Hnn hnn hnn… AHAHAHAHAHAAAA! HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!"

* * *

Mandy raised her head up from behind the prickly bush upon hearing the front door to Zim's base open, revealing the young red headed boy with a very satisfied smirk on his features. When he saw his partner his grin widened and he hunched over in joy.

"He he he he! HAHAHAHAHAHAA!" He staggered away from the door out towards the street, swaying with each racking of laughter that shot up through him.

"So I take it the meeting went well?" She spoke as she moved out onto the street to confront him, the bag in her grasp as he waltzed over towards her.

"Yes!" Billy hissed with mad glee in his wide blue eyes. "It was so easy! After he threw me out I managed to get in his ear. He fell into my hands like a bag'o crap. He agreed to do everything, but there's a catch. Before he's going to do anything for us he said we have to prove ourselves to be trustworthy."

"What does he want us to do?" Mandy asked with a raised eyebrow as Billy's mad ear to ear grin grew.

"Heh heh heh heh… He wants us to kill someone."

Immediately Mandy's face lit up on realising just why Billy was so eager and manic. Her scowl darkened at the knowledge of the one he meant.

"Dib." The name carried with it an evil curse, one that pushed her partner ever deeper into his crazed excitement. It wasn't long before she herself began to feel a certain satisfaction at the concept of cutting him down. Adding to her agitation though she hated the bigoted psychopath she still felt a certain anxiety over the concept of killing another person, even if she did want to put an end to the vile lowlife.

"Alright, how do we go about that?" She asked as they began walking down the street, approaching the driveway to a large, luxurious looking house.

"Hey, this one's mine. I had to sit through that smug little psycho's speech, so I get to do it!" Billy spoke facing her. "I've been wanting to take that psycho out ever since-Whoah!"

The two jumped back in shock as a car shot out of a driveway in front of them in reverse, pulling up hurriedly beside them. As they recovered from the surprise of the close encounter they looked back wide-eyed to the car and its occupants. The car in question was a late model onyx Porsche Targa 4S, with a bright crimson leather interior. The smooth sleek car purred with a deep note as they stood staring. Both youths let their eyes roam across the beautiful vehicle, only to snag upon the two major flaws in its mysterious dark splendour; its occupants.

In the passenger's seat sat a mid twenties woman of unnaturally curvaceous build. Her long blonde hair sat along her unusually plump breasts, obviously too large for her thin frame, indicating they were most certainly not natural. Nor was her face, her features having the appearance of an intricate mask of makeup and Botox. Her skimpy tank top left little to the imagination with regards to cleavage, and considering the nature of her largely fake figure, Billy found himself anything but attracted to her.

Beside her in the driver's seat her male partner sat looking across towards them. He had the typical hunky toned body and, like his skanky-looking girlfriend, enjoyed showing it off with his tight grey tee shirt. He had a short crop of blonde hair and skin that indicated he liked to show off his masculine supremacy at the beach. On his wrist sat a gold plated watch, which in addition to the car indicated as to the economic nature of his family. Mandy guessed that, according to her regular and well justified cynicism, he would have been an arrogant high school sports captain of some sort. Even now, having left high school to leech off his wealthy and decadent parents' money, he continued to exude a suffocating, infuriating aura of self-proclaimed superiority, as did his human sex doll.

Both occupants glowered at the two youths next to their car in all their conceited ire.

"You little bastards! You almost hit us!" Spat the jock as he scowled upon them both. Billy raised an eyebrow in a strange sense of angered wonder.

"Uhh, in case you didn't notice, you were the ones who were backing out. You were the ones who almost hit us. We were the ones jumping out of the way." He spoke in a subdued tone, hoping to avoid having to deal with the two weak-minded human garbage cans.

"So? No one cares about what you think! We're rich!" Spoke the shallow blonde sitting next to him. "You two are, like, losers. Who cares what you think?"

"Says the plastic sex doll who likes to screw guys for their cash." Mandy replied with a flat stare that increased their fury even further. "Do you know what girls like that are called? Prostitutes. Prostitutes and whores. Which one are you?"

"Augh, you little slut!" The bimbo shrieked in outrage as Mandy stood unconcerned with the self-important whore's insults. It was Billy who was affected by it. His face darkened in anger at how she had dared insult her. This lasted only a moment before his features changed again into an evil grin as he thought of something wonderful to do with the two conceited lowlifes.

"Oh the hell with this. Hey Mandy." He spoke in a playfully sadistic tone, earning him the attention of both her and the two in the car. "I'm getting kinda tired of walking everywhere." His features changed into a demonic mask of evil and mischief as he sneered at the cars occupants. "And this car's just too good to waste on these two."

Immediately the two occupants recoiled in fear as the boy they had made the error of trying to degrade emitted waves of toxic malice in his malevolent grin. They were so preoccupied by the boys disturbing half-demon image that they barely noticed the long black strands of green matter coiling out from his back, until they swept in towards them.

"Heh heh heh heh…" Billy continued to chuckle and grin as he wrapped the tentacles around the two, pulling them up out through the open sunroof of the car as they cried and screamed in horror. Before they could call for help he clamped his coils around their mouths, crushing in on them from all sides like a vice, able to tear them limb from limb or crush them into red paste on a whim. Mandy looked on coldly as they writhed and struggled to break free, apathetic to their plight bought on by their own narcissism.

"What'cha say Mandy, should I kill em?" Billy asked, earning even greater terror from the two ensnared in his grasp.

"Hmm, no. It's not really worth the risk." She replied casually. Billy shrugged, letting go of the stupid chauvinists. They fell to the ground below with a harsh thump, leaving Billy to retract his tentacles in through the back of his collar, reverting back to his natural form. Forgetting about them he opened the passenger side door and sat down on the red leather seat as Mandy made her way around the cars hind quarters to step into the driver's seat, dropping his bag in the back.

Selecting reverse she let the car roll out onto the street away from the wealthy family's house. Before she could drive off though the two pretentious idiots rose unsteadily from their positions on the lawn, sprinting down to position themselves in front of the black vehicle, blocking their way forward.

"Hey you little shits! You can't do that! No one does this to me!" The man yelled while flailing his arms in the air furiously, his girlfriend glowering spitefully at the two. Mandy continued to regard them with a bored expression.

"In case you haven't yet noticed, we just did." She replied in her usual caustic sarcasm. "Besides, what did you do to earn this? I don't think you would have worked your fingers to the bone seven days a week to afford this? I think there are a lot of hard working people who would deserve all that money your parents give you a lot more than you do."

The two looked dumbfounded at her as she scowled at them, debating over the pros and cons of running them over.

"Like, what?" The stupid girl asked. Chances were, Billy reflected, that she was one of the dull-witted people who couldn't tell Iraq from Australia on a world map. "You're talking in, like, Germanese."

Mandy rolled her eyes. "Oookay… Consider it Socialism in action."

"…" Silence met their ears as the two continued to look dumbfounded. Billy could already see this was going nowhere fast. Reaching over the back he opened his bag and began to rummage through it.

"GET OUTTA MY CAR!"

"Yeah, get outta the car bitch!"

"Okay I think I'll take it from here." Billy spoke up as he withdrew his Swedish K from the bag, loading a magazine up into the receiver, chambering the first round with a 'click-clack'. The two arrogant fools gaped in terror as Billy stood up through the open roof and levelled the gun at them.

"I'll give you five seconds before I start shooting. One…"

Immediately they were gone from their presence.

"AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!"

"_BABABABANG!"_

Billy roared in all his terrible delight as he fired the weapon in the air over his head. Mandy looked up at him from her seat disapprovingly. He noticed her flat stare when he glanced back to her.

"What?"

"You bought that to school too?" She asked incredulously.

"Hey why do I care? I don't give a shit! Hahaha…" Mandy watched on before stomping down hard on the accelerator, causing the car to rev hard as she quickly let out the clutch. The four tyres gave off a chirp as the low slung supercar charged off down the street.

"… haha-Whoa this thing's fast!" Billy commented as he found himself forcibly dumped back in his seat as they sped off in their new ride, the rowdy youth laughing madly all the way.

* * *

**The arrogant rich jock and the silicone blonde bimbo are such prevalent stereotypes in western society. It's getting kind of tacky now that it's so over used. And why blonde? I guess it's all an extension of the high school culture carried on from similar people who've just come out and gone straight to mooching off their rich equally narcissistic parents. Of course now I'm just tarring a whole group with the same brush.**

**Hope you liked it. Same time next fortnight.**


	42. Irken Blues

**Guess what? EARLY UPLOAD! YAAAY!**

**Anyway I figured seeing as this chapter is small and the next chapter needs a total overhaul I would upload this a week early giving me more time to work with. As you know by this point I work best when I have deadlines and goals.**

**Now remember way back at the start of this thing there was that chapter which seemingly had absolutely no connection with the rest of the story? Well now we're gonna take a step back again and revisit what's going on elsewhere. Look out for inspirations from Blade Runner and Escape from New York. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

**Irken Blues.**

The days were long and dreary in Townsville. The orange early afternoon sky glazed the decaying town in a harsh light, unpleasant and uncaring as the grimy streets below. Townsville, once a shining metropolis of white concrete and shimmering glass skyscrapers, now reduced to little more than a slowly rotting corpse of its once glorious self. Where once over a million people had lived and worked hard to fulfil their dreams and ambitions, their homes stood empty, their decaying apartments largely taken up by squatters and human refuse.

Perhaps the saddest thing about this once beautiful city was that it was perhaps above all others in the country an example of the ravages of group narcissism. But it wasn't just them to blame, they had only stepped in after the city's star status had been toppled. While the city had been plagued with its share of these people previously, as were all societies, this place had really fallen to outside aggression. Mutants, monsters, demons, they all took an interest in the metropolis. The shiny steel towers, the gleaming white structures here and there, decades worth of hard work and development by the brightest minds in America, they each thought to themselves, _**'How long will it take to destroy you?'**_

Had it not been for the city's own superheroes, three young girls with powers the likes of which rivalled the gods, the city would have been a ruin long ago. But due to their heroic acts the city was spared from the wrath of various horrors of nature and science. They continued to come, and they continued to maim, kill and destroy anything and anyone that crossed their paths, and Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup continued to defeat them, driving them away.

And yet, despite their courage in continuing to fight tooth and nail for the people, the attacks took their toll, and with each time they did a little bit more damage. Add to that the constant problem of robberies, crime, and a self-possessed monkey who just wanted to watch the world burn, and Townsville began to decline. First the insurance premiums went sky high to cope with the mass destruction being wrought on a daily basis. Next the local business went bankrupt from the cost of damages and insurance, their employees going unpaid. People began to move away as the economy collapsed and crime rates rose, neither the police nor the girls able to stop it. The housing market collapsed, prices falling away as people left in droves, and all the while as this was happening National Unity was spreading its tendrils in.

As Townsville's star fell their madness took its place. Where the buildings had been left empty street gangs and human trash of all kinds and from all races and backgrounds congregated, while the remaining original inhabitants traded reason and responsibility for someone to blame. And they got it before the end.

It didn't matter to them that it had been the girls who had been pouring their hearts and their blood out to protect them as best they could, they were the most obvious targets for their selfish delusions. Finally, having failed their mission of protecting the city, the Utonium family left in sorrow, but not before their house was surrounded by a bloodthirsty mob.

The city turned into a festering mass of crime and thuggery. Rape, murder, theft, assault, drugs, everything was left to go unchecked as the police and the incompetent government moved away with them, or were otherwise killed. Like flies to a dead carcass, as the nationwide crime rate skyrocketed, a vast exodus of criminals and filth from of races began pouring in from across the country, to escape the white supremacist noose closing around them. For this reason National Unity never managed to take power in the city, and soon lost what holdings they did have.

It was during this time, when the city's population began to rise again, that the Nationalist controlled government decided to seal off the city. For a collection of reasons not fully understood an electric fence was constructed around the city's perimeter, topped with razor wire, and patrolled by a moderate force of National Guardsmen, with multiple checkpoints in and out. People were allowed to come in as they pleased, but to come and go required authorisation. Actually leaving the city was not particularly hard, but it was a risk few were willing to take. The most universally accepted reason for the fence was to contain the spread of the cancer within, to prevent the wrong kind of madness taking over the country. Other theories were that it was really a giant concentration camp. Alternately it was also seen as an easy way out for the nation's massive number of criminal minorities, to prevent an uprising in the streets of every other major city against going to the real death camps.

Now the monsters didn't even bother coming here anymore. In their eyes the city had been destroyed from without and within, its gleaming image long since tarnished and rusted away. Now the only people to comb the streets were gangs of killers and rapists, prostitutes, drug dealers and vagrants. A few local businesses could still be found, selling fruit and food, guns, knives and old cars out in the marketplace downtown, as the city still needed to be able to support life if anyone was to live there at all. Yet even these people, the entrepreneurs trying to eek out a living supplying the maggots that infested this place, they too were little better than scum. They would overcharge and steal and cheat as much as they could to get ahead in their miserable little lives. It was part of the criteria for being able to live within the city's decaying blight.

Thus stood the city of Townsville, a city populated by five hundred thousand lowlifes ranging from common thugs and thieves, to killers, rapists, whores and drug peddlers…

Plus one broken down angel of vengeance.

* * *

Under the orange glair of the afternoon sun the old brick apartment buildings held a dull kind of sad beauty, an artistic testament to the age of despair and decay they stood in. In a way it called forth the ancient stories of the city of Babylon, whose pride and corrupt nature had called down the wrath of the gods.

'_Perhaps that's why this place died.' _Thought a lone figure. _'Perhaps the monsters were sent by the gods to punish the wickedness of the humans.'_

A small human figure walked along the empty streets deserted of cars as behind them a battered monorail suspended above the streets began to take off again on its trip. Hidden alternately in both the glare of the afternoon sun and the shadows of the looming brick buildings she walked on, intent on simply getting back to her apartment and waiting for the next day to come. Continuing on towards a distant block of apartments where she 'lived' she stepped out of the shadow of another decaying refuse dump, the sun lighting up her pale features.

By appearance she was a mere ten year old girl, her violet eyes veiled in the shadow of her short dark blue hair. On her small frame sat a striped purple and violet long sleeve top with black pants and boots below. Across her back sat an ordinary brown bag, her top extending down in a flap down her back. On her chest sat an odd symbol of an origin unrecognizable to anyone else bar her and her kind.

Tak paused in her long walk back from the station and the centre of town where she worked, surveying the decaying cityscape before her, a mixture of old newspapers and food wrappers lining the streets. The black surface beneath her soles was breaking up in places, and large patches of the road surface were gone. All around her were more grey apartments, once home to thousands in the city's heyday, now abandoned, boarded up with plywood and left to decay. Below them every now and then was the odd decrepit car wreck, gutted, burned out and ravaged by the local lowlifes. She could see several empty bullet casings lying in the street. Looking up she saw the plumes from fires burning through parts of the enormous and largely empty urban mass.

Inside she grimaced, this place was devoid of any beauty whatsoever. It was this dump that reminded her more than anything of her life back on that mad hellhole Irk, and the punishing experience of the Devastis Military Academy. Though it wasn't as heavily polluted here, and there was far more order and control back there, at least when Zim wasn't around, the people were all too similar, all mindless wretches who would turn on and kill their own best friend if there was something in it for them.

And yet despite its ruined state it had its own feeling of artistic expression, left over from the memories of years passed. How many good, honest people's hopes and dreams had been destroyed here?

Continuing on she walked off the road surface up onto the left footpath, all the while her mind returned to thinking about the god damned boss she worked for. To support herself she took up work at a stall selling fruit in the city centre. The greasy worthless asshole, a drunk by the name of Gavin, had agreed to pay her the standard sub-minimum wage amount each week, enough for her to just rent the dingy little apartment and pay the bills. Now he was docking her pay for supposedly being lazy and wasting time. He had said this while she was working on her feet all day without a break, not even letting herself stand still for a moment in order to keep the business going. She knew he was doing it to avoid having to pay her, and was threatening to sack her if she didn't work harder, trying to wring everything out of her he could. Normally she would have just opened up his throat arteries and moved on, but though she very much wished to do just that, she needed the money.

Still his selfish stinginess and greed left her with the problem of not actually getting enough from the job to keep her alive. She couldn't even pay the rent with what she was getting from that fat sack of crap let alone pay for food, water and power.

This wasn't such a big problem for Tak as she was a very resourceful young woman. She had come here with anger in her green blood, and had fully intended to dish out her wrath on the thousands of criminals this city hosted. For the past four years she had hunted them as if they were a disease to be eradicated, which in all matter of fact they were. Now though she had even greater incentive to hunt them like the rats and vermin they were; they had money.

For the past few months she had been 'harvesting' the local street gangs and drug dealers for what they were worth, and often in one night she could score an entire months worth of wages. This really wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things, her wage being a pittance, but it was still enough. It was the drug dealers and pimps that yielded the most, and it was the pimps and rapists she took greatest pleasure in harvesting. Occasionally she would kidnap and torture one of the dealers, and they would give her information leading her back to the ones in control of an entire gang. On nights like those she could take home a years worth of cash and an armoury of weapons.

So for the past few years she had lived like this, eking out a scrawny pay check in a job working for a greasy, selfish old bastard of a man, living day to day in a dingy apartment. In the short space of time she had available after work she was outside, killing off the filth out on the streets in her own merciless style of vigilante justice. She would carve out a bloody swathe of destruction and horror in the faces of the people that reminded her so much of her old leaders.

Tallest Red and Purple; the two despicable creatures who always served to fan the flames of her fury whenever she thought about them. She had given them everything she had, her loyalty, her soul, and had laid her life on the line time and time again to grovel for their dignity, only to be discarded and left to die. She would live her life for the purpose of seeing those two die, broken and humiliated, along with all those like them. Like she had sworn on that fateful night four years ago, it was that anger that had given her the drive to go on, to strike down all the killers and liars and corrupt souls of the universe.

But living in this broken and hopeless place for so long had its effects on people. Even she, willing herself to go on fighting against the wickedness around her, had begun to feel her resolve break down under the day-by-day struggle to live. Perhaps it was the fact that no matter how many psychopaths she killed she never came a day closer to her goal, or the fact that even after she had painted the streets with litres of blood the condition of things around her only seemed to get worse and worse.

As she walked along the footpath she turned her thoughts on why she was returning to her apartment so early. Today her employer had made sexual advances towards her, as he had done many times before. It wasn't anything too horrid by human standards, linking his hands around her waste and running his fingers along her neck. But then her disguise persona was based on that of a ten year old girl, far too young for anything like that. Any unwanted sexual advance was always bad, regardless of age or species, but it was particularly horrid when it was against a child, even if that child was in reality significantly older than the perpetrator. Normally she would have just moved away from the paedophile deviant and continue working, ignoring his accusations of her not following orders and docking her pay. He was going to dock her pay anyway so it really didn't matter. This time though she just didn't see why she should even bother coming to the place anymore. She knew she needed the money, but she just didn't care anymore.

Today it had gotten to the point where nothing really mattered to her anymore.

Continuing on with her face down she stopped and looked up as she suddenly found her path blocked by some kind of looming shadow, and found herself facing a lumpy, bulging wall of… thugs.

"Hey sexy, you wanna have some fun?" Spoke a hulking street bruiser wearing a leather vest over a red tee shirt and black jeans. He was accompanied by four others who all looked to be the same class of vermin, leering down at her sadistically. It made her skin crawl, even though she already knew this wouldn't end well for them. Still she knew now might not be such a good time and place, out in the middle of the street in broad daylight, to go on another killing spree. Furthermore as of right now she really wasn't in the mood.

"No thank you." She answered flatly in a vain attempt to diffuse the situation. She knew it was futile; these people were here because they wanted to violate her, and they wouldn't leave until they got what they wanted.

"Aww, come on little girl, you know you wanna." He answered back, blocking her path as she tried to go around them.

"Hey man why don't we just go on and take this bitch now yo." Another of the worthless psychopaths spoke up, clad in an old and faded denim jacket and jeans. "Heh heh…"

"Yeah let's screw her now. No one's gonna save her! Hahaha!" Another answered as the group began to close in around her from all sides preventing her from running. The red shirted leader made his way around behind her, silently wondering why this little girl still stood fearlessly, even bored, knowing she was about to be raped.

"Look, I don't really want any trouble. Why don't we just live and let live alright?" She asked as she began to make her way towards the alley directly to her left where the gang had come out from. It wasn't to get away from them, just to get away from witnesses.

"HAHAHAHAHAAA!" Each of the group's faces twisted up as they followed her into the alley, four of their ranks standing before her while the leader stood behind. Tak watched in calm, objective silence as from his belt he and his sick-minded buddies drew switchblades. He held the cold carbon steel to her throat as he leaned in behind her menacingly.

"Now you be a good little bitch and don't scream okay?" He licked his lips as he prepared to start stripping her with his left hand, holding the blade to her neck with his right. Tak's formerly bored expression took a darker turn as she regarded the depraved monsters that stood before her.

"Are you going to violate me, even though I'm just a ten year old girl?" She asked in a subdued tone. Though she was far older than ten human years, they didn't know that, and were doing it nonetheless. The group around her sniggered sickeningly.

"Yeah." Spoke the one holding the blade to her throat. As they each prepared to ravage and violate her they didn't notice her hands sliding down towards the flap over the back of her belt.

"And have you ever done this to a girl my age or younger before?" Tak asked in the same subdued tone, barely suppressing her loathing for these inhuman horrors that dared walk this side of hell.

"Uh huh."

In one swift movement Tak pulled her left hand out from under the flap at the back, pulling out a bowie knife with it. Whirling out of the rapists reach she struck fast with the razor sharp blade, the thug barely able to gape in surprise and fear before…

"_Slit!"_

"_Spurt!"_

"Guh-"

The thug dropped the knife to clamp his hands across the left side of his throat where jets of blood began to pump out from his slit Jugular. His eyes widened in abject horror as he felt every violent squirt of the vital fluid escaping his body out the cut.

Tak continued to whirl around to face the other four psychopaths as they gaped in shock as their colleague staggered back, trying to stop the surge of blood escaping his vein. Dropping the blade she pulled her right hand out, withdrawing a black 1911 from its concealed position, bringing her left hand in to clamp down on it with both hands. In an instant she disengaged the safety, bringing the gun up level with one of the would-be rapists head.

The denim clad rapist could only gape in shock before…

"_BANG!"_

… a large percentage of his brain exited the back of his head. The man standing behind him recoiled as the red mix of blood and chunks of brain tissue plastered his face.

"_BANG!"_

Another of his partners had part of their skull blown away by the hollow point bullet in a hideous spray of bone shards and gore. The remaining two recovered from their shock to see the sight of their friends exposed brain, right before a third had a large hole blown through his head likewise.

"_BANG!"_

The last remaining survivor finally came to realise what was happening, and that not only was he covered in the brains of his partners, but now the little girl he was going to rape just moments ago now had the gun trained on his skull. He was about to be killed, and could do nothing but…

"A-"

"_BANG!"_

All this took place in no more than a second, the last shot followed by the clatter of her knife hitting the ground.

Lowering the weapon Tak surveyed the gruesome scene of brutal revenge she had carved out. This was not about her and what they had planned to do to her, no. This was about what they did to those other innocent girls. These so-called people were the type who would have started out as schoolyard savages, stalking and bludgeoning the smart kids whenever teacher wasn't looking. They were the type who would have killed their victims' pet cat or bird in front of them, and would have later raped daughters and wives before their fathers and husbands in a similar manner. These were the people who thought seeing others suffering was funny, and enjoyed causing pain to those who they considered weaker than them. These people were the same as the Tallest in almost every way. They deserved every horror they got.

She turned the safety back on as she returned her gun to its place, turning to glower murderously at the lone survivor of the group as he staggered, grasping at his bursting throat, his face contorted in pain and horror.

Reaching down she picked up the bloody knife again before stalking over towards her victim. Throat slitting was not a method of execution she used on anyone, due to it being simply too much of a horrible way to die. This was used only for the worst monsters, like the one before her. She relished in the look of terror he gave her as she moved in behind him. Pushing him to the ground she leaned in while he was on his knees before her, still clutching the wound to the left side of his throat. Remembering what he had said to her about what he was going to do, and what he had already done, she snarled in murderous fury, bringing the blade in to position it in the open wound under his hand.

"Die."

Without a moment's hesitation she tore the blade right through the front of the rapist's throat, creating an enormous deep gash going through both arteries and veins. His eyes widened in horror as a massive torrent of blood spewed forth onto the ground in a huge puddle. He gaped in mute horror as all his hideous crimes against the innocent came back to haunt him. He felt the massive blood loss immediately, his skin going bone white across his whole body as he fell into a mass of tingling and light-headedness.

Tak snarled as she continued to hold his head up, letting the litres of blood continue to gush and pour out onto the ground. The rapist's eyes soon rolled back in their sockets as he blacked out from the loss of oxygen supply, sparing him from any more of the horror. She did not release him until the blood ceased to pump violently out of him, indicating that his heart had stopped.

Satisfied that her special requirements for vengeance had been met she dropped the man's head, letting his bleached white face fall into the pool of blood. Looking to her knife she saw that while it was soaked in his blood, her hand and arm had gotten off scot free, negating the need to wash herself excessively of the gore. One thing she had found about human blood was that it was filled with the dangerous toxin iron, which made it highly acidic in comparison to her copper based body, thus it was a good idea to try and avoid contact with it.

Turning her gaze towards their pockets she quickly searched through them, finding that each of them had a wallet. Taking all five of them from the mutilated bodies she wiped the blade on the shirt of one of them, cleaning it up as best she could before she took their wallets and headed out into the street again.

As she made her way back towards her apartment the sense of anger and vengeful wrath that she struggled to cultivate quickly faded away. Not a minute later she felt the same way she had been inside for weeks. Though she had forced herself to remain angry and hateful towards all the lying betrayers and feeble-minded bigots of the world, ultimately deep inside the misery of living day in day out alone had taken a very heavy toll on her. Today she had just ceased to continue forcing herself to remain the angel of revenge she wanted to be. For every criminal she laid waste to there were always an infinite number still out there, all preying on the weak and the innocent out of their own arrogant natures. She knew now that with how her life had been going steadily downhill there was no chance of ever getting off this planet to seek out the Tallest.

The fact was her ambition of seeing them kneel before her had failed. Now once more she found herself living in nothing more than a shell of an existence.

Walking back to her apartment through the deserted streets she remembered how where in previous times the deaths of a gang of thugs had bought her a deep sense of satisfaction, now there was relatively little of it left, and even when it did come it rarely lasted. The feeling of striking down the lowest of the low, the most corrupt and wicked of beings in this decaying society, had long since faded away. Now it was just a chore, to harvest them for the money and weapons she needed to stay alive. The anger and divine fury she had felt while she ran naked through the cold forest hadn't endured. The flame had gone out, and now its light and heat were gone.

Once again, just like four years ago, she was living in the dark.

* * *

A few minutes of walking later she turned left up a set of concrete steps into the doorway of the apartment building she lived in. It stood at the far end of a cluster of a dozen similar buildings, identical to the derelict ones around them except they were for the most part still capable of supporting life. Much of Townsville was organised into such villages now, with the vast majority of its population congregated in clumps throughout the largely abandoned urban ghetto. Overhead there were power cables jury rigged to supply the inhabited buildings, while a few armed African American gang members patrolled the area, her apartment being within Crips territory, they controlled this clump of civilisation. One Skorpion wielding member turned to watch her pass with note before he returned to wandering the street. She had slotted into this side of town relatively well, largely due to her blue hair, she had become a subject of passing interest to the gang. Passing through the entrance she walked by the owner as he sat behind a grill in the wall reading the paper.

"Hey limey." The slumlord called absent-minded, never taking his eyes off the paper in his lap.

"Hey." Tak replied as she passed by, moving up towards the stairs to the upper floors. She didn't quite know why they called her limey, though she knew it had something to do with the distinct sound of her voice. From what she knew humans voices changed from place to place, something referred to as accents. She knew her voice sounded like that of the accent of the people of a nearby country called London on the other side of the planet, otherwise known as England, Great Britain, Wales or Airstrip One. What this had to do with limes she knew not. But then she didn't particularly care what they called her; she'd dealt with enough of that from the other cadets during training. At least the people here were half joking.

The inside was impossibly dull. Stepping upwards along the old staircase covered in weathered and grimy carpet she passed by the second floor, passing another few individuals as they came and went. None paid any particular attention to her as she made her way to the third floor. They knew she lived alone at the age of ten, and that she was struggling to survive. She knew they didn't particularly care, just so long as they got what they wanted and needed.

Stepping out from the staircase she passed by a drunken man passed out in the long dimly lit corridor. The old plaster walls were long faded, gouged in various places from various fights and drunken violence. The few lights in the corridoors flickered every so often due to the drain on the system from the electric fence. The whole place held a musty smell of age, decay and mental illness seeping out of the carpet and walls, though she had long since gotten used to it.

Withdrawing a set of keys from her pocket she stopped before her door marked number 32. Reaching through the four individual keys she unlocked the four locks that held it closed against numerous attempts to break it down to loot her apartment. The wooden surface still held the scars of several kicks and beatings. Looking around she made sure no one was waiting for her to open the door so they could barge in, as they sometimes tried. Content that she was alone, and that the drunken man was no threat she unlocked the last of the four locks, opening the door swiftly to slip in. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the supposedly passed out man jump to his feet and begin barrelling towards the open door.

Once inside she locked it quickly, getting all four locks closed before she felt him thump on her door heavily. She didn't even bother guarding the door as he immediately gave up, moving on to try somewhere else. She sighed as she switched on the light, illuminating the room with a faint orange hue, adding to the dim light coming in through the worn glass window in her kitchen. She reached around with her hand and pulled out the heavy calibre pistol she had used earlier, setting it and the five stolen wallets down on a weathered old wooden coffee table in front of an old lounge. Stepping through the dingy, cramped apartment she made her way towards the sink. Pulling her knife out she began to wash off the remainder of the rapist's blood from its hard surface, washing her hands in the stream afterwards.

She was grateful the water here in this decaying city was still relatively pure from the plant, as even a minute amount of toxins in it would cause severe acid burns to her skin. Even the stream of water flowing down out of the nozzle bought on a noticeable tingling and itching in her human appearing hands.

Turning off the water she dried her hands on a towel before she dragged herself back over to the old couch. Sagging back into it she let herself be still for a moment, recalling all the misery today had bought about. Tomorrow it would most likely be repeated, as well as every day after that as it had done for months and years. So long as she wanted to live she would face it. And yet in all reality she didn't really want to live at all. She wished she could just put an end to it all and just cease to exist, but as before her primal fear of death kept her from doing so. Just the thought of it made her guts clench and flare. Once again she was trapped in a miserable existence where neither life nor death was an option acceptable or available respectively to her.

Turning her gaze towards the wallets she reached forward to pluck the five of them up from where they sat on the old table. She opened the first one, going through it as she searched for notes and coins, discarding the useless cards. From the first she managed to procure a little over fifty dollars. Tossing it back on the table she moved onto the second, before the third, and fourth, and fifth. All up she had managed to score nearly three hundred dollars, more than a months worth of wages, enough to keep her going for awhile.

Still, existing on food and a run down apartment was not the same as living. Without any sort of drive or satisfaction to continue she could do nothing more than lounge back in the sofa. Memories of her old life played out through her vacant mind. Memories of how everything had begun to slide downhill not long after she came out of the birthing facility.

She recalled when she was still only a very young smeet at the academy, the equivalent of a six year old human child. Contrary to what others might think Devastis wasn't a brutal kill or be killed type of place. In reality the cadets received good respect from both their instructors and peers, and discipline was enforced more by propaganda and self-control than terror. It was really quite a good place, assuming you fit the Irken's narrow definition of normal. For anyone even slightly different though it quickly descended into a living hell.

She remembered back to one of her first days. Two of the instructors for her society class were explaining about the importance of the Almighty Tallest in the Irken Empire. They spoke of how they were superior in every way including intellect, strength and force of will to every other Irken, and for that reason they were to be revered as living gods, just as the Irken species was inherently superior to all other species.

"_But why are the Tallest so great? What makes them so much better than us?"_ She had asked with curiosity. The instructors looked questioningly at her as if she had just grown an extra head.

"_Because Tak… they are greater than us. That's why they are the Tallest."_ They answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe. Tak though inclined her head to the side thoughtfully in what anyone else would have thought incredibly cute.

"_But why is being tall so great? What makes them so much better than us just because they're tall?"_

She hadn't asked with an accusing tone in her voice, just one of smeetish wonder. The instructors though gazed on her with an outrage that even now over a hundred earth years later made her insides writhe. They strode over to her, plucked her up out of her seat by her arms and hauled her off out of the class. They dragged her to the head office where they locked her in a room, hammered her hands to a post, and lashed her across the back until she was coughing up blood.

She shuddered as she remembered the horrible feeling of her skin and muscles being lacerated by the bladed whips, the nails through the palms of her hands holding her in place. They had held no pity or guilt for her, even as the tears slid down her cheeks as she screamed in terror and agony. They continued to torture her until her lungs started to bleed from the impacts, and her skin had turned a very pail green from blood loss.

A mere day later she was back in the classroom, her bleeding back and hands still in bandages beneath her uniform. Though the pain was still excruciating for her, and the weakness dealing with the injuries plagued her for days, she bravely fought down the pain as she tried to show discipline. Regardless of how much of a model student she became after that, pushing herself to extremes none of the other cadets could match, the instructors still watched her with deep suspicion, wary for any signs of treasonous dissent or thought crime. And though she hid her free thinking nature as best she could, masking it under mindless ultranationalist fervour and zeal which she tried to force herself to believe, they still found out little by little in the end.

Her mind skipped to the day she was informed that she had been classed as a defective due to her insanity and treasonous thoughts, namely her rejection of the Irken propaganda. Because she did not truly and completely love the Tallest like all good Irkens did, or view all other species with arrogant contempt and loathing like she was supposed to, she was obviously different from the norm. Difference of any kind would not be accepted. Imperfection made her a blight on the Irken's perfect universe, and thus she could not be tolerated, not when the only way was their way. From then on the prejudice and hatred she'd received from those around her only increased. She was not permitted to share any of the basic privileges that came with simply being a citizen. She was barred from most businesses, and her income as a cadet was halved. The only saving grace she held was her notoriety for being the strongest and most capable soldier of her class, meaning that while she was always looked on with disdain, few dared to ever assault her physically for fear of the punishment she could dish out in retaliation.

Still, because of how skilful she had been as a student, her perfect grades in both theory and combat, and the amount of resources poured into the training of every Elite and Invader they made an exception. The strategists in charge of the Invader Corps opted to send her on half a dozen suicidal missions against enemy factories, fortifications, leaders and the like in the hopes of having her killed and of her being of use to them. They hadn't expected her to succeed in each and every one, their living weapon leaving a scene of destruction, murder and ruin in her wake as she returned to Devastis.

And still, though a hero to the Irken Empire and the will of the Tallest she was, both her superiors and her comrades continued to view her with hatred and disgust. Tak knew they would never have let her graduate from the academy, not a defect like her. And yet she still clung to the hope that her victories, sabotaging the enemy's industrial war machine single handed would redeem her of her free thinking nature in her superior's arrogant, heartless eyes. When Zim blew out the power to her side of the planet, trapping her in her unit and causing her to miss the exam, it just gave them an excuse to fail her, charging her with insubordination alongside it.

Lying down along the soft couch, she propped her head up on her arms as she drifted into a bleary state of depression and apathy. Why had she even bothered coming out here anyway? It should've been obvious to her that her plan to suck up to the Tallest would have come to naught regardless of wether or not she succeeded. If only MiMi was still with her. If only she could reach out and connect with someone, to be able to feel empathy and care again. If only they hadn't turned her only friend against her, it wouldn't have been so bad, but that was what fate had decided for her.

Her entire life had been nothing but one long downhill slide. Where was it going to end? When would it end so she could be free of this suffering? Would it go on for another few hundred years, leaving her a broken down shell forever tormented by her memories? Or would she be shot this afternoon, gunned down by the street gangs she hunted in a surprise attack, instantly ending her lifetime of sorrow?

She both hoped and feared for the latter.

* * *

**What do you think, dark and grim enough for you? I only added the containment fence idea today. I figure it adds to the cancerous feel of the thing having it sealed off.**

**The next chapter needs an enormous amount of work done before upload so there's gonna be a gap between this one and the next. As I said it needs a total overhaul. Whereas most of my chapters are already worked out and just need alterations and tweaking here and there the next one needs to be almost completely thrown out and restarted. But it's gonna be worth the wait I assure you. See you next time.**


	43. Alas Babylon

**Hello again boys and girls!**

**I'm back, and am proud to say that this is my finest work for you yet! It is no exaggeration to say that I almost broke my computer making this. Apparently I ended up needing every day of the extra week I gave myself to complete this, but here it is nonetheless!**

**This is Billy's first big breakout moment now that he's got the scythe and his own half-demon powers. Yoy've seen how Dib has turned out, the things he's done, and his mindset. Now you're gonna find out what the demon worshipping, cannibal, neo-Nazi cream of the crop can really do! I promise you won't be dissapointed.**

**Grab a snack and strap yourself in! I'm gonna stop gushing about myself now so the carnage, mayhem and madness can begin...**

* * *

**Alas Babylon.**

Early afternoon.

The semi-ordinary suburban street was relatively quiet until Mandy arrived, Billy holding on tightly as he was pushed and pulled around in his seat under the cover of the glass roof. The tyres screeched as Mandy pulled the wheel around, pushing the car through the right hand corner of the street at the very edge of traction. She counter steered as the car's fat rear stepped out slightly on the exit, easing it back on the straight and narrow as the black Porsche raced for its destination.

After only twenty minutes of reckless driving both of the car's new owners knew they would have to try this again some time in the future. Billy's knuckles were white from tension, an enormous grin spread across his face as he held on amidst the twists and turns and sheer adrenaline rush. His skin was damp from perspiration and his heart thundered inside his chest as he willed the car to go around each corner a little bit faster.

Mandy held the same sense of exhilaration, of power and speed and forces pushing her left, right, forwards and backwards. The primary difference between the two was whereas Billy's face was a picture of thrill, hers was set in a hard, controlled expression of absolute concentration. Though this wasn't particularly new to her, the amount of sheer razor edged focus in her stare was, like a lioness stalking her prey.

She gradually floored the accelerator again as she set her dark eyes on the house near the end of the street. She hadn't in the life of her expected they would be back at this god forsaken hellhole so quickly; that went for both the fact that they were returning immediately after meeting Zim, and the rapid nature in which they crossed the distance. The black car continued to shoot along the relatively empty street passing the cars parked along side the road in a blur of motion and sound.

As they rapidly neared their destination Mandy eased back on the throttle, letting the car coast forwards at a little below ninety miles per hour. Judging the time just right she slammed hard on the clutch and brakes, causing Billy's head to sway forward as the car pulled up, the tyres chirping as they halted all the enormous forward momentum. Billy immediately recoiled back into his plush red leather seat as the car stopped. Turning left he and Mandy saw that they were again parked right out the front of the Membrane household.

Billy opened the door, listing and staggering out of the car as Mandy turned it off, following him out.

"You know you're race face is kinda cute." Billy spoke as he stepped around the rear quarters of the car, picking up the smell of the hot tyres. "It's like… aaahh… I dunno, your regular face, only more aggressive." He shrugged as he, as he took his position by her side. "Hey I'm still not the smart one, that's your job."

Mandy looked deadpanned across to her partner, before a slight smile graced her features.

'_Don't ever change Billy. I like you just the way you are.'_ He thought before turning from her to gaze at the technologically advanced house.

"Alright." Billy spoke as he reached into the back of the car for his bag again. "You go get him to come to the door."

Nodding curtly Mandy stepped forward away from the boy as he leaned over through the window for his bag. Making her way across the concrete pathway towards the front door she wondered what, if anything, she should say to that wretched human being, before she let her lover execute him for being such an arrogant, evil, bigoted prick.

She distinctly remembered the feeling of utter loathing and disgust she held as she listened to his little hate speech. The sense of anxiety she held over taking a life instantly fled, paved over with the desire to stamp out such small-minded filth. Stepping up to the door her features darkened, all the while preparing herself for the satisfying experience of getting to watch the sick bastard die. She rang the doorbell, waiting the few seconds as she heard the distinct sound of footfalls approaching from nearby.

As soon as the door opened her mood descended even further as she came face to face with Dib's equally hostile sister. Gaz's eyes widened for a moment as she saw who it was at the door, before all her violent rage returned to her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She growled instantly on hair trigger. Her face showed a number of bruises, evidence that at least some of what she had told her about Dib's true nature way correct.

"Get Dib down here."

"Get out of here!" Gaz immediately barked furiously. "I told you two never to come back here-Guh!"

She gasped as she was grabbed and hurled aside from behind by Dib, looking past her as she fell with a flat stare set on Mandy.

"I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon." He spoke with a cool tone. From where he stood he could see no trace of Billy as he stood behind her, ready to attack like a bloodthirsty animal at any moment. "Did you see that freak Zim?"

"Yeah we saw him alright." She answered as dryly as ever.

"Did you kill it? Tell me you killed that alien vermin." His voice dripped with all the venom and hatred that had contaminated his mind and soul as he gave a thin smile. They were doing the world a favour by putting an end to him.

"Dib, did you ever stop to think that maybe not everyone you meet is as narrow-minded and hateful as you?" Mandy spoke while he took on a look of bewilderment. "Did it ever occur to you that just because someone is different to you, that they don't conform to your idea of normal, didn't mean they had any less right to respect than you?"

"What lies are you talking about? Of course it does!" He answered angrily. "I'm the one who decides who deserves what. I decide what's good and what's evil. Anyone who doesn't conform to my image is an abomination against my will!"

Mandy stared hatefully at him, her outrage and loathing for this worthless scrap of flesh so palpable she wanted to kill him then and there. "Okay, well did it ever occur to you that maybe we had our own agenda outside of yours?"

"Huh?"

"Did you ever wonder if maybe we were going to ally ourselves with Zim so we could take over? What about how he might have requested we kill you before he joined us? Did that ever cross your arrogant little brain?" Dib stared at her in confusion.

"Side with Zim? Take…" His eyes widened as the realisation came to him. He gazed down on the girl in shock as she continued to regard him with disdain and stepped back off to the side out of the way.

"HEY DIB!"

Said dark haired neo-Nazi Satanist turned from Mandy to look straight ahead where the shout had originated. Immediately his eyes caught on Billy standing beside a black Porsche, a submachine gun held in his hands by his hip, with its muzzle pointed at him. His features had changed, his eyes and skin were tinged with green, and a feral grin graced his half-demonic features. Immediately he gaped in terror at what he knew was coming.

"Anne Frank sends her regards motherfucker!"

Ordering his frozen body to move Dib dove his hand into the side of his coat, withdrawing the P38 from its holster to take aim and kill the treacherous freak. But too late.

"_BABABABA…!"_

He gaped in shock and pain as several of the nine millimetre rounds blew through his abdomen, shoulders, arms and legs, leaving him to stagger and list in place. Billy grinned and continued to fire, the long almost random hail of bullets blowing holes in his target and the wall around him until the gun stopped. His lungs blown to shreds, Dib could only gape so as to give a silent scream, before dropping the gun and falling onto his back with a damp thud moments later. Gaz look at the scene before her in shock, abandoning her game on the lounge as he bled onto the floor from several bullet wounds. She held her hand out against the sociopaths outside.

"Stop! Now!"

Dib gagged in pain as blood began to seep through his body. He could feel the shock setting in as his skin turned pail and his body began to tingle painfully. He could barely even feel the gaping tracks left by the bullets from the shock to his system, but he could still feel a dull pain throughout his body. He managed to turn his gaze up towards the smirking… thing that advanced on him. He saw Billy eject the empty magazine and load a new one up into his weapon, racking the bolt.

His eyes widened as Billy sneered cruelly down on the deranged youth through the sights as he gazed up fearfully from the floor.

"Don't worry Dib, I'm sending you to a nice and warm place, where there are lots and lots of evil sick bastards just like you. Say heil to Hitler for me." With that said Billy pulled the trigger again and blasted another series of holes through his remaining functioning organs including his heart, as he sent Dib's tainted soul to damnation.

Mandy watched on in cold apathy as the young man's face contorted in agony, before setting solid in that position. Inside Gaz looked upon the dead body with tension, raising her eyes towards the killers again, Billy standing nearby. She snarled furiously.

"I told you to stop!"

This was the first thing to make Billy and Mandy both frown in doubt.

'_What does she mean stop? Why is she still protesting when he's already dead?'_ He wondered. Absently he raised his weapon to his arms and took a step back warily. Gaz continued to growl in warning.

"Get out of here now, before he hears what you've done!"

"LOOKING FOR ME?" Came a shout from off to their left.

Looking they were surprised to see another identical Dib Membrane standing out from behind the side of the garage, a mad smile on his face, wielding an identical gun pointed in his direction.

Demonic reflexes kicked in, and Billy dived left just as he fired past where he used to be. As Dib took aim again Billy tensed again and took off upwards over the line of fire, his feet touching down lightly on the vertical wall face. Dib fired another bullet followed by another up at his foe, shattering a glass window behind him as Billy took a sprinting step across the surface, bounding off again to sail over towards where the other Dib stood now snarling as he tried to target him.

He smirked, sensing the kill. Extending a coil out of his shoulder he lashed out at Dib's hands with snake-like speed and precision, all the while bringing the old submachine gun to point in his direction. The dark appendage struck the gun aside out of his hand, Dib recoiling in pain, before Billy pulled the trigger. Half a dozen shots hammered through his body on the way down.

Billy let go of the gun before touching down in front of the reeling Dib. Reaching out he clamped his hands around his head as he looked at him wide eyed in fear, fixing him with a freakish grin, wrapping his head around violently to the right so that a loud crack rang out. Still smiling with glee as his bloody body went limp he twisted his head around further, until his head was facing left.

Letting go as the body dropped forward with his face staring up Billy calmed himself. Pursing his lips he thought to himself. Both of these Dibs had died so much more easily than he had expected them too. There had been virtually no difference between them.

'_From what we heard he had done and what we felt coming from him he should have been far more powerful than this.'_ Turning he cast his eyes back towards the house, between Mandy, who he guessed was thinking the same thing as he, and Gz, who watched on with the same tension, like she was still telling him to stop.

Reaching down he took hold of the Carl Gustav and strode over to stand in the middle of the yard facing the door. Clutching the weapon in both hands he raised it to take aim at Gaz threateningly.

"Alright start talking. How many more of these are there?" He spoke sternly.

Gaz gritted her teeth but remained still, trying to weigh up the threat against her own need to keep her brother alive. She couldn't give them anything that would help them kill him, but if she didn't tell them, her chances of escaping alive were not good considering they had already killed two people in front of her. Billy glowered menacingly as she continued to stall.

"I could start with your leg if you don't tell us, then work my way up." He warned lowering the muzzle. "These two are just clones. How many more are there?"

"… Just the original." She relented at last, still resisting their interrogation as much as she could without him pulling the trigger. Billy raised his head as he listened, keeping the gun trained on her legs as he continued.

"Where is he?"

As Gaz struggled with herself again, Mandy thought back to what they saw when they had left.

"I know." She spoke drawing their attention. "The flying saucer we saw picking him up, it was headed for the city."

Billy flicked his eyes back to Gaz alert in realisation. "Membrane labs."

Mandy made her way over towards him as he held the slightly mad girl at bay, not willing to turn his back on her. Gaz snarled at them again.

"You can't do this." She pressured, her curled fists tightening against the strain of having to watch what she did with the gun still trained on her. Releasing her somewhat Billy held the gun up away from her as they prepared to depart.

"You do anything to warn him that we're coming, and we'll come back for you." He told her, while she shook her head.

"You killed his clones. He already knows."

* * *

The two hundred and ten metre tall Membrane Labs building, built on the site of the original two years ago, was modelled on what the designers of the Atomic Age believed the future would look like. It was a simple four sided white concrete tower with a nosecone-like peak, yet carried elements of design from both past and present outside and in. Originally designed to be a centre for research into fusion energy, pharmaceuticals and weapons, after Dib took over his father's dream this shifted primarily to the latter.

Throughout both the upper and lower levels various laboratories were dedicated to the design, testing and manufacture of new forms of nerve agents, viruses, more efficient delivery and dispersal systems, as well as conventional ammunition. These all became in vogue since President Johnson came to power, and an exclusive contract had been signed between the two psychopaths on their manufacture. In addition to these atrocities one of the primary revenue raisers was their line of cheaply produced, powerful stimulants, in the form of powders, pills, rocks, injectable serums and cigarettes, all of which were now perfectly legal and marketed with a tax break. The greatest challenge however was keeping up with the demand.

Currently in an auditorium within the centre of the tower roughly fifteen men strode about and chatted amongst themselves, some of them scientists and technicians working at control panels, others representatives from the party gathered to watch the show. Among them a small number of suited waiters walked around carrying platters with lines of Membrane brand cocaine. At the far end of the room locked behind a thick glass window were gathered an additional thirty people, mostly composed of minority groups, but some whites, just because their captors didn't care either way, with ages from five up to seventy. They huddled about each other in fear, looking out at the cold-hearted and sneering faces standing on the other side of the glass.

At the far end of the room an exclusive balcony stood gazing out over the congregation, a small control panel set into the middle of the railing. Standing with his hands clutched behind his back and his eyes gazing down aloof was Dib Membrane. He surveyed those below with the distinct impression that they were ants in an ant farm. Only those with the right properties, those who reflected his own supreme image at least externally, would be allowed to live and serve him in his perfect pure universe. Any who didn't he would dispose of like he was about to do with those behind the glass.

Standing behind him to his right was his meek father Professor Membrane, now little more than a humiliated puppet confined to living in his son's ugly shadow. And to his left stood two wraiths in black cloaks and featureless black executioners' masks, Satanic priests from the Pan Human Network. Every so often one of them would direct its gaze towards him, and he would be left to feel very small and powerless against the black hands of his son.

Dib raised his hand over the congregation and all chatter soon fell silent, everyone looking up to the tall youth in the pristine white garb.

"Gentlemen." He spoke softly with a calm façade. "Thank you all for coming here to witness this, the next great step in our mutual quest to exterminate the plague of degenerate filth that taints our world."

'_My world.'_ Inside he snarled at having to masquerade that he was one of these lowly creatures. They may bear his image and good enough to be his subjects, but they were still wholly inferior in comparison.

"Let me just say again, every one of these subhumans that exist do so in opposition of our superiority. Every one of them that lives is a challenge to our right to the mastery of our universe. And until we have put an end to the very last one of them, we will continue to work towards that end. We will continue to supply you with everything you need to cleanse the world of their kind. With that in mind, I give you our latest product, which can do this…"

Pressing a small square button on his control panel a loud bang rang out from behind the glass. Everyone turned to watch as from the ceiling an evil white vapour began to descend upon the now screaming crowd. Dib smiled with satisfaction as they began to cough and wheeze, banging on the glass for a few short seconds, before the nerve agent went to work. Their fingers curled up and they soon started collapsing, their whole bodies locking up under the constant uncontrolled nerve action. Within less than thirty seconds they had all stopped breathing, and soon the scientists working below began to confirm their hearts were seizing.

"Agent eighteen is as effective as VX on the central nervous system, however unlike all other nerve agents it takes hold almost instantly, is easier to mass produce and stockpile, and can be diluted in simple carbon dioxide vapour for disp-"

He fell silent as he reeled wide-eyed. He felt bullets hammering through a body, falling, and another series of killing blows, all occurring in one moment. His father and the wraiths behind him watched as he hunched forward slightly in shock with concern.

"My son…" Membrane asked tentatively to no response, moving up to him as he breathed hard with his face low.

'_Those two, they killed one of my clones.'_ He realised. What he had felt had been a snapshot of his clone's last moments transmitted telepathically. As he was still stuck in his stupor Membrane placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Dib?"

"_ARURGH!"_ He turned and snapped furiously at his father like a rabid dog, scaring him back into his rightful place behind him. Returning his eyes down he snarled seeing everyone below watching him with curiosity, forcing him to grit his teeth in ever deeper anger. He singled out one of the waiters bearing a platter of cocaine and pointed to him.

"You! Get up here!" He demanded, Stepping back and calming his ire as the man hurried up the nearby stairs to appear atop the platform. Bringing the platter over Dib put a finger over one nostril and took a deep violent snort of the white powder.

Throwing his head back he sniffed his nose clean, taking a few deep calming breaths as the energetic high began to kick in. Rolling his head around he watched with a sudden satisfaction as the little people below began to resume their usual conversation. Already he was feeling better, but not quite good enough. Latching his hand around the waiter's throat he reared his fist back and bought it in on his face with inhuman strength, shattering many of the bones in his head and breaking his neck.

Membrane shuddered as the man's body fell beside him, all the while a now satisfied Dib looked out over the congregation thoughtfully. _'They'll be here soon. Now that I know they've turned against me I can go out and meet them head on.'_

He turned in a lunging action and headed for the elevator door set into the rear wall. Mambrane reached out for him again.

"Son, where are you going?"

"Stay here!" He snapped, then faltered again. Gasping he sensed another round of bullets blasting through flesh and bone, along with the image of neck vertebrae being wrenched and broken. His second clone was dead.

Huffing he strode into the steel elevator car and selected the ground floor. The door shut and the car began to descend, Dib taking another sniff through his nostril, clenching and unclenching his hands as the high continued to grow, bringing with it a feeling of self-inflation and satisfaction. He had largely grown accustomed to the effect of the drug now, but used to excess it still bought on the high he demanded, and right now he had good use for such energy.

Closing his eyes he stilled himself and focussed on his breathing through his mouth. Drawing on the ghastly powers he had derived from his innumerable atrocities he focussed his will and his thoughts, directing the tainted energy through his mind and over to that of his contact in Endsville.

'_Our interests are under attack. I give you full reign to do as you see fit until I contact you again to say otherwise. Purge all targets at will.'_

He opened his eyes as the fowl energy dispersed, his telepathic transmission complete. One way or another this would be an interesting turn of events. Smiling he licked his teeth and gums as he waited impatiently for the car to take him down.

* * *

After a minute of travel the doors opened and Dib strode out into the foyer. Knocking down several people with disregard he threw open the glass front doors and strode hurriedly outside. Stepping out onto the top of the long flight of concrete steps to the footpath he staggered to an abrupt halt with a look of shock.

Billy stood facing him from the base of the stairway below, a large serrated green scythe held over his shoulder, Mandy standing behind him off to the side. He gaped as the feral youth with the orange hair and unnatural green eyes grinned up at him, toying with him, his partner regarding him with a hard objective gaze, while absent-minded pedestrians went about to and fro around them oblivious.

"Oh, you're the real one all right." Billy stated mockingly. "I can just taste the madness and the lies in the air around you. Dib. You reek of arrogance and appalling cruelty. I know just what to do with you." He tightened his hand around the end of the staff.

Dib let out a soft snigger of contempt as his features curved into a smirk. "Hnn hnn hnn hnn hn. So what was your idea coming here? You thought you could use me for information, do a deal behind my back and then come gunning for me? You actually think you had a chance against me?"

"See that's one of the few things I actually like about you Dib, you don't cover up what you are. You're as much of a shit on the outside as you are all the way through. So for that I might kill you quickly, if you behave."

Again Dib only sniggered. "That's okay. I was going to kill you later anyway, and take your girl as my new sex slave. Now thanks to you I get to do it right here!"

Raising his arms out with his palms down he once more began to draw on the supernatural abilities accessible by nature of his supremacy. Casting his attention out on the crowd he directed the corrupt energy through his mind, out and into the brains of the fifty plus people within range of his attention. Billy looked left and right with a casual interest as all around them the people stopped and stared out ahead wide-eyed, struck by some unseen force. Dib smiled as he continued to infect their minds with madness.

All across the street the catatonic mob began to grimace and growl mindlessly, and as Dib finished casting his spell they began to turn their heads in the direction of Billy and Mandy.

Billy quickly figured out what Dib was doing and what was going to happen next. Acting quickly he pulled his scythe upright and planted the base down onto the footpath, the blade emitting a familiar thick purple haze that condensed on the ground around them. Mandy raised an eyebrow as a dozen furious monkeys formed and immediately began screaming and thrashing, concerned it may not have been the wisest choice to summon them so close.

Both mindless diseased creatures screamed and attacked each other, the madness infected citizens converging in from all around as the monkeys launched outwards. Observing the first few seconds Billy and Mandy watched as their own small force took on the horde, forming a thrashing front line in a semicircle around them ten metres wide, while a few jumped up and out into the mass of mindless humans, others screaming and running around without a target. Dib meanwhile saw that while their frenzied group was far stronger than his, they were less directed, and vastly outnumbered. Within ten seconds a quarter of the purple monsters had exploded into dust. At this rate he would win by attrition.

"Billy this isn't gonna work." Mandy called out over the fray as from around the edge of the semicircle front three of the screaming lunatics came running, each covered in blood. Billy cut them each down diagonally, noticing the third one was already missing both arms. Turning the scythe down he formed a small portal, and immediately a dozen spiders near his size raced out and congregated around him as the portal closed.

"Keep the zombies at bay while we deal with him." He pointed to Dib atop the steps. "Keep away from the monkeys until they're all dead. Go!"

Immediately they fanned out around the two, keeping behind the front as one after another the last few furious monkeys were annihilated. Immediately after they went on the attack, their better training and coordination allowing them to form a solid front against the frenzied horde, hacking away at them with their front legs and pincers. Out of the carnage a lone survivor of the earlier group burst through in a shower of blood, howling madly as it raced two and fro across the steps, thrashing its hands so hard that it eventually reached across and tore its left arm off. Pausing it saw Dib standing above, and in moments it was screaming and barrelling up the steps for him, waving its severed arm around like a flail.

Billy saw this and frowned; nothing could be allowed to get in the way of his match against Dib. Reaching around he pulled his Tokarev out of the back of his jeans, took aim with one hand and fired. Dib Recoiled back as the monkey exploded into purple smoke just metres from him. Looking back he saw his opponent below with the gun in his right hand trained on him and the scythe held lazily in his left, a low smirk on his face as around them the spiders proceeded to annihilate his horde, leaving the street bathed in blood and body parts as they fanned out.

Dib gritted his teeth and snarled, furious that he had so easily denied his edict to destroy them. Billy meanwhile only continued to smile as he lowered the gun and watched him shake with rage. It had been so easy to rile up the overly proud narcissist, and he hasn't so much as lifted a finger against him yet.

From the base of the building behind Dib Professor Membrane emerged through the front doors at a stride, accompanied by several party representatives. He stopped behind him, watching with concern as he shook and shuddered with fury.

"Dib."

Instantly the unstable youth's head twitched right at the sound like a predator sensing a wounded animal. Billy and Mandy gazed upon the display with interest as Dib's father edged forward hesitantly.

"Son… Are you alright?"

"_GET BACK INSIDE FEEBLE OLD FUCK, OR I'LL EAT YOU TOO!"_

Dib whirled around with an awful visage on his face as he bellowed, before he opened his mouth and vomited out onto the ground. Digging into his coat he drew his P38 he turned back to Billy who raised his own gun in turn and opened fire on each other.

Billy managed to pull the trigger once before he felt something hit him in the chest like a sledgehammer. He gagged and reeled with the shock and the momentary flash of pain that almost made him laugh, before he took aim again and fired, as yet another and another debilitating blow fell upon his body. Mandy gaped at him with worry and uncertainty as Dib's bullets blew through him, three and four striking him as the other four missed.

Atop the stairs the story was similar. Dib's face twisted in agony and rage as each of the smaller faster bullets ripped through his body, shuddering with each hit as he continued to fire back furiously. In his haste to attack he was having less success at aiming than his counterpart, who with greater patience managed to hit home through his body with all seven bullets.

By the end of the first round both had emptied their old handguns, and were both sagging with massive damage from the other's bullets. Mandy looked to Billy concerned as Membrane did the same to Dib. She didn't know the extent to which he had a regenerative factor, or if he had one at all. She had seen him manipulate his body to the point of liquefying and back, but the gaping exit wounds in his back told a different story.

Yet Billy let out a pained groan and inched his body upright again, and soon his groan had turned into an amused chuckle. The holes blown in his vital organs stitched their way closed, causing him to grit his teeth against the still intense ache as the bloody holes disappeared, leaving him to face Dib again whole. He looked back just in time to see him doing the same, and saw that as part of his nature as a replicant he had been imbued with a similar rapid healing ability as he possessed. He watched as his opponent grimaced against the pain, holding a hand to his chest as the wounds closed, only for him to look down and see that his white suit had been perforated and stained with blood, all the while Billy reloaded his weapon.

It occurred to him that while he didn't have any real indication of how much punishment Dib could recover from, he already had an indication from the tense feeling inside his own body that his was limited. He would have to change tactics.

Dib snarled back at him. "My suit! HOW DARE YOU!"

Reaching around he secured another magazine for his Walther as Billy smiled with glee and waited for him to reload. As soon as Dib took aim down at him again Billy launched to the right up the steps, narrowly evading the first bullet. Dib growled and tried to shoot ahead of him, but Billy saw it coming, and the moment he pulled the trigger Billy changed course left, bringing his own gun up to fire back.

Dib recoiled as the bullet just missed him, sailing past his left ear to go through the glass door behind him, spurring him to move. Ducking he sprang back right, mimicking Billy's movements in time to avoid another bullet, all the while he continued trying to target his opponent now darting back and forth mid way up the steps with superhuman agility.

Honing his senses Billy kept watch on where Dib was aiming as he ducked and weaved closer, but it was a challenge, barely able to escape the next bullet as it ripped through the air were he used to be a mere instant ago. Taking aim at Dib while dodging his fire was proving to be considerably more difficult, and after expelling half his magazine he had struck and killed two party members behind him and driven Membrane and the rest back inside the shattered glass entrance, without a single hit to his enemy. But he was closing in, and Dib was firing off more than he was.

He jumped the final distance. Dib raised his gaze to take aim now that he couldn't manoeuvre, but the sun caught in his glasses, just as Billy had hoped for. Closing his eyes he fired, the bullet passing nowhere near Billy as he fell, a victorious grin on his face as he reached out with his foot and connected with Dib's collar, bringing him crashing to the ground on his back.

Dib grimaced as his head struck the pavement, opening his eyes to see a towering Billy with his gun pointed at his body. Fear struck he raised his hand and fired, only to see the slide locked to the rear empty. Billy's smile spread as he pulled the trigger on his last bullet, drilling into his liver causing him to cry out and writhe in pain beneath his foot.

"Damn Dib, for how much you gloated about being the peak of humanity I wouldn't have thought your limit was even smaller than mine." Billy lamented as he ejected the magazine and reached around to his back pocket for a third, all the while Dib tried to curl up on his side against the foot pinning him on his back. Looking at the wound he saw the his body trying to close the hole but stalling after only limited progress, another bloody patch forming on his suit.

"… _Damn you… Damn you..."_ Dib could only groan out as Billy bought the new magazine in and chambered a new round. _"You have no right…"_

"Oh shut up. Do the world a favour and go quietly." At last he removed his foot off him and stepped back as he took aim lazily at his head. He was preparing to pull the trigger when Dib lifted his head up to glower with hate at him.

"_How dare you do this to me. You've got no right,_ no right to treat me like this!"

Billy faltered in firing as Dib began to curl over on his side, lowering his face as he pushed himself up on his hands.

"You can't do this to me, because unlike insignificant, unimportant you, I am Dib Membrane, superior to all life forms, commander of the powers of Lord Satan, of Cthulhu, and of the Black Sun, and the sole rightful master of the universe. I am a being far above your level of worthlessness. How dare you presume you can kill me! I eat and rape and bathe in the blood of people like you three times a day!" He growled and spat in conceit. Billy raised an eyebrow with intrigue as the force in Dib's words grew, and an oppressive energy began to vibrate out from the stricken figure. Putting his hand against the wound Dib drew it back to examine the wound as it closed fully.

"From my patronage towards my deities, and the people I have raped and eaten, I have amassed powers unimaginable to your feeble mind!" A mad smile began to twist across his features as the sick energy radiating around him grew immensely, causing Billy to grimace and step back warily as the air around Dib began to ripple.

Pushing up off the ground Dib let out a sickly roar and a wave of energy that forced Billy back further. Cackling with an appalling rasp in his throat he raised his arms with glory as he lifted off the ground and began to float on his own cancerous energy. Billy tracked him with his gaze as he floated like a ghost around him, waving his arms and legs about like tentacles. His face had turned grey and gnarled like a corrupt old wizard, with claw-like hands and misshapen teeth, and his eyes had turned white like a corpse.

"**Behold my supremacy and praise me!"**

Opening his mouth he vomited again down the front of his suit, moving out over the street. Billy smiled, this would be a greater opportunity to test himself than he first thought.

He raised the gun and fired again, watching as the bullets blew bloody clouds as they exited his body, only for him to keep laughing as the holes closed instantly, even after four shots had blown through him.

Seeing his gun was to no effect he saved the remaining bullets, ducking down to draw six long vines from his back, each tipped with a maw full of serrated teeth. Bracing his legs he hurled them up at him with mouths open wide and ready. Dib grinned and viciously swiped at them as they closed in, latching onto all six at the throat with his inhuman strength. Unable to pull loose Billy tried whirling him around in a circle, only for Dib to resist their pull easily, tearing them off with his other hand. The decapitated coils gave off a spurt of dark purple-green fibres which he quickly swiped clear, tossing aside the broken heads.

As soon as his vision cleared he saw the remains of Billy's coils retracting back, revealing the scythe held up with the blade pointed squarely at him. He barely had time to decide wether to feel contempt or alarm before a flash of bright green energy lanced out and struck him.

"**AHAAOH!"** Billy smirked as the bolt hit him like a freight train and knocked him sailing down to the ground, striking the footpath on the opposite side of the road.

Mandy observed his wounded form struggling to push himself up with calculating as her partner strode down the steps behind her. She had no doubt Dib had more firepower to bring to bear yet. This battle was still heating up, soon it would be dangerous to anyone within a city block. She turned her attention to scanning the street around her, observing that Velma's troops had done a thorough job of eradicating the crazed sociopaths from earlier, still on guard across a wide arc for further attacks.

"Spiders." She announced, drawing their attention. "This is about to get too dangerous to be near. Time for you to go."

Each of the dozen large spiders looked to her with doubt, knowing she did not have expressed authority over them. They soon turned to Billy as he walked up to stand beside her.

"You heard her, time to go. Thank you." He raised his scythe and formed a portal in the air. Around them the soldiers nodded and floated up to return to their realm, knowing now to accept commands from their master's mate as well.

Raising his scythe at the stricken figure Billy carefully approached as Dib struggled and hunched pitifully. Catching him by surprise Dib sprung up again with a strangled battle cry and struck at them both with a blast of air that knocked them back a step. Billy watched with amusement and disgust as Dib began to dance in the air like a perverse court jester, hissing and grunting with laughter, all the while a twisting blanket of heavy grey clouds formed across the sky above them. A cold wind picked up around them, and the clouds began to flash with lightning, driven by Dib's ego high and malignant intent for the two and all who were unfortunate to be within a few miles of them.

"**You Jews! You niggers! Behold your master's power now, and perish under my divine wrath! AHAAHAHAHA! **_Blooooooooork!_** AAAHAHAHA!"**

Vomiting over himself again he held his arms out and cast his eyes to the storm above him, rising swiftly up above the streets on his powers, until Billy and Mandy and anyone in the neighbouring streets strained their necks to watch him ascend. Floating up above the buildings he rose until he was high above the city centre, looking down on it with twisted glee.

Summoning all his incredible might he spread his concentration out over and below the ground beneath the city, calling on his mastery of the earth from countless black masses.

"**Witness my power and worship my greatness!"**

Lowering his arms he closed his eyes and held out his palms like he was holding the very crust beneath him. Directing the sick forces inside his body into the earth below he sneered with a mouthful of crooked teeth and opened his eyes to watch what he was about to do.

Slowly he lowered his palms, his smile growing as below a deep rumble rang out from within the belly of the planet. He could hear car alarms going off, hundreds of glass windows breaking up and down buildings, and screams of thousands of terrified people. Slowly a circle of land nearly two miles across bearing the majority of the downtown sector began to subside. The streets cracked and broke apart, and the skyscrapers began to tip in towards each other, with Membrane Labs in the centre. Second by second the screams reached their peak, turning into a piercing collective shriek as the ground fell into a pit.

Watching the ground collapse inwards as per his hands' guidance to the desired depth Dib suddenly reversed his palms downward movement, pushing up from deep underneath.

Like an underground atomic blast the enormous depression violently reversed, and a circular shockwave exploded up from the centre, spreading out in a flash to the outer edge of the depression. As the dust rose up above the streets the buildings fell as one, some toppling over on their side, others collapsing in a mass of debris. The Membrane Labs building broke apart and caved in, crushing and burying everything inside and below. A reverberating rumble rose from the massive heap of rubble from more than fifty skyscrapers, while the sound of people's screams had fallen silent.

But even then Dib wasn't finished. Grinning madly he turned his hands over with his palms down and fingers outstretched, drawing on his other elemental talent to continue the destruction. Stirring his force into the air around the disaster he pulled up with his hands, and a surge of blistering heat assaulted him from below as an enormous firestorm exploded up from the rubble.

Floating above the carnage with the thunder and lightning of the storm above him he marvelled at the magnificent atrocity he had created. The millions of tons of debris from the city, combined with the broken earth beneath that, had crushed and annihilated the two insects that had attacked him, along with his wretched father, and thousands of other worthless lives. And any who happened to survive amidst the rubble were being incinerated, or suffocated as the oxygen was drawn out of the air by the fire.

"**Hnn hnn… HAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHA"**

He smiled and laughed madly at the sky, thrashing his head about, projectile vomiting up and plastering over his face and down his front from the corrupting force of the energies inside him.

"**AHAHA-"**

"Di-iiib…"

He froze with his eyes bulging. _'That voice; impossible! How could he still be alive?'_

Looking around behind him he saw Billy floating nearby with his scythe held lazily at his side. He gave him a slightly arrogant smile, watching as a few drops of vomit dripped from Dib's chin. Floating off to the side watching with her frosty onyx eyes was Mandy, sitting on top of her own angular red scythe, watching the two silently. Dib gazed bug-eyed over Billy. Aside from the holes and blood in his shirt from the bullets he was in perfect condition. His attacks had done no damage to him at all!

"Little hasty don't you think?" He posed to him, before his smile darkened and he looked at him with predatory intent. "Now that's more like it. That's what I expected from you given the shit you say and the things you've done to people. You had me worried there earlier when you went down like a little bitch, but now that I've seen what you can do now I don't have to hold back, and we can have some fun!" He grinned viciously and curled both hands around the scythe.

Snarling Dib reached out and cast a gout of flame at him. Billy easily sidestepped it to the right, still grinning at him. Screaming with rage Dib flew at him with his fist reared back. Closing in he swung to smash his face in, only for him to easily move aside. He tried again, and again, and Billy continued to utilise his agility to dodge the blows. Dib made for a second round of blows, but found his arm batted aside by the back of Billy's hand. His ugly pale eyes widened, he had put all his inhuman strength into his blows, and he had diverted it easily. He bought his fists in again, and the effect was the same, Billy blocking and stopping every blow.

In addition to his agility and natural reflexes Billy remembered a few choice bits left over from when he and Mandy practiced karate against each other. Dib meanwhile didn't even have the ability to think straight, or an ounce of martial training, and so couldn't bring his strength to bear.

Dib punched again, and this time Billy locked his hand down on it, locking him in place so he could bring his fist in and punch him across the face that made him gasp and reel, bringing his leg up and deliver a debilitating kick to the bottom of his ribs. Dib gagged as he flew back, dropping out of the sky for a second before he could recover back to his previous position wheezing with the shock. As soon as he turned back to Billy he saw him coming at him with his leg outstretched, before his foot again connected with his face.

Billy smirked as Dib went sailing end over end, holding his face in pain as he swayed unstably in mid air, eagerly awaiting his next attack. Mandy meanwhile was puzzled.

'_He's hitting him with nothing like what he used on us before. Is he holding back, or conserving his energy? No, he's too unstable mentally to do that.'_ It occurred to her that the lightning had ceased and the storm above them was slowly losing power.

"Come on Dib, you owe me better than that!" Billy taunted as the twisted creature looked back at him silent, eyes wide and teeth jarred together with tension. "Stop wasting time! I had to sit locked up in your room with you while you poured your hate all over me, I want my challenge! I want to have to exert myself, and work and fight for the right to kill you! So hurry up and come at me like you mean it!"

"**FUCK YOU! YOU DON'T MAKE DEMANDS TO ME YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE SHIT!"** Dib grated back though did nothing.

"Then come and teach me a lesson! What are you afraid of me? Hurry up and fight! Don't you hear what I'm saying to you, I insulted your pride! SO HURRY UP AND ATTACK ME! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? HURRY UP! DO SOMETHING!"

Dib's hands trembled as Billy openly vented his impatience and his lust for a good hard fight, yet he made no outward movement against him whatsoever.

As the anticipation grew to the point of almost driving away the remaining half of his sanity Billy finally rejoiced inside when Dib raised his arm to call out with his magic.

"**OMEGA ONE!"** He howled out. **"COME TO ME! OMEGA ONE!"**

Almost immediately a familiar metallic thunder occurred over them, and out of the clouds behind Dib descended the silver flying saucer they had seen before. Dib turned away from them as he looked up into the central hub of the occult creation, and a familiar flash of green light occurred. Billy squinted momentarily and saw as Dib vanished up into the machine, watching on dumbstruck as it moved around the two to continue away from them back towards the suburbs, disappearing up into the cloud cover to conceal itself once again on its way.

Billy looked mute at where he had last seen it before being obscured by the clouds. Unable to quite grasp what he thought had just occurred he turned to face Mandy as she looked to him.

"… Did he just run away?" Mandy looked at him silent. He narrowed his eyes slightly and cocked his head. "What is it?"

She looked away still with the activity of quiet contemplation in her eyes. "I don't know." She looked back to where the saucer was headed, back to Dib's house. "Let's go find out."

* * *

The interior of the Omega One was a simple rounded capsule of smooth steel, set on a rotating mount separate from the steel and titanium body around it. The inside was dimly lit with numerous monitors giving off a blue glow, and at only four metres across and high it was designed only for one person. Outside the cockpit the primary mechanism which gave the saucer its rounded shape was a thin ring shaped reactor vessel, responsible for creating the physical energy that was then converted to supernatural, and used to float the ship and power its shields.

In the central axis of the disc Dib sat with his legs crossed and his fingertips pressed against each other. Breathing deeply he calmed himself, removing the sense of tension and anxiety he had felt earlier and replacing it with relaxed optimism, as he gritted his teeth against the cramping feeling of his body reverting back to its natural non-perverted state. He had this perfectly under control. The original encounter may not have gone in his favour but that was of no concern. One way or another it always worked out for him. He never lost; it just wasn't in his nature as the superior being.

The tide may have gone badly for him on that one occasion, but that was just one battle in his greater war. Now he was using his greater foresight to withdraw, bringing the balance of power firmly back in its rightful place in his hands. A feeling of giddy confidence and assurance in his own ability to handle the situation welled up in his mind, and he found himself smiling contentedly.

'_I'll perform another ceremony to satisfy my backers again, and they'll lend me the proper power that I need to slaughter that boy and take his bitch.' _ He nodded to himself seeing everything planned out easily before him. _'The loss of dad and the tower will be a setback in my plans to rid this world of filth and take my place as emperor, but both can be replaced easily enough. I have all the time in the world which I can use to build up my own powers in preparation, right after I take care of these two insects.'_

He placed his fingers against his lips thoughtfully. _'Why didn't my backers give me enough power originally? They serve me, they should be providing me with all the power I demand not what they think is appropriate. But the hell with those ungrateful wretches, I don't need them. It's my power, I say what I can and can't do with it. I can destroy one city, I can destroy a hundred. I could destroy the whole planet if I wanted to.'_

Relaxing in his plush black leather seat he looked to the monitors and saw he had almost arrived, his house coming into view below. Smiling he stood up as the craft around him came to a halt above the ground, and as per his will the saucer beamed him down.

When the light faded he saw he was standing in the middle of his street, the Omega One hovering quietly above him. Looking back towards where the city centre once was he saw the orange glow of the enormous fire and the smoke rising and drifting away, while the twisting storm cell that had formed above him now turned a light grey and began to drift apart now that his corrupt presence no longer provided the necessary influence to sustain it. Billy and Mandy wouldn't be here until after he had recharged himself with the dark mystic forces of his demons and the Black Sun.

Smiling and sighing with content he was about to turn and go inside his house when a tremendous green flash of energy seemed to erupt in the air somewhere nearby, and above him his prized flying saucer exploded in a massive ball of flame that hammered him against the ground.

With his hands over his head he slowly recovered, pushing himself shakily to his feet where he looked up and saw that where the craft had once been now a churning ball of ethereal orange and green flames rose, with sparse few pieces of debris left to rain down around him. Such was the destructive power behind the bolt of energy that it had almost completely vaporised it whole.

"Going some where, big man?"

Dib's sphincter clenched.

His mouth gaped like a fish as he turned towards his front door, seeing the awful mocking predatory sneer of that awful psychotic little demon spawn Billy, his scythe held in his hands with a thin trail of smoke rising from the hellish blade. He drilled into him with mad ferocity now mixed with his growing frustration, all the while Dib stood rooted to the spot in shock.

"… Haah… Haah-aah… How?" He stammered looking left and right, seeing in addition to the Porsche they had apparently arrived in the body of one of his clones lying beside where Billy stood, and another over by the garage. He received a further start when in the yard off to Billy's side a swirling vortex opened and Mandy stepped out, brandishing her scythe by her side.

"What do you mean how? You can do it yourself can't you?" Billy prodded at him again as he circled around the left side of the house, stepping out towards the street to face him again. "After all with how much you talked about how powerful you were and how you were the supreme being surely you can do the same?"

Dib eyed him up hesitantly as he stood facing him in the centre of the street.

In one of the second floor bedroom windows the shades parted slightly at one end, and Gaz watched on silent and tense. She gritted her teeth anxiously.

'_No, they can't kill him! If they kill him now I'll never…'_ But she had no other option. She wasn't able to do anything but watch. Moving from the window she made her way out of her room and down the stairs.

Outside Billy now lowered his face as he threatened him with his toxic green eyes.

"I've had enough of your bullshit Dib. Now listen carefully you pretentious prick. In a few moments I'm gonna attack you with Berserker." He flexed his fingers around the shaft drawing Dib's gaze. "I am going to come at you with everything I've got. If you want to live you are going to have to fight back and win. If you loose, I am going to torture and mutilate you, before I give you the mercy of dying. I'm going to make you suffer like you made your victims suffer, and the only way you can escape is if you fight back."

"OH FUCK YOU! I DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS SHIT FROM SHIT LIKE YOU! YOU'RE NOTHING COMPARED TO ME! I'M PERFECT!" Dib leaned forward and shouted at him like a cornered rat, screwing his face up in an ugly mask. Clenching his fists he stomped up and down like a tantruming child.

"HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT ME LIKE THIS! I AM DIB MEMBRANE I AM A LIVING GOD! I AM THE ONE TRUE GOD! ALL OTHER GODS ARE VERMIN COMPARED TO ME, THEY SHOULD BE GRATEFUL I LET THEM SERVE ME! I'M GONNA EAT YOU! I'M GONNA EAT YOU AFTER I RAPE YOUR WHORE IN FRONT OF YOU, THEN I'M GONNA EAT YOU, THEN I'M GONNA RAPE HER AGAIN! AND WHEN YOU'RE DEAD AND SHE'S MY WORTHLESS SEX SLAVE YOU'LL BURN IN HELL FOR NOT WORSHIPPING MY PERFECTION!"

Billy though only sniggered at his outburst, watching on as once again he opened his mouth to vomit out violently in his direction, only serving to cover himself with it even more. Mandy looked to her side as she heard the front door open, and saw Gaz step out hesitantly, looking back at her warily before both returning their attention to the front.

"Then prove it. If you really are a god then smite me. Go on, I dare you."

Dib's puke covered face huffed and flushed red with fury, his hands shaking with anxiety, before he finally screamed, and pulled has palms up from underneath to cause another earthquake right where they stood.

"HAAAAAAAA-"

Nothing happened.

His eyes went wide as he looked to the ground, seeing that not even a single crack or tremor had broken forth from his will. Looking up to Billy as he raised an eyebrow with confusion he screamed again, pushing his hands forward to incinerate him with a blast of fire.

"EAAaaahhhh."

Again nothing happened.

He shook his head, raising his hands to desperately try and figure out what was wrong. He tried conjuring all his mighty powers, but nothing stirred inside of him.

"Oh… Hooohhh… No!"

Billy gaped at him, stepping forward with a look of outrage. "That's it? After all you've said and done that's all you had!"

"NO!" Dib cried and looked up at him frantic.

"All those powers of yours that made you so perfect, it was never your power in the first place. You got all your powers from the demons you worshipped!" Billy realised. "And now that you've insulted them they're cutting you off! Now you've got nothing of your own!"

"That's not even it." Mandy cut in as Billy and Dib both turned to her. "I saw after your big attack that destroyed the city you were a lot weaker, and a lot less sure of yourself. You had to run away back here because you were almost out of power as it was." She faced Dib with a cold dark scowl. "You were never anything special or powerful to begin with were you?"

Billy looked at him in ever deeper outrage. "What the hell was all that about you being a god then? All those things you did to people cause of how great and powerful you were, and all along you were just a one trick show? You motherfucker!"

"Ooh! Oo-hooh!"

He advanced on Dib with his scythe raised. "Hold still rapist."

"_AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"_

Dib squealed like a bitch and ran back away from him in terror, screaming and flailing his arms, only for Billy's coils to latch onto his ankles and pull him down. Squealing and thrashing with tears pouring out his eyes Dib struggled all the way back as the coils retracted, dragging him to Billy's feet. Looking upon him with abhorrence as they detached Billy struck him in the side with the staff, batting him over across the pavement and causing him to cry out and whine. Stepping over again as he crawled on all fours he reached down and seized him by his throat to begin hauling him up.

"NOOOOOO! IT'S NOT MY FAAAAAUULT! IT'S NOT MY FA-HAULT!" Dib howled with his hands held together begging and his face covered in tears and vomit, and spied Gaz watching from afar. Instantly he pointed squarely at her, his hand and finger shaking uncontrollably. "IT'S ALL GAZ'S FAULT! _She made me do it!"_

"Oh? So all those people you tortured, cut up, killed and ate, and all those little girls you defiled, I suppose they all made you do it too?" Billy posed angrily.

"_Yeeees…"_ Dib was so overcome by cowardice he could only squeak and nod his head feebly, trying his hardest to look as pathetic and worthless as possible so that they may extend him their pity. Billy however looked on him with open hate and disgust.

"You shit. Mandy, guard him for a moment."

Turning around as Mandy levelled Judgement at the cowering figure Billy moved several paces down the street away from Dib, before kneeling down with Berserker laid across his thighs. He cleared his mind and bowed his head in respect and humility, while Dib, Mandy and Gaz watched.

"To all the souls who were raped, tortured, murdered, or otherwise harmed by this man Dib Membrane… I beg of you, please lend me your suffering, so that he may finally see justice done."

Almost without hesitation the sky opened in a wide rift above them. Looking up they saw as the faint glowing spectres of thousands of souls and memories and emotions poured out of the opening, all making their way down towards the kneeling figure with the scythe. Quietly Billy raised the blade gently, allowing them access to it as by the dozens they poured into it, forming an immense stream of consciousness that flooded in from the sky, until the opening closed after a few seconds, and the last soul disappeared into the blade.

The effect was tremendous. Billy's scythe now held a ghostly blue halo around its green surface. It felt heavy, and it prickled at his palm and fingers where he held it.

Setting himself he turned back to Dib with a merciless glower as Mandy stepped aside, Dib looking up at him wide-eyed and cowering.

"This is called responsibility Dib." He explained to the terrified wretch. "Everything you ever did to hurt another human being, every ounce of the pain and horror they suffered so you could feel big, is now in here. I am now going to take all the pain they felt, and funnel it all into your brain. You will feel every bit of what they felt because of you. Now if you are worth the lightest bit of the overwhelming pride you carry yourself with, then you will stand and take it, like a man."

"NOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOO!"

Billy deadpanned as Dib screamed and wailed, shaking his head mindlessly to try and escape what he had done. He shrugged and levelled the scythe at his head.

"Either way."

A burst of blue light erupted, and the souls that had inhabited the scythe poured out and flooded him mind. Dib's face froze in a state of shock as the flood continued for several long seconds, before finally falling silent.

"… HAH… HA_AAAAAAAAAAH!"_

Dib clutched the sides of his head in agony as he shrieked. Billy and Mandy watched as he shook and shuddered, holding his head with the splitting pain of the collective atrocity he had committed, now come back to him.

As the pressure built in his brain and head his nasal cavity ruptured and started to pour thick warm blood down his vomit covered face and front. His ear drums tore out and started to drip red down onto his shoulders as he thrashed and shook as the seconds passed. The vessels in his eyes swelled and burst, his whites filling with blood.

And still the force acting on the inside of his skull grew. Sitting up he shrieked and shrieked as his bloody eyes bulged, and finally burst, pouring blood and jelly out onto the ground in front of him.

After over a minute of mindless screaming agony Dib fell silent. Letting go of his head he shakily stood and staggered back, blind and slowly dying. From the outside several cracks could be heard as the vertebrae in his skull broke apart, and his cranium began to swell up. Slowly at first the surface distended and bulged, the skin starting to stretch out as the plates moved apart under the enormous pressure of his swelling brain. Moment by moment they watched on as his bloody head grew and grew, until at the last moment he regained some sort of clarity. He opened his mouth as his brain ballooned outwards immensely.

"_AAAH!"_

'_BOOOOM!'_

Billy opened his arms and rejoiced as Dib's head exploded and he was plastered with chunks of grey brain matter, while more pieces of brain, bone, blood and hair flew up high all around to rain back down on them. Mandy watched Billy with the same reserve and raised her scythe to form a small force field above her head like an umbrella to shield herself from the gore falling down on her.

"Only in America."

Billy lowered his arms and head as the bloody rain ceased. He looked down on Dib's corpse lying forward, his spine sticking out of his disintegrated throat. His tongue was lying just in front of him. Smirking he reached out with his foot and gave it a kick, sending it back towards his body.

He slung the scythe over his shoulder casually and turned to Mandy as she strode out towards him and the car. Mandy watched him as he stepped over the gore strewn on the ground, completely carefree despite being covered from head to toe.

"No lover of mine is getting in the care like that." She spoke sternly. Billy smirked and bowed his face slightly.

"Yes love." Raising his scythe he cleaned off every drop of gore on his skin and in his clothes, focussing attention on closing the holes in his shirt. Mandy observed and nodded.

"Perfect. Let's go."

"You're not going anywhere."

The two paused, turning back to the front door at the low, very angry voice. Gaz stood just outside the doorway, staring them down with hard venom. The first Dib clone's gun lay in her hand pointed at them. The two looked upon her with a sense of trepidation, having known about her hateful nature, even if she didn't posses any of their powers. Gaz was still very much an unknown factor. How would she react to them killing her brother, even if she did say she hated him?

"Girl you just be glad we left you alive." Billy spoke to her from the car as she continued to glare at the two of them. "Your brother was a bad guy who deserved what-"

"Shut it dumbass! I already know that!" Gaz spat out in a fury. Billy looked at her in wonder before Mandy moved towards her on the footpath to the door. Gaz gave her a withering glare as she stood there unmoving, looking upon her with the same contempt she held for Dib.

"What is it?"

"Who do you think you are?" Gaz asked with moral outrage strangely placed in someone so irrational.

"What the hell does it matter who I think I am?" Mandy retorted. "You know he deserved what he got. It's nothing personal, it just had to be done."

"I told you not to kill him! I warned you, but you did it anyway! Now he's dead and gone because of you!" She snapped back ever on the offence. Mandy now began to question her reason as to why she was so angry over her brother's death.

"So why do you care so much? Why didn't you want us to kill Dib even though you hated him? Why go to all the trouble of trying to protect him?"

"CAUSE I WAS THE ONE WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO KILL HIM!" Gaz screamed in anger raising the gun and her fist in the air. Mandy's eyes widened with the understanding, but as the intensity of her rage only grew she began to suspect there was still something she wasn't seeing. "I'd been waiting years for the chance to kill him, watching for any opening and preparing myself on how to do it. I devoted my entire life to getting him to let his guard down around me and finding out his weaknesses, and then before I can make my move, you come in out of nowhere and kill him yourself! NOW I'LL NEVER GET THE CHANCE BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"You saw what just happened to him. You know it's still going on; he's still in agony right now in hell. You can't tell me you would have been able to make him suffer any worse than that." Mandy stated though from the sheer manic distress in Gaz's eyes it was clear that wasn't it. "I still don't get it. It took Billy threatening to torture and kill you for you to even tell us where he was, and you're still furious even after we made his brain explode from the force of his own atrocities. Why is killing him yourself such a big deal to you?"

At this Gaz's rage and frustration became eclipsed by an anguish that made her face twist with grief and her eyes fill with tears before them.

"_He raped me."_

Mandy's eyes widened as she drew a breath of shock. Of all the things Dib could have done to her he did the worst thing imaginable. She had seen something had disturbed her, but never had she though _her own brother_ would do something so awful and so permanent as to defile his own little sister, even as depraved as he was. Billy gazed in on the broken girl with the same dismay as she. Gaz lowered her head in sorrow as two streaks of tears ran down her face.

"You can't imagine what it was like, to have to live in the same house as that… that _monster._ I had to live with him constantly watching over my shoulder, waiting for me to slip up and show dissent, every day. I had to worship him like a god. I had to learn to fall in love with him, and believe whatever he wanted me to believe. And he still beat and raped me, every week he did it, sometimes more. His other victims all died once he was finished with them, but I lived, to suffer these things again, and again, and again." Gaz lamented quietly, pouring out all the horror and unmendable wounds that had been done to her for the past few years. Bringing a hand up she wiped away her tears.

"I waited so long just to get one chance to take my life, my dignity back from him." She raised her wet red eyes to scowl hatefully at Mandy again. "And you took that away from me."

Gaz tightened her hold on the gun setting Mandy on alert again. She eyed the gun and her, seeing the unrestrained hostility and hatred rising steadily again inside her head.

"Now you and your _boyfriend_ have left me with a problem. I have to find another way of reaffirming my pride." She explained with disgust for the bond they shared. "I have to stamp my existence back on this pathetic world somehow. You were the ones that killed him. You're more powerful than him. So I'm gonna kill you two instead, starting with you."

"Gaz, you're making a mistake. You weren't the only one to suffer at Dib's hands."

"But I was the only one who didn't deserve it!" She screeched furiously. "As far as I care those so-called people deserved what they got from him! You scum, you all think you can do whatever you like, and blame everyone else for the shit you've done! You deserve to suffer the same fate as him!"

"What are you talking about, like we were just as bad as… What?" Mandy retorted baffled. "You talk like we and everyone else are just as bad as the lowest common denominator. Don't demonise everyone else just so you can feel morally superior, even if most of these sad people are idiots. Do you even know me at all? We're more alike than you know.

"DON'T LIE TO ME! WE ARE NOTHING ALIKE! I'VE FOUGHT ALL MY LIFE AGAINST SHIT LIKE YOU! YOU'RE JUST A STUCK-UP BITCH!"

Both Billy and Mandy shared the same knowing thought; they had said something similar not long ago. Gaz's now reddened face becan to calm down back to stability as she glared through slit eyes at the ever scowling Mandy.

"It was my right to kill Dib, I deserved that revenge, not some depraved neo-Nazi demon scum like you. I will admit though that I do see superficial resemblance between me and you, and that is why, as I said before, I'm gonna kill you fist."

Mandy's oppressive scowl darkened heavily.

"You should listen to me. Forget about your hatred for anything that's not you and go back inside, so that I don't have to do anything criminal." She warned, only for Gaz's anger to deepen.

"You think you can defy me? You think an arrogant, selfish little fucker like you, can say no to MY WILL!" Her hatred flared, blinding her once again to what she was saying, stabbing the gun in her direction. Her eyes bulged in their sockets as her features contorted with all her self-righteous fury. "I WON'T LET YOU PEOPLE WIN AGAIN! GUARDS!"

Mandy watched in silent wonder as in the house behind her at least two dozen small machines that appeared to be made from stuffed animals raced down the stairs and out to their master. They took their positions on either side of the insane girl, fanning out around their target in a semicircle. Mandy and Billy stood staring in fascination as each of the knee and hip high machines took aim at their target with an assortment of tiny arm and shoulder mounted machine guns, energy cannons and miniature rocket launchers. Each of the little guards stared at them with glowing red optic sensors, all awaiting the order to fire, as she stepped back a few feet for room. Of all the wonderful, destructive toys they had ever come across, the Goo Cannon being first and foremost in their minds, these were by far the best things they had ever seen in their lives. Too bad they were serving a self-possessed tyrant, and would all likely be destroyed in a few moments time.

"My father created these for me. Though they were programmed not to attack Dib when he went insane, I was getting close to unlocking the restraints on them when you showed up. Now they're your problem."

Mandy scanned over the small army the half-crazed girl had called. Turning to stare menacingly at her irate foe she visually warned her against her plan. Bringing her left hand in around the staff she willed her blood red blade to begin to flex a fraction of its muscle. Gaz's eyes widened in awe as the vengeful weapon began to glow a soft but deeply powerful ruby. Immediately she could feel the waves of incredible merciless power it exuded. Mandy gripped the blade at the ready as she ordered its power to surface, ready to strike down her enemy and her small army at any moment.

"… That power…" Gaz spoke entranced by the pulsating vibrations of unstable force in the weapon. "Why… is that in your hands?" Mandy sighed inwardly as her foes arrogance and hatred got the better of her, Gaz's face again contorting in hatred and madness. "What made it choose you of all people? You don't deserve power like that! Only I deserve to have that power!"

"Gaz you're not as morally superior as you think you are, you're just a blindly hateful girl who needs to dehumanise everyone around her to make herself feel better by comparison. I don't tolerate that crap." Mandy spoke harshly, tired of this pathetic confrontation with this pathetic girl and her ranting. "Pride comes before the fall. If you don't back down, you're gonna die."

"NO, YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!" She shrieked furiously, bringing her left hand up to take hold of a skull necklace, pulling it up over her head to grasp it in the palm of her hand. Mandy saw the meaning of this; she was ready and needing to kill her regardless of the risk. Around her the machines picked up on it as well, each taking aim with a flurry of red lasers on their target, their guns and missiles locking onto the laser signatures. Mandy looked down to her body, seeing the red dots across her shoulders, breasts and waist, all ready to fire.

She sighed internally, looking up to her enemy, now knowing full well that there was no hope of resolving this peacefully. In a few moments the disturbed girl with her face now twisted with her failing sanity would be dead. A sad fate, but one she had chosen for herself. Though she had hoped for peace, she had absolutely no problem with destroying her and her toy army. Mandy of the Night held no more pity or compassion for this girl, and had absolutely no mercy to offer her or anyone else who made her mistakes.

"This might come as a surprise," Gaz spoke hatefully, "but I'm not an easy person to get along with." She didn't know at the time, but those would be among her last words.

Mandy scowled at the hateful girl. She looked across from her to the blade of her scythe, sensing its power ready to use. Activating that power she willed it to form a discreet shield around her, almost invisible to both her, Billy, Gaz and the machines. Turning to glower mercilessly at her conceited enemy, her irises flashing red for a moment from the power of her weapon and her anger, she responded.

"This might come as a surprise," Mandy spoke coldly," but neither am I."

The dark haired youth growled in rage, raising her fist still curled around the skull to point her finger at Mandy.

"KILL HER!"

Immediately the small army fired. Billy recoiled at the hammering and blasting of the miniature cannons as they each attacked their target, Gaz joining in with three shots from the clone's P38. For an instant he felt fear for his love, while Gaz gave a vicious snarl, before they both noticed the bullets and blasts detonating around her. Gaz narrowed her vision, picking up for the first time the shape of a bubble of crimson energy, highlighted by the explosions that blasted against its surface. She and Billy shielded their faces against the heat of the explosions and the deafening sound of the guns blasting away.

Inside the shield Mandy stood rock still against the bullets and blasts of plasma exploding harmlessly against the outside. Within the hard bubble of energy she was safe from both the heat and the sound of the blasts, insulated so they were nothing above a dull banging. Gaz glared as the shield continued to hold off effortlessly against the hail of fire. Finding the bullets and plasma to be of no effect, she pointed to the ball of blasts and power again.

" SQUADS TWO AND THREE, FIRE MISSILES!" She bellowed over the blasting. A second later a hail of finger sized rockets shot out of their shoulder mounted canisters, streaking towards their target mere metres away.

"_BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"_

She and Billy recoiled against the powerful shockwaves of the explosions. Recovering from the constant sound of detonations and continuous shockwaves she looked to where the missiles continued to impact. The shield was still visible in amongst the hail of fire and heavy blows from the rockets. For a brief moment she caught a glimpse of Mandy staring dispassionately at her from within the shield, her scythe in hand, and for the first time her breath caught in her mouth.

Mandy stepped forward against the feeble blows of artillery, raising her scythe from within the sphere of energy to take a rough aim at where she thought she could make out a row of machines flanking her to the right. Charging the scythe she ordered it to hold the shield up, before she let loose a beam of searing red energy. The beam struck just behind the line of battle, blowing a hole in the earth before she drew it downwards towards the mechanical ranks. Gaz turned to watch in shock as the red beam burned a line of destruction in the lawn, before it met the machines of squad four below, blowing a number of them to hot molten scrap.

Billy smirked, wishing he had some popcorn as he watched as Mandy began to blast the menacing toys away one by one with beam after blast of power.

'_This is just kickass! They're hitting her with everything they've got, but they can't do nothing to stop her.'_ He thought as she laid waste to the right flank of machines, turning to the left flank as missiles, plasma and bullets continued to detonate against the shield. Gaz snarled, she had intended to save some of her missiles for later, though now they were being destroyed before they could be fired.

"SQUAD ONE AND FOUR, FIRE EVERYTHING NOW!"

Gaz began to feel a growing fear as even as the remains of the flanks let loose a massed barrage, her enemy lazily blew away another quarter of her force, the numbers of her mechanical paramilitary force dwindling lower every few seconds. She watched as the hail of debilitating blows that could pierce the steel frontal armour of a tank didn't even stress the shield, the cold-hearted girl within not even flinching as she blew away two more of her robots.

'_No effect. They're having no effect on her at all! No, I can't loose! Not to these bastards! I can't-'_

Her thoughts were interrupted as she recoiled in shock, a machine exploding beside her, pelting her with shards of hot metal. Looking back she gaped in horror and dismay at the scene of devastation left from her enemy's counterattack. Looking across the small battlefield as the smoke cleared she saw that her small army, in addition to the front lawn, had been destroyed. Across the ruined front yard a network of gouges and ravines cut through the ground, burned into it by Mandy's scythe, the broken and blasted shards of her machines lying strewn around them. Among the remains was Dib's statue, blown to pieces by accident and now unrecognisable. The battle had only lasted about a minute, and in that minute this girl had lazily stood against every blow her machines made, while wiping them out with effortless ease.

Turning back to her foe she saw Mandy return her scythe to her side once more. She gazed over the scene of destruction with a sense of quiet contentment, the smell of the burning metal and rock filling her nostrils as she turned to face her defeated enemy. She scowled at Gaz as she stood rooted in place. She found it slightly surprising that she was looking upon her in terror, her eyes and jaw wide with panic, considering how blindingly hateful she was. This mattered not to her; wether or not she was screaming in fury or cowering in terror was of little consequence to someone not bound by mercy. She looked on with no trace of sympathy as she prepared to finish what her foe had foolishly started.

The stress was unbearable. All her life she'd struggled to stay sane surrounded by hordes of scum. Now though, with her strength coming to naught against a superior foe, who she now realised had not said a single word to taunt or belittle her, what was there left to hold up her superiority?

"You… I… I CAN'T LOOSE TO YOU! NOT AGAIN!" She roared desperately as her delusional world came crashing down. Taking aim she pulled the trigger of the P38, trying desperately to blast her with the remaining five…

"_BANG!"_

Four…

"_BANG!"_

"I'M GAZ MEMBRANE!"

"_BANG!"_

Two…

"_BANG!"_

"I ORDER YOU TO DIE!"

"_BANG!"_

"I ORDER YOU TO…

"_Click!"_

I order you…"

"Click!"

I'm Gaz Membrane, and I… order you… to die."

…

"_Click!"_

Defeated Gaz lowered and dropped the empty gun and stared, gaping in silence as the girl lowered her scythe once more, this time towards her. Her muscles tensed, her body and mind freezing in place completely. Even if she had managed to pull her head together and will herself to run, she still wouldn't have been able to save herself. Billy watched with a certain grim satisfaction at the imminent demise of the mad girl. Preparing for what he expected to come he ordered his own scythe to form a barely visible green shield around his body much like Mandy's. Once his near impenetrable defences were raised, and another put over the car, he simply stood back and watched his cold-hearted partner at work.

Mandy and Gaz locked eyes, two cold onyx orbs boring mercilessly into two terrified brown ones. Gaz could do nothing but watch as Mandy began to press a charge into the blade, the red glow intensifying more and more as the surge grew and its power swelled. She knew now with one hundred percent certainty that this was her end, and with that a sudden, unexplainable clarity came to her. A number of revelations came to her. Had they occurred to her earlier in life she may have grown up to do something good with her life, she could have averted Dib's downfall into madness, but now it was just too late. Even so, at that moment she could not fully explain what it was she had realised that had suddenly made her let go of her hate.

'_Is she right about all those things? Do I really demonise everybody? Was that what I was doing all the time? But wouldn't I remember? Or was I doing it without even thinking about it?'_ She narrowed her eyes in thought. Watching the glow of the scythe intensify ready to extinguish her life another thought occurred to her. _'Why did I hate Dib so much before he ever did anything wrong? Dad was never there for him, I was the only family he had. What must it have done to him? Was I the one who…'_

Mandy noticed her eyes flicker down slightly in troubled thought. She could sense Gaz was troubled by something other than her impending death. Moments later she returned her gaze to her, and showed a new kind of purpose and the return of her own will.

'_So this was why I was so angry at myself.'_

"There's one more like Dib." Gaz stated to her, Mandy raising her head in wonder. "He's in Endsville. I don't know what name he uses now, but he's been watching you for the past few years since he arrived there."

Mandy listened intently, the thought of what this meant weighing heavily on her. Just when they had gotten over Max's betrayal they had to realise there was another one.

"Why are you telling me this? You know it's not gonna save you." Gaz shook her head.

"I know, it's not that. I was the one who pushed Dib to the point of ending up the way he became. I just wanted to do some good with my life, and if I can't myself, then at least you can."

Mandy gaped at her in silence, before recovering her former focus, figuring she had enough charge built up in the blade. Ready to end it she took one final aim at the dark girl. Though Gaz had made peace with her demise, Mandy had taken a subtle change of heart.

She saw the spectre of a smile form on the doomed girl's face. Gaz finally let herself free of her shallow pride as she stared into the eyes of her killer, the skull necklace dropping from her hand. Her last thought flashed through her mind as it clattered to the ground beside her feet.

'_Mandy, someday you'll do what I never could.'_

Mandy fired the narrow beam of red energy. Billy winced against the blinding light that blew out in front of him, while Gaz could do nothing but stare as the brilliant ruby red light consumed her world. The beam went straight through her stomach, closing her eyes as she let it take her.

Second by second she waited, only to feel nothing. Tentatively she opened her eyes as she realised she was still alive, seeing Mandy standing before her calmly with the scythe at her side. She looked to her belly, seeing the beam had in fact gone straight through her without ever touching her physically. Looking around behind her she saw a glowing red portal set into the wall behind her, the real effect of her action.

Mandy watched on as she looked back to her, giving her a gentle nod as Gaz felt the gravity change course, both watching each other as she fell back towards the portal to disappear beyond, along with her one precious possession, her GameSlave Three.

As soon as they had disappeared the portal closed, forming a tiny glowing singularity, which then exploded outwards, vaporising the vast majority of the house with the force of a metric ton of explosives. In an instant the explosion blew away the walls and roof, the shockwave blasting out through the neighbours houses and beyond in a thunderous display of raw might. Mandy and Billy's view instantly became overwhelmed by the mass of radioactive ash and dust that crashed over them, their shields keeping them safe from the dust, heat and the shockwave that washed over the domes and destroyed everything within the vicinity.

As they waited for their view of the world to clear they were once again treated to the powerful sight of a looming black mushroom cloud. As the dust settled they could see the billowing gouts of red flame still swirling inside as it rose over where the house used to be, now little more than the smashed foundation of the underground lab beneath. Around them they could see the surrounding houses had mostly collapsed, their broken remains set aflame by the tremendous heat. Beyond that roofs were blown off, walls blown in, and street lights bent over. Every window had been blown inwards by the pressure for as far as they could see.

Billy smiled as he allowed himself to return to human while Mandy looked on in quiet objective satisfaction at the scene of devastation. They heard no shrieks of wounded or terrified screams amidst the roar of the flames that had engulfed the surrounding area. From what they saw of the immediate area and what Dib had done earlier it could have just as easily been as if the entire city had been reduced as such. For Mandy the thought stirred a strange musing within, about how the arrogance and stupidity of many of these people, and the people of their society, compared with another corrupt people long since lost in time.

"Hey Billy." She spoke up, earning his attention. "Did you ever hear of the ancient city of Babylon?" She looked across to him, seeing him staring at her perplexed.

"Babylonlon?" He repeated and smirked. "That was the ancient city with all the evil zombie communist clowns right?"

"No Billy that was France." She answered him, turning back to the ruined and burning street, tiny embers drifting down along with the mildly radioactive ash.

"I'm twelve Mandy, and I'm not a history buff." Billy responded.

"Babylon was an ancient city in what is now Iraq. It was a regional centre of power and commerce, and it was incredibly prosperous and successful in its heyday." Billy listened in fascination as Mandy regaled the saga of a civilisation that was at its pinnacle a millennia before theirs was even in its infancy. He noticed the particular sense of cynicism in Mandy's eyes, and he instantly knew where she was going with this tale. "But all that power and success went to their heads. According to the stories they became arrogant and conceited, and became known as one of the most corrupt civilisations of its age. Bearing in mind of course that all civilisations were depraved at the time, but still, Babylon was known to be one of the worst."

Mandy thought back to the few bits and pieces she had read on the ancient city as recorded in an ancient text, picking them up over time piece by piece to form a relatively clear view of the city's supposed fate. "In the Bible it says that Babel, as it was known, was a godless centre of corruption and wickedness. There were some prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, that prophesised that the city's arrogance and contempt for others would lead to its demise. They said that God would strike them down, and that it would be invaded, plundered and destroyed, and no one would ever live there again. Later the city was invaded by the Persians, and then by Alexander the Great. After that it was abandoned, and became little more than a myth for over a thousand years."

She turned to gesture to the smoking hole in the ground before them, were once a twisted young man and a damaged girl had once lived, and of the carnage surrounding them. "Think about it, this place is quite similar to ancient Babylon isn't it? So many people now are arrogant and mindless, vain, and are blindly hateful of anything different, just like Babylon."

She extended her arms out to show what she had done to the street, the ruin they had wrought upon the festering place of weakness. "Look at it now. Just like it was prophesised that Babel would be destroyed by both God and stronger people, those two have met their demise through us and the scythes."

Billy nodded as he looked from her to the scene of devastation, before a smirk crossed his face. "We've got the power of the vengeful gods of old, and the will and ambitions of the ancient conquerors at our disposal, and a genuine cause to fight for." Mandy remained stern in silence as Billy smiled evilly, calming down as another question came to his mind. "Say why did you blow up the entire street as well, I mean isn't that overkill on a huge scale?"

"Billy, you remember how Zim thinks he's superior to everyone?" He nodded. "What if he plans to get rid of us before we get rid of him?"

"So this is a show of force?" He asked to which she nodded in reply.

"Bring him here. I want him to see this first hand."

Billy smiled again at her commanding voice, swinging his scythe to point it at a patch of scorched lawn beside them. Ordering the portal to form in midair facing the ground, he didn't have to wait an instant as Zim fell through, landing clumsily on the burnt grass below, his disguise absent from working in his base.

"Uh! Eh? Wha? Where am I?" He stammered as he looked up to his associate. Billy grinned as the portal closed overhead, extending a hand to help Zim onto his feet.

"Sorry about that." He said as sincerely as he could. Zim rejected the hand, getting to his feet on his own before looking around in wonder at the scene of destruction.

"What the? What is all this?" He spoke as he shielded his eyes against the embers.

"This is us doing what you told us to do." Zim whirled around to see a human girl, presumably the partner he was told about, looking upon him with a menacing expression. This surprised him as she lacked the glory and respect Billy had showed him, looking upon him objectively as if he were a minion, in direct contrast to the fawning treatment he had been shown earlier.

"Zim this is my partner, Mandy." Billy said introducing his lover to their new tool. He could see that Mandy's naturally cold nature was somewhat off putting to Zim, having been expecting someone else to bow down to him. As they had planned, he figured it would be good to remind him that though he was here to serve his supposed superiority, Mandy was to serve as a warning against him getting any ideas.

"Well it is good to meet you Mandy. I know this must be an incredible honour for you to meet someone as great and superior as myself." Zim spoke with a smug little smile that infuriated her. She refrained from reacting to it though, choosing to dismiss the issue as irrelevant.

"Likewise." She spoke flatly, earning a perplexed look from Zim.

"Now my friend." Billy spoke up drawing the Irken's attention. "You remember how you asked us to get rid of Dib Membrane for you?"

"Yes." Zim replied.

"Well that…" He pointed towards the gaping hole in the ground, to which Zim gaped in shock and something akin to horror. "… That was where he used to live."

"… You two… did all this?" He stammered out in shock as Billy smiled and Mandy continued to scowl at the scene of destruction. Billy reached down and picked up a small piece of something pink and squishy the size of a piece of popcorn, slightly charred by the heat. He extended it towards Zim.

"Yeah. Dib's dead, and so is his sister of his. This is part of his brain, which we made swell up and explode like a bomb. He died in agony. It was _easy."_ He stressed the term 'easy' ever so slightly, taking a relaxed posture just to make sure Zim knew they didn't so much as break a sweat in doing all this. Just another discreet display of strength in order to let this pompous buffoon know they meant business.

"For the record though we weren't the ones who destroyed downtown with that earthquake and fire." He pointed towards where the city centre once stood, now just another flaming mass like the street. "That was Dib. He used it to try and destroy us in the battle. Overkill, but it still didn't scratch us."

Zim gawked back and forth between Billy and the distant heap of burning rubble, feeling suddenly very out of his depth.

"… Okay then…. Good, very good." He replied, calming himself from the unnerving sense that the two were perhaps far more than he could handle.

"Now you remember our arrangement, we've done what you asked of us, so now we have your trust." Billy asked and reminded him of their deal. "Now that we have done something for you, you must now do something for us. Like I said earlier you are to complete Mandark's work on the cyborg demon army so we can put it into production, and you are to develop genetic immortality for us as well. Do this for us Zim, and we will aid you in taking your rightful place as supreme ruler of the Irken Empire."

Zim cast one last look at the smouldering hole burnt into the earth before nodding. "Okay, I'll get started right away. I've also told the Tallest that I won't be calling them again due to the need for radio silence in a new plot to take over Earth for them, which was of course a lie. And they bought it, stupid fools they are!"

"Right." Billy spoke as he left Zim's side to examine the wreckage of the machines Gaz had called out. Nudging the ruined top half of one he felt that it was actually quite heavy and sophisticated for a toy guard. "Hey I'll get ya to make us a couple hundred of these too, heh heh. They'll be good for… you know… causing panic and unrest among the enemy." He explained trying to justify his desire for destructive toys in a way that didn't sound like they were to be Mandy and his playthings.

"Okay my comrades, I will see to it right away." He answered.

Abandoning the scraps of machinery Billy returned to the Irken as he stood by the footpath, trying not to look directly at Mandy for the discomfort her dark stare bought upon him. "Now I said earlier that seeing as you are working for us, any enemy of yours is now an enemy of ours. We've taken care of the main problem to our plans, but there are still others out there." Zim looked questioningly at Billy as he approached. "You remember Tak don't you, the Irken who came here to try and steal your mission?"

"Of course inferior human filth, but she is no longer a problem. I defeated her myself in space outside of the Earth and sent her careening away." Zim answered smugly, confident in his judgement that the stupid girl was dead.

"She's on Earth Zim." Mandy answered bluntly. "We read her file after we read yours. She's alive and still active in Townsville."

"If she is a threat to you, if she harbours any resentment towards you, then she needs to be taken care of too." Billy explained to the wide eyed Irken before reconsidering. "We didn't know if she really is angry at you or not. But if she was dangerous she would have attacked already, and you said you thought she was dead so she's not really a problem." Not a moment after he had finished Zim launched head first into another tirade.

"OF COURSE SHE'S A PROBLEM YOU FOOLS! SHE IS AN AGENT OF THE TALLEST! ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BOW DOWN TO MY WILL MUST FACE THEIR DOOM!" He roared in a passionate outburst of hubris and paranoia.

"Uh Zim, it says on her file that she was betrayed by the Tallest. She wants to kill them just as badly as you do." Billy pointed out. He was seriously beginning to wonder why he even bought up the subject at all. Now that he thought about it Tak probably wasn't even concerned with Zim, and in bringing the subject up he was just causing more work for them.

"THEN SHE IS COMPETITION! SHE MUST BE DESTROYED! I COMMAND THAT SHE BE DESTROYED IMMEDIATELY!" Zim ranted again, his green features turning slightly greener as the blood pooled in his head.

"Alright! We will!" Billy held his hands up in defeat having lost the will to argue with this irritating little narcissist. "We'll bring you out again once it's done." Billy began to step towards the car, Zim waiting impatiently to be sent back to his base through whatever method bought him here in the first place. This was when Mandy decided to say her bit.

"Before we send you back there's one thing we think you should be aware of." She spoke clearly and seriously so the message would get through to Zim's brain through his ego. "Regardless of wether or not our goal is to place you as ruler of the Irken Empire, you have agreed to do our bidding for this cause. We have done something for you that you never could, and in getting rid of your greatest enemy for you, you are now in dept to us. From now on you are our subordinate, and you will obey our orders to the letter. Do you understand?" Raising her hand she turned to point at the hole in the ground once more. "You see that? That is what happens when a person incurs our wrath. I alone did all of this without any effort whatsoever." Turning her gaze back down to the short alien she scowled mercilessly into his red eyes, her piercing stare beginning to make his insides writhe in discomfort.

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear to you Zim, we do not tolerate failure. If you should fail in your duties, or show incompetence or insubordination of any kind, we will not hesitate to punish you severely. And remember one thing above all else, if at any stage of our partnership you decide that we are no longer of any use to you, and you choose to betray us, then I assure you…" Zim froze in fear as Mandy poured all her darkness and malice into him through her stone cold stare and chilling tone of voice. "Nothing will ever save you from my wrath."

"Hey Mandy, what about me?" She and Zim turned to where Billy stood against the car door grinning viciously and changed into his half demon form again. "Don't forget, it's our wrath now! HAHAHAHAAAAA!"

By this stage Zim was well and truly in fear of the two. He was being confronted by a girl who seemed to exude a foreboding aura of darkness and control, and a boy who was, by the looks of it, a monster disguised as a human. For the first time in his life he found himself in over his head, trapped in a situation which he had allowed himself to fall into. No, he had himself chosen to place himself here, and only now did he come to realise that maybe he should have approached the maniac's offer a little bit more cautiously, and not get bowled over by his flattery.

'_There goes my brilliant plan to betray them. Just what have I gotten myself into?'_

Now there was no choice for him but to follow their orders and do the work they had assigned him. Hopefully if he did what they asked of him, and didn't screw up, and didn't get too big for his boots and try to bump them off like he had planned, then perhaps it would work out. If he stepped lightly for the next few years with his new partners, or rulers, and if all went well, then by the end of it he would get what he had deserved and had been told would be his.

With a flick of his wrist Billy pointed his scythe at Zim again, causing a portal to open up beneath his feet once more. His eyes widened in surprise before he fell through, being deposited back in his laboratory, the portal shutting immediately after. Mandy watched it close, sensing that they had been successful in their acquisition of their new subordinate. Billy looked on as she scanned the environment they had created.

"So do you think we've got him?" He asked as he leant against the roof of the car, eager to make their getaway.

"Yeah." Mandy replied. "He won't be betraying us any time soon."

That said Billy ducked his head to step into the car. Waiting for Mandy to join him he turned to see her still staring out semi-vacantly at the burning landscape. She listened to the distant sound of sirens approaching in the distance, growing louder over the dull roar of the flames. Once again it seemed as if the arrogance of the many people who inhabited this place had been punished. It reminded her again of one of the old Biblical prophecies, of the doom of the vain, the small-minded, and the corrupt.

"Standing afar off from the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city." She recited the ancient proverb to herself, having long since learned it off by heart. "For in one hour is thy judgement come." It was the one thing in the Bible that she had truly struck her as being relevant to her. For so long she had cursed, hated and detested the decadent and corrupt nature of the people around her. It seemed that there were others long before her or her accursed society that hated it just as much as she did. And right now there was one such person like her waiting patiently in their black Targa, smiling softly to himself as he watched and listened to his lovers monologue.

Turning back to the car she quickly strode back to the door, opening it and taking her seat before the wheel as the sirens grew closer. Starting the engine she noticed Billy looking across to her with a smile on his features.

"You like to show off to yourself don't you?" He spoke with a small grin. She just shrugged her shoulders admittingly, selecting first gear before she put her foot down. The car launched forwards as the first fire trucks approached the scene behind them.

"I guess so." She replied as she drove the car around a right hand corner, out onto the main street as they raced away from the crime scene. Their next stop would be the festering cesspool of Townsville, where they now had to take care of one menial little chore they had unwittingly bought up.

"So are you sure it was France with the zombie commie clown thingies?" Billy asked light heartedly as he readied his scythe to cast a portal ahead through to the town on the other side of the country.

"Pretty sure."

"Oh. You sure it wasn't, oh I dunno, Albania?"

"Why Albania?"

"Well you know how the Albanians are, always with their silly wooden shoes, and their… Koenisegisigsegs, and they invented Rutger Hauer. And remember how Grim got mistaken for a nun there and carried off by hundreds of em?" He shuddered as he remembered the army of nuns as he levelled the scythe ahead of the car, casting a large portal out into the middle of the street before them.

"That was the Netherlands idiot." She spoke as she drove the car through the portal to a grimy street on the other side of the United States.

"Really? What are zombie commie clowns and the Albanians doing in Neverland?"

"…"

* * *

The permanent silence and darkness inside the Doolin house following the departure of its last occupant was broken when the front door opened inwards, revealing a lithe figure standing in the harsh glare of the sun. Stepping in the elegant solitary figure reached back and closed the door behind him, allowing his green bespectacled eyes to adjust to the low light inside through which nothing stirred except the floorboards under his shoes.

Junior observed it all quietly, reaching out for any sign of life. There was almost none, even the moths and termites had for the most part vacated, and through the air between walls Junior could feel the reason why.

'_He has been here.'_

After searching Max's apartment and securing what information he needed off his computer he remembered what Mandy had told him of their meeting here. Driven on to find more he made his way out towards the end of the city, towards the strange haunting house, in search of anything that would bring finality and put an end to any lingering doubts about his supposed friend's real nature.

Even now he felt the unrestrained bitter cold of his true intentions, his lack of emotion, of care or concern. It was imbedded into the walls, driving away almost all life that may have once inhabited them.

Continuing deeper he began his search. Moving to the stairs he carefully ascended up into the next level. He knew these walls had previously been host to the original owner Mrs Doolin, who had survived Grim's every attempt to reap her soul from this plane to the next. Now he sensed only the uncaring presence left over from the spectral hunter.

He turned his eyes towards one bedroom door, where he sensed the living shadow had once attacked something long ago. He could feel the sharp relief of the energy coming through the door. Reaching out he swung it open and gazed inside. He lowered his face grimly as lying in the middle of the empty room was the shell of an enormous spider, whom his cousin would know all to well.

"Jeff." The name of Billy's son sounded like something from their very distant past after being unheard of for so long.

Closing the door so as not to disturb his body's rest he continued up, pulled on further towards the end of the house by the same spectral sense that now led him to the top room. Moving up the old stairs he entered it almost hesitant in his carefully measured way. The feeling of his friend's presence was strong here. This was where he had done most of his planning, on how he would use and betray them all towards his own end. His gaze centred on the round window with the glass broken in one side, tainted yellow with its age and the sun. Slowly he stepped over towards it. Looking out he could make out the rest of Endsville below, the suburbs, the city centre, all the way out to the industrial centre at the end. It seemed so very toxic and sad through the glass, so devoid of humanity or soul. Looking across he saw a chair sitting nearby, and knew this was the real heart of his world.

Turning away from the soulless visage through the glass he scanned across the room, his eyes found an old cupboard sitting at one end, with Max imprinted all over it. Stepping over he tentatively touched the doorknobs, opening it to gaze inside. On first glance it was empty, but the malice of his intent was deeply present inside. Looking down at the bottom of the closet he saw why. Reaching in to pick up a single nine millimetre bullet cartridge left over after he had left.

Putting it back he closed the doors. He had found everything he had come in search of. Looking back to the window he stared at it a moment, feeling the way it seemed to pull his very soul out, leaving him as hollowed out and unfeeling as his friend was, before he turned and left.

Descending the stairs he returned to the bottom of the empty house, seeing the exit ahead of him.

He froze mid step. He felt something he hadn't noticed before, something that grabbed hold of him like an enormous cold hand, nearly stopping his heart. Turning his gaze he looked back to the stairs, sensing the chilling presence was originating from beneath. Stepping around he saw there was a cupboard beneath the staircase which he hadn't noticed earlier. It had his presence on it.

Junior came to a halt before the door. He touched the doorknob, feeling the heartless presence once more, and the presence of whatever it was behind it. Twisting it he pulled the door open and looked in. As his gaze moved down to the end of the empty cupboard his features formed a dead cold mask.

He saw the spectre of shadow's deep black cloak lying discarded where he had left it months ago, with the burn mark in the shoulder still visible, and Max's presence all over it.

Shutting the door he turned back to the door to leave.

He froze solid again, eyes wide with shock. The door was open, and in it stood the black figure of another person, veiled in the glare of the early afternoon sun. The shadow observed him in silence, before turning towards the cupboard near Junior, as if in contemplation.

Junior stood silent and wary as the figure turned its gaze back to him.

"So it was Max."

His green eyes flickered; he recognised that young voice from somewhere close.

Calmly the figure moved to step inside, making his way in until the sun now cleared, and Junior could see his dark clad bohemian features. He gazed on in quiet calm as Junior seemed to gasp inside.

"Piff?"

He hadn't recognised his friend's voice at first. He had been underground for so long that his life above had begun to seem like a dream fading with the hours. Piff waltzed up to him as he looked between him and the cupboard.

"I heard you, Billy and Mandy were all back. I thought I saw you guys at the school, but I wasn't sure." He explained as he stood before him. "I had to see for myself and welcome you back."

"How did you know I was here?" Junior asked perplexed.

"I had a feeling you would try and find out about Max. I figured the first place you would look would be his apartment. By the time I got there I had just missed you." Piff began to move around his side, Junior following him as he stepped over towards the cupboard door. "After I remembered what Mandy had said about meeting him here one night not long before they were attacked I knew you would come here next." He held out his hands.

"And here we are."

Junior cocked his head and narrowed his eyes in thought. "That's great, but how did you know about Max?" He asked perplexed.

"News travels fast even in these times." He replied, taking interest again in the cupboard. "But I always had a feeling Max was more than he said he was, especially after Mandy's parents were murdered and our friends disappeared. It was only after I saw him in the library that day with you that I realised it was him."

Junior remembered it all well. It bought a cold to his skin at how close he had been sitting to him, and had never suspected a thing.

"Of course I could never say anything, all I had was based on instinct. Now though…" He opened the door and gazed in quietly, seeing the cloak lying there himself for the first time. "I guess all that's been laid to rest now hasn't it?"

Junior stood watching him in silence as he gazed upon the cloak.

"Come on, let's go. This place is haunted." He spoke as he turned and walked back towards the sun lit exit, leaving Piff to gaze upon the cloak behind him. Looking back to each other as Junior stood waiting by the front door Piff closed the cupboard and joined him, both departing the old house as Junior closed the door again.

* * *

**I sincerely hoped you enjoyed that. You know I actually took inspiration for Dib from the movie Drag Me to Hell. That scene with the demon being summoned is awesome in so many ways. And War of the Worlds played a part in the fight between Gaz and Mandy, how the alien tripods were virtually indestructible against everything thrown at them, and would just cut down their enemies at leisure, I thought the image was quite powerful.**

**So anyway, I hope you review this one even if you don't normally review. It always means a lot to hear from you guys, especially after something like this.**

**Next time, the first contact with Tak, and deciding on how things are to progress between them there. See you soon!**


	44. Assessing the Damage

**Just a short chapter this time. This part of the story gets a little more relaxed after the Billy-Dib battle thing. On the other hand it does bring in the period where Tak is now drawn into the main storyline. She has her own corner in the plot, and an important role in how everything comes together. But that will all come in good time. Any questions drawn up in the last chapter, about Gaz or Dib's contact will also all come out later.**

**Also thank you so much to everyone who has been reviewing and favouriting this! When I started I never anticipated I'd get sugh positive feedback. It's all very appreciated. Thank you all.**

* * *

**Assessing the Damage.**

Billy and Mandy kept a close watch on their surroundings as they drove slowly through the empty streets of Townsville. Both had known for a long time that the city had gone to hell in a handbag, but to actually see the true extent of what had occurred here was something that they each found deeply stirring. When Max had taken them into his part of town where he lived, or rather plotted his nest move in his dark game of chess, they had for the first time come into contact with one of the most poignant examples of the result of humanity's collective dysfunction. There they had seen people who had both betrayed each other, and been betrayed by others, as if it were an everyday occurrence, people who were in the process of completely shedding their humanity, their dignity, to revert back to the state of animals. They began to feed off one another in a mindless urge to stay alive and be one up from each other.

But as bad as Max's cancerous lower class corner of Endsville was, it was still a part of a relatively stable, economically successful city, if one that was rife with corruption and ultimately doomed to fall to its inner demons, depending on your definition of success. As such though the people there had decayed into savages, it was still a place where order remained, and where a person could live a relatively stable life, if the right precautions were taken. Something similar went for the broken down future society she had witnessed in their time on the run from Max. This place on the other hand was devoid of the stable host for the cancer to feed off.

What they were seeing here was really quite strange and yet interesting. The state of total madness, of festering minds and souls gave both of them a good look at a possible end product of where the diseased civilisation they lived in was heading. As the city had been sealed off and given over to the violent criminals a whole new societal order began to form, though order may not have been the correct term, based simply on who could be badder than someone else.

At the base were the business owners and working class, prostitutes and pimps, drug dealers, and anyone who provided the services necessary for sustaining life within the contained area or making it less of a paranoid hellhole. Above them were the gangs, any young and strong sociopath capable of handling a gun, a knife, or a Louisville Slugger. They acted as soldiers and enforcers, stamping their authority over their habitable area. Each gang ruled over a neighbourhood of the city that was still considered reasonably habitable, with most gangs though not all having their own chain of command. Watching over the entire congregation from afar were the guards that patrolled the fence and the checkpoints, the trucks and trains that supplied the city with food, fuel, parts and any other necessary supplies, giving the inhabitants what they needed so that they wouldn't riot, the utility companies that provided water, gas and electricity, and the buses that constantly bought in more dangerous inmates.

All up it was like a glass ant farm built of the dregs of society, considered too dangerous to be sent to the death camps for fear they would start riots in the cities that would spread and destroy their hold on society.

Mandy drove cautiously through the broken streets, in amongst the shadows of the looming empty brick buildings. The few cars they passed happened to be gutted inside and out, no more than wrecked chassis lying dead on the side of the road, rusting away in silence. There were a few they had seen and heard moving through the adjacent streets, old hatchbacks, station wagons and a Lincoln ghetto cruiser used by whoever could afford to run one, but this was no first world city anymore. They both kept a careful eye on their surroundings, now greatly aware that driving a Porsche was probably not advisable in a place where murder and rape were seen as everyday occurrences.

Billy watched from behind the glass as they passed a ten strong gang of armed Asian thugs prowling outside, looking to assert their dominance out into the empty urban waste around their inhabited block. Near them strode a sparse few dried out souls, business owners, workers, as well as several prostitutes standing around a corner. They all turned their dry gaze upon the black coupe as they drove by, eyeing it with all manner of malicious intent for it and its occupants. Billy wound his palm around the grip of his Tokarev as it sat beside his hip, ready to kill any threat that presented itself to them. The gang watched them pass without making a move, just watching as their prey drove off down the street further, the boy relaxing his hold on the gun as they passed out of harms way, for now. He didn't let the fact that they were in a city of marauding butchers escape him for a moment, and remained on a constant vigil.

"What the hell was she thinking when she chose this place as a hangout?" He asked as they closed in on the place the file had listed as being her address.

"Well think about it." Mandy responded while scanning the road ahead for any signs of confrontation, an ambush being first and foremost on her mind. "If you were being hunted and wanted to disappear, what better place to disappear into than a crowd of lowlifes where there's no law and order and no system to keep track of you? By coming here she doesn't have to register legally for any kind of job, there's no paper trails for anyone to pick up on, and just the concept of coming to this place itself serves as a deterrent to anyone looking for her. Plus she's angry at society for being betrayed, and wants to take her revenge out on the lowlifes responsible. What better place to find such scum than in the world's largest cesspool?"

"Good point." He replied and nodded, continuing to stare out at the refuse that littered the streets. He never thought that the city which had been a shining star of hope and growth not so long ago if he remembered could have ended up like this in just a few years. Townsville had once been a tourist destination just because it was Townsville. Now what was it? To think that supposedly humane people with empathy and common sense could crush and degrade each other to this extent. It was sickening. "How the hell do people sleep at night knowing what they've done?"

"Try not to think too much about it." Mandy responded as they approached their destination. "Don't bother trying to reasonably explain it; there is no reason to it. Take it from me."

They each continued to scan the streets grimly, as every living creature that combed the festering waste stared at them as they drove by. They each felt their contempt for their so-called civilised society growing with each burnt out wreck of a person they passed, giving them more and more glimpses of the nature of people. Not just of the people who lived here and preyed upon one another like beasts, but of the self-important maggots in the higher levels of society who were just as much responsible. The upper class turned a blind eye to the plight of others in their mindless quest to backstab and lie their way up the ladder. They were all part of the same disease that was destroying humanity's soul.

This continued for another five minutes, passing through yet more abandoned apartment blocks, shopfronts and garages, until they reached another habitable area, arriving outside of one particular decaying brick apartment building with the same number as that of Tak's residence.

"She set up in a piece of crap place like this?" Billy commented as they gazed up at the cracked walls and mouldy windows of the building.

"From what I see I don't think there's a Hilton here in Townsville anymore." Mandy spoke as she pulled the car up in the middle of the empty road, studying the building to their right. From what they had seen it, along with all the other buildings in this city, was good only for condemning. The decay had taken a heavy toll on the structure, and it had the appearance of only just standing. That alone was a bit of a feat considering they had passed plenty of structures now no more than a pile of rubble blocking the street. It was a miracle that there were places that still had electricity and water supplied, the pylons still being in relatively good shape, with no signs of water leaking from the underground pipelines.

"So what's the plan? Do we just go in there, knock down her door and start shooting?" Billy asked with no particular enthusiasm as he fished his submachine gun out of his bag, loading a new magazine. "Or maybe we should just use the scythes to level the entire building like last time."

"I have an idea. You make yourself go invisible again and slip through the door, and take your position at the back of the room behind her. Then I'll knock on the door, and when she goes to answer it, I'll step out of the way, and you can take her." Mandy explained with lacklustre. "She won't have time to react. It'll be no problem."

But there was a problem. Both of them had been feeling it since they arrived here ten minutes ago.

Mandy let off the brake to slowly drive the car off the road, into an alley on the left of the building, driving it down away from where anyone would likely see it. Shutting off the engine they opened the door, stepping out onto the filthy concrete surface. Billy followed her out, Mandy shutting her door and locking the car.

"I think it might need a little more than central locking to deter these guys." Billy commented. Calling his green weapon to his hands he touched the base of the staff against the bodywork, channelling an ever so slight trickle of energy into it.

"… Aaand that should do it." He said withdrawing the end from its surface.

"What did you do?"

"I gave it a powerful charge of energy. If anyone's stupid enough to touch the thing before I dispel it…" He paused to bend over, picking up a tiny leaf lying on the ground. Extending his hand over the bonnet he dropped the leaf, letting it fall gently down to touch its shiny black surface.

"_BZZZZZZZT!"_

"How effective." Mandy stated as Billy gave a slightly less than sane smile, a small wisp of ash and smoke rising from where the leaf once sat. Releasing his scythe back to the dimension of wonderful horrors it came from Billy turned to begin making his way out to the front. Mandy lingered behind him for a moment, the troubling thoughts returning to the forefront of her mind as she strolled along towards the street. As Billy walked he began to slow his pace as he too began to think more about the nature of their so-called 'enemy'.

They had of course read the file on Tak before they met Dib, and again reading up on her extensively since they arrived, hence knowing where she lived, what she was doing here, and her dramatic change of allegiance following her betrayal. What they had been expecting was some deranged Irken woman who had been a zealous follower of her incompetent leaders, but had taken their betrayal as more of an insult to her pride than anything. They expected that she was as arrogant and bigoted as Zim and Dib, only working to restore her own shattered pride by dragging as many lowlifes to hell as possible, commendable, but not in a mindset they endorsed. However upon reading further into the database available on her they had begun to notice some traits they found very familiar indeed.

It seemed the primary reason she was expelled from the empire was that Irken civilisation required total obedience and blind faith. It required the complete fervent belief in the superiority of the Tallest to the rest of the populace, and of the absolute superiority and perfection of the Irken race in comparison to all other sentient beings. Each of its populace was to follow whole-heartedly in the idea that the highest honour was to serve the Tallest and take the Irken Empire forwards, and that the greatest evil was that of thinking or doing anything different, which in their mind automatically equated to opposition and a betrayal of the entire Irken species, and while this intolerance was sometimes lax in civilian areas such as Foodcourtia, it was extremely strict in the military. And by anything different, they meant absolutely anything, ranging from other species such as Vortians and Humans, to the class of Irkens they referred to as defects. These were anyone with a genetically based physical or mental disability, any sort of mutations, and more importantly in this case, anyone who did not conform to standard Irken indoctrination.

Tak was one of these people. They had read that she was persecuted from an early age due to her free questioning nature; rejecting the blind ideals and collective narcissism they tried to force upon her despite her overwhelming desire to just be accepted by her peers. Despite this she had bought herself up to become the top of her class through sheer will, dedicating every ounce of her strength to getting stronger, to endure the shame and ridicule, and to doing the Tallest's bidding. She would praise them and Irk's latest genocidal conquest night and day in the hope of just being accepted amongst the people and society she loved, and continued to love for the longest time. But regardless, no matter how hard she tried, she could never let go of the truth as her logical thinking mind saw it. She instinctively knew that everything about the Tallest being living gods, and of the superiority of the Irken race, were all lies, or at the least highly exaggerated for the purpose of controlling their mob of subjects. No matter how much she praised them, she still hated the arrogance and small-minded intolerance that they and their followers immersed themselves in, and hated having to submit to their cruel prejudices.

But she sucked it all in and soldiered on, wanting nothing more than to be cared about and respected by her comrades. And if that required her to abandon logic and reason, and to be naught but a pawn to the will of her masters, then so be it. It was better to be another mindless intolerant drone than to betray her entire people. But despite her every attempt to fit in, to be a good little mindless pawn, they still saw through her act. They still hated her for being different, for being a defect due to a clear case of insanity with her many treacherous thoughts. This was the core reason to why she was herself ultimately betrayed instead of being welcomed as a hero.

Her story had struck a chord in both of them, because they knew someone who was going through something similar. His betrayal by the people he had fought and suffered for was not quite finished yet, though sadly it was plain to see that it was only a matter of time now. It wouldn't be long until the illusion they had cast over him dispersed.

Stepping out from the cover of the alley they turned right towards the steps to the doorway. Making their way towards the door they stopped to gaze upon its rotting wooden surface, knowing that their target was still somewhere within. And still, though they were yet to speak of it, they both felt the same growing sense of unease over what they were here to do.

As they read on they had picked up on some other traits they recognised. After her betrayal she swore she would dedicate her life to hunting down the corrupt souls who reminded her every day of the Tallest and the ravenous mob of Irk. She made it her mission that those who were small-minded, arrogant and conceited, bigoted, and would kill and rape the innocent for their own sick pleasure, were to die, and with them the lying suck ups and petty arrogant fools who had caused the decay of society both on this planet and throughout the galaxy. To this end she had used a great number of deadly skills and weaponry acquired through her lifetime against hundreds of Townsville's inhabitants.

In short, she possessed the same strong and clear-headed logic, the same courage and internal strength, and the same darkness and violent hatred for the corrupt as they did. She was just like them.

Casting a prolonged, hesitant gaze between each other Billy looked back to the doorway, and attempted to harden his heart as he stepped out towards the stairway leading up just off the footpath. Approaching he hesitated again, before he stopped completely, shaking his head.

"This is so bad." He muttered halfway to himself, turning around back to Mandy who looked away to the ground with a similar conflict. "I don't like this. This is not what I signed up for okay. I'm supposed to be butchering psychos and rapists and establishing a new world order, not murdering some outcast just because a little green fascist with a god complex told us to."

Mandy nodded dourly. "I get what your saying Billy. She's too much like us just to kill her because she was in the way. I'm all for doing what needs to be done to bring order but this is not what I consider acceptable losses."

Mandy looked up to the third floor windows, knowing that the person they were here to kill, their equal, was here, trying to scrape out a living whilst taking revenge on the weak minded. To kill her would be something they would doubtless regret.

"But what's the alternative? We need Zim to complete the army, and discover the secret to immortality. I don't wanna bring order to the world just for us to die and have it all fall apart again."

"So what're we supposed to do?" Billy asked.

"I don't know." Mandy responded shaking her head. She remained quiet and reached up, closing here eyes and holding the bridge of her nose in thought. Dealing with an idiot was trouble, that she had known from Billy in his earlier days, but dealing with an idiot with an out of control ego was more trouble than she had expected. "The only way I can see is to persuade Zim to leave her alone, meanwhile we talk to her and try to get her to leave him to us. They can both go about their own business so long as neither of them does anything stupid to kill off one or the other."

Billy flat faced. "Yeah, I'm sure Tak'll be willing to let live one of the assholes directly responsible for her miserable existence for the next few years, and whom she has sworn to take revenge upon for his corrupt nature, just because we asked her politely. And I'm even more certain that our friend Zim is reasonable enough towards letting her go, I mean it's not in his nature to want to crush anyone who's not him now is it."

Mandy gave him a glare as he finished mocking her vague plan.

"And I suppose you've got something better?" She challenged. Billy pouted sheepishly.

"N…"

Mandy's attention perked up as she noticed his blue eyes widen. She could sense the nerve cells in his brain making new pathways as the metaphorical light bulb began to flicker above his head.

"… Maybe."

"What do you mean maybe?" She asked apprehensively. Billy looked back to face her as he began to back his way up towards the steps leading to the doorway.

"Look, for now let's just go with the original plan alright? I'm gonna go in first so I can see what this woman's really like. Give me five minutes before coming up, and we'll go the way you said before from there." He began to make his way up the short set of concrete steps, pausing at the old doorway.

"So we're gonna kill her anyway?" Mandy asked, clearly uneasy at having to do this to someone who could very well be worthy of their respect.

"Let's just wait and see. Hopefully I'll get a good look at what she's like, and we can go from there. Don't worry, I actually have it all figured out."

At this they each took on a surprised appearance.

"Really?" Mandy asked.

"Yeah I know, weird." He shrugged it off as he turned to open the door.

"Remember, five minutes, and move away from the door before I fire that way I don't get you."

"Alright."

With that he stepped through the doorway, closing it after him as he began his search for their girl. He knew that the timer had already started, and that if all went as he expected it would Mandy would get sick of all the lowlifes outside and come in early. He figured he had four minutes with which to find the girl, infiltrate her apartment, and measure her reactions to everyday situations to build up an accurate picture of their target.

The first thing he noticed in this horrible place was the staircase, which he immediately began making his way up. The second thing he noticed about this horrible place was just how horrible it really was. Whilst it had been cracked and decaying on the outside, the inside was a whole new level of decay and despair. The ancient mouldy carpet and the cracking plaster walls gave off a musty smell of rotting throughout the entire structure that would have to cause health problems to anyone living here for extended periods.

The place exuded a suffocating, toxic aura of despair, hopelessness, futility, and just abject misery. It slowed his movements upwards, drawing his attention to the state of ruin the building, the people, and the society it was a part of was in. It almost made him want to just forget about Tak and sit for a while in the immense feeling of cynicism he had found in these decaying, almost haunted corridors.

As he began to make his way slowly up the steps to the third floor he began to wonder what this place must have been like four or five years ago, before the entire city began to die.

'_Surely it couldn't have always been this bad. Even if many of the people were still assholes inside, it couldn't have always been like this. This carpet would have been clean and new once, and those holes in the wall wouldn't have always been there. I don't think there would have been this sense of misery and wanting to look over your shoulder before the city collapsed.'_

Putting an end to his musings on the bleak environment he stepped away from the creaking old staircase to look down the hallway for the third floor. The long corridor was cast in a bleak light that made the end of it seem as if it were almost swallowed, enveloped by the sense of darkness that mankind through their vices had bought upon itself. Stepping forward he scanned the door numbers, or at least the ones that were still there.

Moving down he counted them off, searching for the unit marked 32 on the computer document they had read. He scoured the even numbered doors to the right hand side, checking off each number.

'_24… 26… 28… Where 30 should be… Okay.'_

He stopped outside the door marked number 32, noting that for someone as unique as a professional agent of destruction, the Irken equivalent of the shinobi of old, it was just as dull and degraded as all the others. It held the same drudging decay as the rest of the place, a sign that it was as the report had said; she was dying inside just as much as the people.

'_Oh well, I don't have much time to do this…'_

* * *

Tak lay back across the old couch, aimlessly flicking through the channels of the television before her with the remote. It didn't matter if it were some cheap midday drama that went out of production years ago, an old movie from the sixties, or static, her zoned out stare never changed. So long as it gave her the ability to lose herself for a few hours it was all the same to her, her mouth hanging agape slightly as she watched on. With nothing better to do and no motivating factor to work or fight towards she continued to switch through the list of public broadcast channels, all the while letting her mind drift into the deep hollow abyss she had found herself falling into.

This was by no means the first time she had felt completely numb to the world. This was what she would feel every day once she got back from that crappy market she worked at, with the crappy boss, the crappy customers, and the constant vibe of everyone wanting to smash someone's face in. With nothing left to live for, and no escape from the drudgery that permeated her existence, she could do nothing more than lie back and let the world fade away. Lying on the couch with her eyes on the box in front of her she would delve into the black pit created of all her suffering, and the bitter loneliness that had become the defining characteristic of her life.

She recalled everything that had befallen her over the years, the beatings and persecution from her peers, being a living weapon for the Tallest, and her exile. More recently she remembered trying to take Zim's phoney mission, her ultimate betrayal by her people, the rage that had kept her going, and how it had ultimately failed her when it became clear that no matter how many she killed nothing ever changed. All the events of her miserable existence blurred into one long lifetime of ruin. Now all that was left of her once great strength of character was this empty shell; her very will to live forgotten in amongst the hopelessness of her life.

Could what she had gone through since she had been created even be called a life? No, it was something else, something without the purpose and drive necessary for a person to sustain themselves. Without the will to go on striving for a better life, the hope that it would one day get better long since gone, what kind of purpose was there in her life? Without a purpose, something to dedicate your life to, there can be no life at all. This was existence, a state of being without value or importance to anyone. She may as well have been dead; it wouldn't matter to her or to anyone else.

So now, numb and with nothing better to do with her time as she waited for death or sleep to come and free her, she continued to gaze vacantly at the screen before her, switching channels every few seconds, over, and over, and over…

"_Knock! Knock!"_

Though she heard the sound immediately, remembering that it meant someone was at the door, it took her a few seconds to react in her lowly state. At first she more or less dismissed the new presence standing on the other side of the door. After all, there was really no point in answering it. Whatever the person was after didn't matter to her in the slightest, just like nothing else in her life mattered anymore, she would be better off just lying on the couch, watching static.

But as the seconds passed the concept of speaking to another person, whatever the reason may be, became something she faintly desired. _'I don't have anyone else to talk to other than myself. Maybe it would be good to just see another person's face.'_ Casting her now slightly awakened gaze towards the door she pondered the concept. _'Even if it's the human equivalent of Zim it'll be better than nothing.'_

Her disguise still active she levered her stiff body upright, stepped onto her booted feet and made her way towards the door. Before she took another step however she hesitated.

'_What if it's just another one of those street vermin like the ones that attacked me earlier?'_

Looking to the table with some of her acquired weapons present she reached down and took hold of the large, bulky forty-five calibre handgun she had used earlier, switching the safety off. She held it up by her side as she approached the door cautiously. Stepping in towards the flat, heavily abused wooden panel, she peered through the peep hole. Through the small instrument she found the vicinity just outside to be empty, and could see no person standing beyond the door. Frowning she continued to search through the glass for anyone or anything that may have been standing just beyond her field of vision, wary of a surprise attack from a blind spot.

'_There's no one there? But why would anyone just knock and then leave?'_ Tak raised an eyebrow, then grimaced in frustration as she began to open each of the four bolt locks to check herself. _'Don't tell me this is some kind of joke? How do humans find this funny?'_

Once she had opened the last of the locks she stepped back. Taking aim with the weapon at her side she reached forward and turned the door handle, pulling the door open inwards. Looking out into the patch of hallway immediately before her she saw there was indeed no one standing there. Cautiously with her eyes narrowed and her teeth locked together she approached from the left hand side, searching for anyone who may be lying in wait to the right of the doorway. Leaning in close she found no one on the right. Switching sides she saw that the left side was clear as well.

Stepping carefully she leaned out of the doorway, ever alert for an attack to come from further down the hall. Peering left down the corridor towards the staircase she found the space empty of humans, the same for the right side facing the wall at the end. Tak continued to scan methodically left to right as she searched for anything that may have been responsible for the knocking, however neglecting to look down towards her feet as she searched. Had she looked to the ground she may have noticed the barely visible puddle making its way past her into the apartment, disguised to match the colours of the floor below.

Disappointed she lowered the gun and gave an almost inaudible sigh, turned and retreated back inside, closing the door behind her. She didn't bother locking it again. After all, why should she? Making her way back to the couch she lowered the hammer and placed the handgun back on the table again, sitting herself and leaning over on her side again. Reaching for the remote she began to cycle through the channels, the state of ruin and numbness overcoming her again, only now her features showed the pain of being reminded that she was alone.

* * *

Billy slowly made his way across the floor, spread out in a puddle no more than a millimetre thick, inching towards the rear of the room opposite the door. Moving across in front of the television he knew he was at the greatest risk of being found out then. Slowing his movement he took a moment to observe his objective. It didn't take long for the young demon lord to figure out she was clearly in the midst of having her spirit broken, her will to fight being scoured away by the years of hopelessness like water against a rock. But even as he watched her now he was aware this wasn't the whole picture. He had seen proof of that when he had slipped under her feet, the predatory gaze in her exotic eyes, and the loneliness he felt off her after. A few quick glimpses though did not equal a halfway accurate assessment.

'_And Mandy must not be disappointed. Ever! Hehehehe!'_ He sniggered in silence as he moved on slowly. _'Well on the other hand she does look beautiful when she glares. Kyeh heh!'_

Continuing steadily past her gaze he pooled himself in the far side of the room. Taking his position he began to watch her astutely, taking a mental note of everything he saw of both herself and of the rest of the unit.

From his position he could easily see that she was in deep depression. Her sorrowful stare at the screen indicated to the lack of feeling inside her. It was clear that she had lost all hope in the promise of a better tomorrow, her anger and desire for vengeance for the diseased mongrels responsible having been blown away by some awful mix of despondency and the simple need to connect with someone having gone unanswered for so long. He recognised the hollow look in her face as she stared at the screen, all too similar to what he had seen in the face of the old and broken version of Mandy he had met in the future, another similarity they shared. Even where he lay he could feel the anguish and heartache that had caused Tak to detach from her life as she had done. He could sense the hurt of being hated by the ones she loved, of trying her absolute hardest and always failing, of betrayal, and of having no hope of it ever getting better. No wonder she had become the ruin she was now.

He frowned inside; so far it did not look good.

Turning his gaze elsewhere in search of something that may say otherwise he began searching her apartment. The first thing he noticed were the weapons on her coffee table, plus the ones underneath. There was a small rifle behind the television. In the kitchen was a multitude of knives lying about in different places, few of which were designed for food preparation. Looking in the opposite direction he saw into the bathroom. Between the toilet and the shower was a shotgun, a pair of machetes, and in the reflection off the glass shower guard he could see a large axe, a baseball bat with dried blood still on it, and several hand grenades.

'_Wow… Shit. That's something.'_ This indeed told him something very different about the quiet woman.

Tak continued to flick mindlessly through the channels of mind rot and static, until she caught upon a documentary of some type. Looking back to her Billy could sense her interest peak for a second as she took in the picture of a number of black tanks rolling across an arid desert somewhere in Africa. The proud narration of the documentary detailed that it was speaking of another of Earth's many lower intensity wars, this one taking place in a small patch of land called Somalia. As she watched on she and Billy were surprised to note that it wasn't a documentary but a propaganda piece, and the tanks and accompanying troops were all American.

Seeing where this was likely going Billy refocussed back to the matter at hand, turning his gaze from his currently formless eyes onto the blue haired girl once more.

'_There's another thing,'_ He thought. _'She's still in her disguise even when she's at home.'_

Tak it seemed was either paranoid about getting found out, or wanted to get rid of her identity as an Irken pawn. Considering what she had been through, seeing just how fowl Irken society could be, as well as being trained from the outset to infiltrate, he could not determine which was the true reason. He dismissed the matter, figuring that without any good idea on which he should simply write it off as being both.

Back to her state of melancholy he began to wonder how deep her decay may have gotten.

'_The file said that it was four years ago that she was betrayed, so how much has she collapsed since then? Are we too late?'_

Watching on in silence he continued to observe and record every single little act she made while lounging back on the couch. From the apparent lack of response to the nationalist dribble on the screen he began to wonder if she was really too far gone to be able to salvage. Pausing to set down the remote she reached down under the cushions and pulled out a lightweight military tomahawk, and began absent-mindedly cleaning the grime out of her fingertips with the pointed back edge, indifferent to what she was watching, it was nothing she hadn't seen already. Perhaps the desire for revenge that had made her a force of destruction, anarchy and terror had long since faded away.

On the television the speaker began to proudly relate of a massacre conducted by the troops, rolling unopposed into a small town. The resistance was short lived, the heavy tank guns and infantry cutting down the dozen or so defenders with ease to then surround and move into the burning town. The soldiers stormed through, rounding up hundreds of innocent men, women and children to heard them to the centre of the town. There they were all executed, gunned down en masse without pity or remorse. The screen showed two soldiers posing triumphantly next to the bodies of a woman and a little girl, while behind them a pile of bodies stood as shocking proof of the inhumanity of the new neo-Nazi regime. Tak's eyes locked on the butcher's responsible, their faces cast in a light-hearted smile as if killing a mother and her child had been just some harmless fun.

Billy watched as without changing her bored expression she swiftly extended her arm, casting the tomahawk in a perfect arc at the screen, digging into the back with a brutal thud and shattering it to a thousand shards. Immediately the faces of the bigoted murderers vanished as the remains of the screen became dispersed across the floor and the inside of the box. Though Tak continued to lay against the couch, her stare once again empty and hollow, Billy had seen through it, to the relevance of the seemingly unimportant act of violence.

'_So there's still fire left in her blood huh?' _He thought quietly, knowing that he was almost out of time._ 'Well she's not perfect but with a little work... Oh there's still plenty of hope yet for this killer!'_

Out of her persistent though now slightly heated melancholy Tak was stirred slightly when she felt a chill strike throughout her body, and a distinct crawling feeling like some malevolent presence was smiling evilly at her.

* * *

******I think it might be about time to tell you guys some news in relation to the fic. At this point we are now gradually getting towards the end of this story. While there are still plenty of chapters left to go and a lot of things that need to be bought into place yet for everything to move towards its end, the fact is most of this story has in fact already been uploaded.**

******I don't know if I've told any of you this but when I originally started typing this out something like four years ago now I was actually working on a much smaller fic than what it became. Though it is still far from over yet, by this point we have long since gone past the end of the original plot that I wrote on an entire tree's worth of paper. It's bought me a great deal of joy to see how well my baby has been received after all this time and effort and dedication, and I honestly owe everyone who's read it a hugt thank you, but I feel it's time to acknowledge it's days are numbered.**

******Not to worry though, we've still got plenty left to go yet.**

******Next chapter, the first real encounter between Tak and our two protagonists. Find out what the future holds for the mysterious outcast.**


	45. Three of a Kind

**Good news people! You may have noticed that old fic of mine Coming of the Night, which was a prequel songfic I had done a long time ago now about how Mandy originally came to power in the wrecked future part of this fic. I pulled it down for a long time after I started uploading this, and soon forgot about it. The plot changed as I got further through the story so now the prequel's not entirely concise with what happens in this. I changed a few little details and uploaded it again not long ago so take a look if yoy're interested.**

**Down to business. We see the first interaction between Billy and Mandy and Tak, a little more insight about Townsville's urban blight, plus we see how both are getting better at their new occupation. Lots of senseless mayhem in this one!**

**Also thanks again for the reviews, and to answer a question this is not connected with the slug Mandy shown in the episode, though it does pay note to it somewhere. Eternal youth is more the goal here than becoming slugs. ****Thanks again.**

* * *

**Three of a Kind.**

Mandy was beginning to grow irritated as she continued to stand idly outside the decaying building. She cast her eyes to her wrist, only to notice she hadn't bought a watch with her. Her irritation only increased at that, she had checked her wrist less than a minute earlier. Her inactivity was at odds with her ever growing scorn for the surrounding neighbourhood, hence her growing impatience where normally she would have been calm and controlled. Huffing she continued to gaze around at her surroundings. Looking up she saw the skies were going orange in the early afternoon sun, their rays caught in the bank of white clouds covering the dying city. It cast the streets filled with filth in a harsh glare, as if to highlight just how miserable they were, and by all means should be for the things they had done.

Casting her eyes downward she examined the black lace-up boots she had bought in the first days of their going into hiding, following the destruction of her old life at the hands of someone she had once counted as a close friend.

'_No, I can't keep lingering on that.'_ She shook her head to forcibly peel her mind off the betrayal and crippling loss she had suffered at Max's cold bloodstained hands. The mere thought bought up a burning pain inside of her that she only just pulled herself away from. On the positive side it had eased some of the pent up tension out of her body. Pausing she took a stilling breath, and quickly her indignation fell away.

When she looked up to face the world again she was surprised by how far her perception had changed of it. Whereas previously she had felt disgusted by what these people had done to the once great city, now she was struck by how profoundly beautiful it was.

Mandy gazed about and up with wide eyes as she took it all in with new insight. The entire environment was like a painting of what was going on inside the minds of the people who lived here. It was an expression of their own reckless abandon for the people and the world around them, created organically as no more than a means to an end. It was as much an external construction and expression of their own identity as a beaver dam, with no consciously artistic or expressive purpose, save for the graffiti on the walls. Looking up she marvelled quietly at the burnt out orange sky full of bitterness and anger. The apartment buildings were tainted dark with ingrained dust and soot deposited by the wind and rain, none of which had ever been cleaned off since the previous society imploded on itself.

Perhaps that was what made it all the more insightful, how this human wreckage had created all this as an extension of their own needs and identity without even realising it. They didn't even have the capability to stand back and look at it. It was something none of them would ever be able to appreciate.

'_I wonder if on some level I'm trying to do something similar?'_ She wondered as she bought her gaze back to street level, looking at the few people giving her a good birth out of simple instinct, each person feeling the underlying heat of her mild scowl.

If everything they had done to this place was about expanding their shallow sense of self through imprinting themselves on the world around them, then wasn't that what she was planning to do in the not too distant future? She had always envisaged a society of order and control, one where people would be kept strictly in line, or suffer the appropriate consequences. But by imposing her order and her values upon the rest of the world, in addition to having people fear and respect her as their master, wasn't that much the same? She was imprinting her own identity on an entire empire motivated by a need to expand and build on her own sense of self. Any egocentric activity was inherently futile, because it was never enough to be truly happy, and invited the danger of mania and self-destruction through the search for such fulfilment. She had to be careful that she did not get her sanity lost in her cause, like she had in the past.

To that end she was again thankful for the loving relationship she had with Billy. Here was something that was genuinely selfless, and which could and had brought her genuine lasting happiness, even before they had gotten together. And with that first bond came her close friendship with Junior, and her connection with Harold and Gladys, who had been selfless and caring enough to actually take her in as their own child after her loss. These close personal ties that she shared with the few people around her in turn connected her with the rest of the living universe, grounding her in reality with the untold numbers of conscious souls in existence, preventing her from making the same mistakes she had made in her past.

Without that spiritual connection to the rest of the world all she had was her desire for power and domination, and the orderly society she fantasized of. But like Mindy had mistakenly wanted to be a human Barbie doll, it would ultimately be a fool's wish to believe that power and order alone would ever bring her happiness. Satisfaction and a kind of objective fulfilment yes, she could not imagine being happy in the future without these things, but she could never be happy with them alone. The thought of him standing pressed up behind her, holding his hands gently to her waist and nuzzling the back of her head, bought a slight smile and a gentle warmth throughout her.

Returning from her muse her attention became focussed on one rough group of black thugs approaching her from across the deserted road, donned in blue to symbolise their allegiance with the Crips. The leader carried a mini uzi, the next two wielding handguns, the other four around the outside wielding baseball bats and machetes. It didn't take long to figure out their perverse intentions towards her with their thin sick smiles and licking of lips, displaying their weapons prominently as they advanced across the street side by side.

"Hey bitch!" The leader of the group called out to her as they moved in on the 'defenceless little girl'. Mandy didn't so much as flinch as they approached, not a flicker of fear or otherwise concern for these despicable vermin present in her mind. Looking at them she noticed that some of then were quite pail, and all showed the same weary circles around their bloodshot eyes, as well as skin damage from amphetamines and their own unbalanced state of existence. They gave her the thought that there were worms inside their heads slowly eating their brains. With the effect of her spell of mindfulness bringing her into focus her drive to crush and destroy them and everyone like them came into perfect clarity.

Inside her unstoppable war machine whirred to life calmly like a turbine engine.

"We are gonna have some fun with you!" Another cried in delight, intent on pinning her down in broad daylight just like all the others. No one would stop them; no one would care. Mandy just narrowed her onyx eyes and lowered herself into a simple attack posture.

Immediately they began to have second thoughts, a pulse of apocalyptically strong demonic malice radiating from the girl before them, inspiring a primal terror that caused them to unconsciously stop and step back from her in the middle of the street. Mandy breathed deep with the power of her darkness as she held out her arm to the side, calling the crimson staff and blade of Judgement to her hand once more in a flash of red matter. The glowing field of malice and fear poured fourth from the scythe, surging back and forth through her, electrifying her every cell with her cause and a familiar dizzying power high. Holding the scythe out for the sociopaths to gaze in fear at she pulled it in and grasped the staff with both hands. She felt the change throughout her body as the force of her intent flowed through her eyes, out towards her enemies.

The thugs gaped in horror as the girl's eyes flashed orange-red in the iris, the wrath and vengeance taking on physical shape as it ebbed and flowed in tides of fury.

"You just killed yourselves."

No sooner had she spoken than she moved forward, swinging the scythe blade around in a wide arc, effortlessly beheading four of their number in the centre, the outer members staggering back as their blood erupted and their bodies fell. She kept going, furthering the momentum of the blade as she danced and twirled it around to move up to the two survivors standing shocked on her left, whirling around to swiftly cut through their necks. Their blood rained down on her scowling form as she bought the blade to a halt. Out of the graceful slaying the sole survivor on her right turned and fled. Without her or them ever saying a word she turned, took aim and threw the scythe end over end at his back, burying the blade in his neck and spine.

Mandy remained still, watching in ice cold objective detachment as the last body of the group fell to the ground, opening her hand so the scythe would wrench out of his throat and fall back into her grip. She scowled darkly at them as they lay with their heads separated from their bodies in a pool of blood, feeling the shock and fear coming from the few people walking the streets around her at being able to slay an entire gang so easily. She felt the pressure of the energy withdrawing from her body, the red hue of her irises returning to their usual deep onyx.

Mentally burning the blood off her skin and clothes she let her scythe return to the underworld, leaving her standing calm and satisfied before her bloody masterpiece on the road in front of her.

'_Lowlife scum, I only wish there were more here for me to kill.'_ She silently wished. Looking off down the street she saw the same worm ridden look in the faces of the few people staring at her. She scowled at them, making them stumble back and continue on their way.

"Someday you'll _all pay."_

Dropping the subject she figured she'd had enough of waiting aimlessly around for Billy to make his observations. She didn't care if she was early; she just wanted to get off this god forsaken street. Casting her gaze towards the door to the crumbling old place she moved on her boots back off the street towards the entrance.

Off to the side another lanky lowlife maggot peeked out from behind the cover of an alley. He watched as the powerful pink clad girl ascended the steps, disappearing into the building. Originally his idea was he would just stab her and move onto his real target, but seeing her with the scythe had made him question that decision. Seeing her now gone he moved out from behind cover, rushing over to stare down the alley besides the building she had walked into. He set his bulging bug-like eyes on the sleek black supercar at the end, licking his lips greedily as he hobbled down towards his prize.

* * *

With the only mental stimulus she had gone, broken into a thousand shards by her own hand, Tak could do nothing more now than curl up into a ball and wait for time to pass. As far as she knew her only company was her own thoughts of despair and hopelessness.

'_I wonder if my mind split in two and I started talking to myself if it would be any better.'_ She halfway seriously wondered to herself. _'I could have arguments with myself. The voices in my head could tell me how bad it is for me, leaving me with more time to feel sorry for myself.'_ She soon abandoned the thought process.

Her only purpose in life now was to continue existing. But with no reason for existing, no passionate drive to work and fight towards like before, why should she continue to exist? Was this really even existence at all?

'_Why am I doing this? It's only gonna get worse the longer I wait. I wish I could just put an end to it now so I don't have to go on like this.'_ She cast her eyes on the gun that lay on the table before her. _'Just one pull of the trigger and I won't even exist. Nothing will matter to me if I'm not there to care about it.'_

Reaching out with her hand she once more took a delicate hold of the bulky weapon. Bringing it in towards her she cradled it, her gaze locked on the open tip of the barrel. Billy immediately became tense as she began to examine the deadly tool, knowing full well what she was contemplating in her state of utter despair.

'_Should I do it?'_ She wondered as she ran her slender human-looking fingers across its surface. _'If I pull the trigger all my memories of my suffering will be destroyed. I won't be able to think or feel, so I won't be able to feel relief or sadness if I end it all, so in killing myself I'm not really escaping anything for anything better. If I kill myself everything I went through, my whole reason for ending it all, will all be irrelevant to me because I won't be there to feel anything for it. The way I feel now, wanting to end the misery, is the whole reason for pulling the trigger. But if what I feel now won't matter after I pull the trigger, then why should I pull the trigger in the first place?'_

With that she returned the gun to the table, setting it down next to the stripped wallets. Curling up again she let herself go numb once more, blocking out all the heartache of everything that played out in her head over and over.

"I can't die, and I'm not alive either." She said out loud to herself. "What the hell am I supposed to do now?"

'_Tak, if only you had sought refuge in Endsville.'_ Billy thought with a hint of sadness, knowing that it was only a few minutes before Mandy would…

"_Knock knock!"_

'_I knew she'd be early.'_ He prepared to execute the plan as Tak cast her eyes to the door again.

A flare of desperation flung her to her feet. Tak dashed frantically to the door, the need to see another face driving her to the brink of panic. She barely considered that the doorway may be empty again, with no one to greet her other than her own disappointment, if it was she would introduce anyone she could find to her baseball bat. Attacking the door with a thud she grasped the handle and wrenched it open violently before the person could run.

Her eyes immediately widened when she found a blonde haired human girl slightly taller than her standing before her. Neither spoke as Tak stared upon the girl in a state of shock, all the while she gaxed at her with a level stare.

'_Something's different about her, something special.'_ She thought as she scanned the girl's face. The way she looked intently at her, the two strange yet so very captivating dark eyes delving right into her as they examined the Irken outcast, was something she had never felt before. Though she held a stern expression, giving her a feeling of control and the sense she meant business being here, there was no vicious spite or arrogant, chauvinistic bigotry as she had come to expect from others. It was obvious that she was not from Townsville. Looking at her as she gazed on with calm control made her feel secure in er own situation, and the panicked edge eased out of her wide-eyes. _'I feel power in her. She has spirit, and direction. She's a leader of something. So why is she here?'_

Mandy stared intently at the girl who now stood just inside the doorframe. She was perhaps two years younger than her in appearance, though in reality she knew Irkens lived for hundreds of years. Her file stated that she was more than a century old, her late teens if compared to humans. She did not shift her eyes of Tak's, even as in the background she saw a greenish liquid rising up from the floor on the other end of the room, taking the shape of Billy as he willed himself to return to his human form, the scythe forming with him without a sound. He looked to her and nodded, indicating that he was ready.

"I'm sorry, I'm looking for Tak." Mandy spoke calmly to the violet haired woman in disguise. Immediately she saw a reaction, her expression becoming that of bafflement and tension. "Is that your name?"

"… Uuuhhh…"

In her time in Townsville she had actually forgotten that people would be looking for her. It had never occurred to her that someone would actually find her in amidst the refuse of this place. But then if this girl was from the neo-Nazi group formerly known as the Swollen Eyeball Network, then why did she sense none of the vicious spite those vile people possessed towards anyone different? In fact why send a child in the first place?

"… Yeah?" He answered warily, awaiting a response.

Her question answered, their target now locked on she glanced back to Billy. He held his scythe up and aimed at the girl's back, still yet to be seen. Taking a deep breath she put her trust and faith in him and his mysterious plan. Without saying a word she moved back out from the doorway, stepping off to the left of the door as Tak continued to gaze in wonder at her. Before she could ask her breath became caught in her mouth as she felt a blinding shock flash throughout her every nerve and muscle fibre. Her vision turned bright green as a stream of glowing particles radiated from the tip of Billy's scythe behind her.

"GA-"

She tried and failed to scream as the surge immediately overwhelmed her brain, plunging her into darkness. As she began to keel over backwards, the pak took the brunt of the attack. Immediately the projector for the holographic disguise shorted out, the disguise flickering and dispersing. Billy and Mandy watched on as a small green skinned alien hit the old floor with a dull thud.

Together they moved in on the figure, looking down on her with wonder, clad in an old beige tee shirt and jeans as she lay sprawled across the floor. Looking down from above they could make out two scars on the side of her head where the tracking brace had been torn out. Her small limbs held quite a lean shape from the toned muscles beneath the green skin. Obviously she had been a far harder worker than Zim ever was; a leftover from her years of tirelessly trying to live up to her people's demands.

"What did you do?" Mandy asked concerned. "You said that you had an idea how to avoid killing her."

"She's not dead, just unconscious." He answered her as he reached for the door, flinging it shut. "I watched over her, and there's plenty of fire left in her. She just needs some companions like her to get it stoked again."

"You mean…" She looked to him.

"We may have just found ourselves a new partner." He explained, crouching down next to her. "Come on, help me move her before she wakes up and kills us."

* * *

A few minutes later.

"… _Uuuhhh…"_

Bit by bit Tak began to regain consciousness. The first thing she noticed in her world of darkness was the aching and soreness left over from whatever it was that had surged through her.

'_That felt like electroshock.'_ She thought on the blow that struck her from without and within, coursing through her in a flash of pain before it overloaded her brain. She remembered the particular sensation of electroshock well from the sessions of 'corrective therapy' applied to her to try and break her free thinking nature. Though it failed, neither torture nor her own desire to fit in enough to blind her to reality, they continued the horrid sessions hundreds of times, until they began sending her on suicide missions. Thus she had come to know the sensation of electricity coursing through her far too well.

'_But that felt kind of different. It felt almost like it was alive.'_ Though she knew the sensation well, none of the sessions of torture had ever felt like the energy itself was actively trying to cause her pain. So far as she knew energy didn't have a will of its own. _'I could feel it as it burned through me. It was dark and crazy, but it felt like it was trying to limit the pain and knock me out quickly. It was almost like it… respected me.'_

Surprised by how strange her own musings had become, she began to focus on her eyelids. Pushing past the light haze of pain with ease she ordered her eyelids to crack open, immediately sensing the orange tinted light of this decaying city. After letting her eyes adjust to the light through the afternoon atmosphere she began to open them up wider, soon making out the blurry shapes of two humans standing over her at her feet.

Alarm sprang into her mind and body as she focused on the two. She immediately recognised the girl who had come searching for her, looking down on her with… an unusual lack of smug contempt. Next to her stood a boy roughly her age, a lean red-headed youth who exuded the same sense of danger and yet quiet respect. In their hands lay two staffed weapon of some type, red and green respectively, their destructive fury quelled by the will of their masters.

She tried to sit up and move away from her captors. Upon trying to pull herself upright she felt her hands catch on something behind her head, keeping her down. Casting her gaze down towards where her hands lay behind her head she found them chained together, locked around the steel central pillar of the dinner table.

"Hey! What? What is this! What are you doing!" Tak barked, her alarm growing greater once she realised that her arms held the natural green hue, indicating that her disguise mechanism had failed. The red-headed one raised his hands.

"Relax, we're not gonna hurt you, we just didn't wanna take any risks." The boy spoke up gesturing for calm with his hands. "Although I guess it's kinda hard to relax when you're chained up like this."

"… Then… what are you doing here? What do you want!" She responded forcefully. Focussing on her pak she prepared her spider legs to activate should the two turn aggressive. She noticed the two turn to share a meaningful look, both remaining largely quiet and apprehensive in facing her.

"We just want to talk to you, but we couldn't take the chance that you'd kill us before we're done explaining, so we had to restrain you." Billy explained apologetically.

"What we want Tak," Mandy began calmly, a feeling of intense interest in her voice despite her otherwise hardline stare, "is actually not so different to what we figure you want."

Tak looked up at the two in bewilderment. Her position was one of great confusion and disorientation, far beyond anything she had ever faced in her life of struggle and single-minded objectivism and goals. To be suffering alone, then attacked out of the blue, and now have the two responsible telling her they held similar goals to her, even her strong mind could barely begin to comprehend the situation.

"You are… You want… What?" She stammered in her particular southern British accent.

"Let me guess…" Billy spoke up, folding his arms and shifting his weight from one foot to another. "You have a fierce ingrained hatred for all the vermin of the world, all the killers, rapists, liars and bigots who think they're the only one that matters. What about how you were betrayed by your depraved leaders the Tallest, and the rest of your people, for just being different?"

He kneeled down in front of her. "You declared war against the rest of the world, but you were defeated, cause no matter how many you kill there's still millions of them and only one of you."

His eyes slipped down to something more sombre as he continued. "What about how there's no hope for life ever getting any better? What about how you've had to live alone your entire life, with no one there to give you any sort of company, or care, or friendship…"

He cut away as he saw the Irken's face lower, the darkness engulfing and eating her once again. Once again they came to feel the cold breath of despair as it pulled this young woman before them into the empty black void.

"It's cold in hell." Mandy spoke solemnly to the ruined figure. "Isn't it?" Tak raised her face once again to fix a blank stare upon the girl, all anger and will to fight long gone.

"Hell…" She droned in a near trance-like state, her voice so chilling and cold it made them wince. "What would you two know about hell? Have you ever gone through a lifetime of agony for the people you love, only to come up with nothing? Have you ever experienced torture, where people are actually deliberately trying to cause you pain? Have you two ignorant human fools ever felt…" Her breath caught in her throat as a stab of pain shot through her chest.

"The numbing emptiness of being alone?"

Tak looked up at the blonde taken aback slightly, the light shock bringing her out of her heartache. The girl's eyes seemed to loose the dark power within, her face drooping with what she presumed to be some kind of harsh memory.

"Yeah, I admit I don't know what it's like to have to grovel for dignity, but I do know what it's like to be surrounded by a group of bloodthirsty sociopaths. I know…" She began to breathe hard, Billy looking up to concerned. "I know what it's like to be tortured. And I have felt the effects, the feeling… of being… alone." She took on a far distant look as she remembered what she had seen in the ruinous future that they had gone through. How she had decayed from being a strong, domineering young woman, to a broken shell incapable of feeling joy or happiness. The feel of that hideously broken, miserable aura around that wretched woman still haunted her. It haunted her ever more because on that one occasion, on the long night road leading away from the destroyed cabin, she had actually fallen into that awful hollow void. It was something she would never forget.

Mandy felt her lovers hand reach up and slip gently into hers, taking hold of her to remind her that he was there for her, and that she would never have to be alone again. Tak watched in rapt wonder at the sense of care and compassion shared between the two. It was a matter of such relevance to her, as for as long as she could remember she had wanted to share something just like that. Underneath her eyes she could feel a faint pressure forming, and in the back of her mind she wondered if tears were coming.

Mandy motioned for Billy to move around behind Tak to disengage the locks around her hands. He nodded, stepping around to kneel down behind the table he had chained her to.

"I'm going to release you now, and your pak should come back online shortly. But when I do I ask that you don't do anything like trying to kill us." Billy spoke.

Setting his hands on the dull grey steel links he began to pull them apart. Immediately upon recognising the touch of their master's hands the links dissolved back into the dark green tendrils they started as, easily pulling apart under the strain of Billy's grip. Tak felt the chain uncurl from her wrists as Billy withdrew it from the table stand, tossing the grey-green linkage aside now its purpose was complete, landing on the old carpet with a thud.

Pulling her hands around she sat upright against the metal pillar as Billy made his way around to her front again, standing beside Mandy as Tak continued to look upon them in wonder. So far as she knew if they intended to keep her a prisoner against her will, they wouldn't have dared unshackle her, and would be guarding her closely with weapons drawn. Perhaps these two had something else in mind.

"Who are you people?"

"My name's Mandy." The girl spoke.

"I'm Billy." The red-headed boy introduced himself, his scythe seemingly vanishing into thin air at the flick of the wrist.

"What do you want with me?"

"We want you to join our cause." Mandy answered. "We want to take control of the planet, and turn it into our own dictatorship, so we can instil strict order, and punish all the corrupt, small-minded people responsible for ruining it the first time. But we're not looking for you to join us as a subordinate or some lowly minion. We want you to come with us and work and fight beside us as a companion."

Tak gaped wordlessly, largely in disbelief over what she had just heard.

"We were reading over a file on you, and we saw that you were a lot like us." Billy explained. "We thought it was wrong that someone like you could be left to just rot away in this horrible place all alone. So we thought maybe, if you wanted to that is, you would be willing to join us in our little plan to bring anarchy and destruction and all that to the killers and liars of the world. But more importantly we want to bring you back to a place where there are a few others like us."

"Wait… You want me to join you…" She searched for the words to describe her strange predicament, and the offer that sounded almost too good to be true. "… Because you want me as a… friend?" Billy and Mandy looked back and fourth between each other for a moment.

"Only if you're willing." Billy replied, Mandy kneeling down to face her at eye level.

"Look, I know this sounds strange, and I really don't blame you if you don't trust us, but just think about it for a moment okay?" She spoke in a calm and reassuring voice, something akin to how a mother would reassure their child, or perhaps a close companion. "I know what it's like to be betrayed by someone you trusted and considered a comrade, it cuts you up inside. But you can't let that-"

"Who was it?"

Mandy paused for a moment in confusion. "What?"

"The friend who betrayed you, who was it?" Tak repeated, cautious to see that she wasn't just making this up to gain her trust.

Mandy remained silent for a moment, recalling the many good times she and Billy had shared with the dark mysterious youth they had once known as a friend. For so long he had been a part of their lives, someone who they could be sure would look out for them, someone who they could count on and trust, just as he could count on them. Once again an ache developed inside her upon realising that all along the close friend she had thought she had, the one who understood her right down to the molecule, was nothing more than…

"… His name was Max." She answered at last, shuffling her weight to sit herself down on the carpet before Tak as she listened intently, Billy joining her seated likewise. She could sense the strain the girl was under even before she began, providing her with all the information she needed before Mandy had even opened her mouth. "We met about four years ago. He was just like me, except he was always calm and smiling, even though he thought the way I did, about power and order and all that. He was my best friend, second only to Billy. He understood me, like he could see what I was thinking and feeling, and knew exactly what it was like." She spoke in a dazed state, remembering all those happy memories of the time they were only eight and nine years old.

"We went through hell and back with Max, and he was always right there beside us the whole time. We fought all manner of monsters and hordes of demons together, and while we often got knocked down or got trapped, we could always count on Max to get us out. He would come over to our houses and spend time with us every day. He was always there, always right beside us. I even looked up to him. I saw how he was always so calm and controlled, and had an inner strength that I'd never seen before. I looked up to him almost… like a brother…"

At this point Mandy cut off, her vision blurring as something hot clouded her eyes. Billy placed his hand on her shoulder as she wiped away the tears that had sprung up with the back of her hand. Tak watched on, mesmerised by what was, to her, a mirror of her own pain and heartache.

"I never thought he was gonna kill me." Mandy spoke in a strained and hurt voice, her eyes a faint red not with anger but unshed tears. "All along he was only using me for his own purposes. He never felt anything for me, and when I became a threat to his plan, he set out to kill me himself. He killed my mom and dad, and forced us into hiding for months. When we saw him next he… was looking at us like we were the enemy. He was gonna kill us, after all we'd been through together." She stopped again to wipe away a tear that began to slide its way down the side of her face. "It was all an act. All along, right from the beginning, he never cared about us at all."

The three sat quietly in a mix of heartache, Billy and Mandy wrapped up in the hurt of betrayal from someone they had thought of as family, Tak immersed in her lifetime of betrayal by her entire race. It was during these few sobering moments of shared grief and anguish that Tak extended her slender three fingered hand out towards the two. Billy and Mandy looked up to see the woman with her hand extended, her violet eyes shimmering with the very same deep pain they felt. Together they reached out to gently link hands with the Irken outcast. The three held hands, a small flicker of a smile taking place on Tak's face as she realised that for the first time in her long life, she had just met someone like her. She was not alone anymore.

"Alright, I'll join you."

The three remained there content, seeing fit just to continue to sit and enjoy the moment. Whereas they had lost Max, him having never really been there in the first place, now they had just gained a new companion, someone who really was just like them. Tak and they hadn't known each other for more than a few minutes and already they had formed a close bond. Neither of them had any illusions that it would take time to build trust and cement whatever bond they shared, but they had done it before with Max, and unlike him she wasn't a lie.

Eventually they let go, looking between each other in thought.

"So what happens now?" Tak asked.

"Okay, uuuhhh…" Billy fought for a decent plan for what to do with their new found companion, remembering now that they had to make it look like she was killed for Zim. "Haven't the foggiest." Mandy looked upon him flatly.

"First we have to fake your death to cover your tracks and get you out of Townsville. You see we were originally sent here by that pompous idiot Zim to kill you, so we have to make you disappear again, that way we can keep him working for us." Mandy answered. Tak's eyes widened at the mention of one of her old enemies, particularly surprised that they had come to kill her, but filed it away to discuss later. "After that you can come back with us to Endsville. There are plenty of places for you to stay there, but the people there are even more mindless than they are here. We'll help you set up there for…" She blanked out stupidly for a moment. "Mm I dunno… Getting your life sorted out, helping us take over I guess. We haven't really thought this through."

Tak blinked in confusion, putting it out of her mind a moment later as she rose to her feet, stepping out from under the table before rising to full short height. Searching her pak systems with her minds eye she checked to make sure everything was still in working order as it came back online, primarily the disguise generator. Finding it still in good condition she ordered it to take form, her two companions watching in interest as her green skin and antennae flickered and disappeared, replaced with the dark young girl with the pail skin and blue hair they had met earlier.

"Let's go." Mandy spoke sternly as she led them out, her near eternal glower returning. "We'll have to torch the room so get anything you need now." Tak thought for a moment, shifting her eyes to the coffee table. Stepping over she grabbed her pistol and a spare magazine and dropping them into a compartment in her disguised pak, moving over to the TV to switch it off, pulling out her tomahawk from the back of it to tuck under her tailcoat before turning back to the two.

"Okay, ready."

"… Alright then, follow me. The car's just outside." She answered, stepping through the doorway with her comrades in tow. "Billy, you take care of the room, and bring out Zim again to show him. That way he'll think she's dead."

Nodding Billy stood outside the open doorway as Mandy and Tak began to make their way towards the stairs at the end of the grimy corridor. Turning back to the dingy apartment he again ordered his scythe to materialise to his hand, levelling it at the doorway into the room. With a brilliant flash of blue-green an aurora of white hot tendrils blasted from the blade, scouring every inch of the interior in an instant. He held the blast for only a second, the searing heat and energy of destruction giving him a faint rush of adrenaline, a smirk forming on his features. The instant he shut off the blast the green flash disappeared, revealing a searing, raging orange inferno within the old room. He smiled, knowing one day soon his entire existence would be characterised by scenes of anarchy and destruction such as this.

"This is much more fun than the last time we burned something down."

Without turning from his handiwork he pointed the scythe towards the roof to his right side, stabbing another ball of energy out of it, another portal forming in midair facing the ground.

"Wah-Augh!" He heard Zim grunt as he fell out and hit the roof, then fell to the floor. How he enjoyed being able to smack around the pompous bigot; it did much to brightened his already good day. Glancing across he saw the arrogant Irken laying face down on the floor, GIR draped over his head behind his antennae, what he presumed to be a smile on his disguises dog-like features. Looking up the bubbly robot's eyes beamed with joy at the sight of his friend.

"_Hey it's… Billy! HIIIIII BIIIILYYYYY!"_ The robot shrieked joyfully, bounding over to hug his leg. Said boy looked down in wonder at the robot.

"Hello GIR. How'd ya know my name was Billy?"

"_I guessed."_

Truth be told he had wanted to avoid giving his name to the little egomaniac to avoid giving him any thread that could lead back to where he lived or what they were really doing. Turning from the happy droid he regarded Zim with a smirk as he struggled to his feet, trying to wave away the clouds of ash and smoke billowing out into the corridor.

"I just destroyed Tak, just like ya screamed ya stuck-up weirdo." Recovering from the shock Zim looked into the flaming open doorway, gaping at the scene of hell within.

"Oh… Uuuhhh… Good! Very good indeed my inferior human serva-" He stopped as Billy fixed him a harsh, vicious stare, grinning at him through waves of malice.

"Don't forget, you answer to us now. You stand to gain a lot from this little venture, but you do what we say." He raised a tightly curled fist in emphasis, "Or else!" Zim held his hands up in surrender as he backed away fearfully of the menacing human, his eyes taking on a bright green hue in reaction to the growing desire to smash him rising within the youth.

"Okay, okay, I will."

"Good. Anyway now that we've done what you asked and destroyed two of your enemies, three if you count Gaz, you will now go to the Dark Systems building in Chicago. Take all the computer files from the underground lab and get to work. Do this immediately, and don't get caught. Remember, we want an army and immortality, you got that?" He ordered the silently unnerved fool who nodded nervously.

"Yes, whatever you say human." He grovelled to the dangerous youth, bent over, rubbing his hands anxiously like a vision of a pathetic sycophant.

"Alright then." Billy said, readying his scythe to cast another portal, the remaining demonic green hue vanishing from his eyes. He was interrupted before he could cast by a loud cry of…

"_SPUFFY SNUFFY SNUGGY STUFFELEY!"_

Glancing behind him he saw GIR rolling around on the ground, seemingly giving himself a hug. No doubt he would be a constant drain on the Irken's patience. Watching the robot's random acts of silliness, he found himself reminded of another living example of comic relief. His eyes widened as an incredible thought occurred to him.

"Hey Zim, how'd you like me to take GIR off your hands for you? I know a perfect place for him." He spoke to the Irken as they watched the silly robot roll around in a playful fit of giggling. "Surely he'd get in the way more than he helps practically?"

"You have a point there filthy demonic primate." Zim replied as he considered the proposition. To him GIR had been nothing more than faulty equipment, a menace with his constant insolence. What did he have to loose in letting him go? "Very well, you may take him."

"Okay. You hear that GIR, Zim's giving you to a new master who's just like you!"

"_YIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!"_ He began bouncing up and down, rushing over to give Zim a hug goodbye. _"Bye bye grumpy!"_

"GIR, GET OFF ME YOU STUPID FOOL!" Zim roared as he felt the robot crushing him in his grip. "YOU SMELL LIKE SWEATY GARBAGE TACOS!"

"_I'll miss you too."_ GIR sniffled as Zim levered himself out of his grasp. Billy levelled the scythe at his irritating subordinate. Another moment later Zim disappeared into a swirling green whirlpool, closing immediately behind him.

"Anyway little buddy, I've got someone you just have to meet." Billy spoke to the malfunctioning robot as he began on his way towards the staircase, leaving the inferno behind him as it began to spread into adjacent rooms. With a cry of glee GIR darted ahead of him, vanishing down the stairway far ahead. He continued onwards at his own leisurely pace, taking note of a seedy looking man whom he passed along the way.

"Hey man, you want some crack?" The seedy peddler and addict asked as he passed him by, his skin turning yellow despite being Negro.

"No."

"C'mon man, this is some real good shit. Yummy yummy crack." Billy deadpanned as he began following behind him, not quite noticing the scythe in his hand.

"No, go away."

"Hey man you gotta buy some'a dis ya know." The lowlife sneered as he tailed the boy as he approached the stairs. "C'mon man. You don't want me to cut your throat do ya? Heh heh!"

Billy stopped in his tracks. He pursed his lips irritably as the seedy individual locked his hands on his shoulders, pulling himself up to press his chest against the boy's back. Had the psychopathic drug peddler been facing the boy head on he would have wondered why his blue eyes and skin had changed colour again.

"So come on man, buy some sh-"

His threatening words were cut off, his eyes going wide with shock and horror as said boy rounded upon him, grinning manically as he fixed both hands on the staff and in a swift up and over swing hacked off his right arm at the shoulder.

"AAAAAHHHH!"

Billy watched in sadistic glee as the man gave a violent screech. He grinned as the blood spattered down upon him, the peddler staggering back gaping in horror and agony at the bloody stump of meat. Wanting more he bought the blade around for a second swing, cutting across his throat artery, down through his lung and heart as he twirled around crouched low with sick glee in his features.

"Do I look like your kind of vermin? No! I don't want any yummy yummy crack!" He taunted as the blood rained on his back, some even dripping down off the ceiling, turning back in time to see the body fall forwards to bleed out over the carpet. He perked as the door he had seen him come out through opened again as three gun toting criminals emerged, hearing their partner's scream.

"What the, OH JESUS!" They were much the same as their predecessor, drug worn and festering, and they shared his fate.

Billy smirked at the three as they gaped in horror at the sight of their horribly mutilated friend, and him standing with blood all over him and an axe as tall as himself by his side. Panicked one fell on his back as they each pulled their weapons and fired, the gunshots drowned out by their screaming.

His grin threatening to tear his face apart, Billy whipped in towards the three as their bullets struck the wall behind him and the ceiling. His rush of exhilaration and personal satisfaction reached its peak as he bought his left hand in to take hold of the face of the nearest Crips thug and hoist him up off the floor, several bullets blowing through the man's body from where the others stood a few feet behind. Pushing his skull back further and further he felt his neck break apart, uttering an awful snarl as he demanded more from his body and promptly tore his head from his body in a deluge of hot blood.

The remaining two had just enough time to comprehend their friend's blood covering their faces before Billy dropped the body and raised his scythe, the terrible desire in his demonic eyes giving away their fates.

He ducked to the left as they fired at him again, streaking down the hall past them, swinging his blade as he passed the two.

Looking back quickly he watched them fall with only the greatest satisfaction, their legs coming apart at the thighs having been cut right through by the brutal green blade. Turning one last time he swung again as they fell, cleaving the bodies apart in a fantastic shower of mad joy that covered the walls and floor of the smoky corridor.

Drawing the enormous strength back into the depths of his body Billy smiled as he continued onwards, the blood staining the sleeves of his shirt as he moved past what was left of the bodies. He wiped away some of the evidence of his slaughter, wiping his bloodstained hands on the walls as he descended the stairs, smiling contentedly at the thought of the four despicable men's death. He remembered how before they went into hiding he would fantasize about being able to spread death and horror down on his enemies. Now that dream had come true.

'_Heh heh. Damn killing feels good._' In particular he remembered tearing the man's head off with his hand. _'And what's better, I'm getting stronger. It's just as Grim said.'_

* * *

Outside Mandy and Tak watched as a small green dog-like creature came tearing down the staircase, racing out to meet them happily. After a moment Tak recalled the poorly disguised SIR unit she had encountered when she confronted Zim at his base, the alien robot bounding out to meet them.

"_Yaaaayyyyy!"_ He called as he began to run in a circle around the two women.

"Uh, what is this?" Mandy asked as the robot poked its head between her feet, nuzzling against the inside of her leg.

"I think that's Zim's robot GIR." She answered with surprise as she narrowed an eye at him. "What he's doing here is beyond me."

"He's coming back with us." They turned to see Billy descending the stairs, exiting the burning building through a growing haze of smoke, blood staining portions of his tee shirt. "I'm gonna give him to someone who should get along just nicely with him. Besides, we can't have him wrecking Zim's work, not while it's our work he's working on."

Looking uncertainly from him down to the small robot dog as it continued to nuzzle into her leg, she accepted his reasoning.

"Looks like you've been having fun." Mandy commented of the blood now dispersing off his form.

"You too." He nodded to the bodies in the street. "Let's get out of here."

They turned and began to make their way towards the alley they had left the car in.

"_BZZZZZT!"_

Upon hearing the particular sound she and Billy rushed forward, Tak and GIR trailing behind growing more curious by the second. Upon reaching the alley they gaped dumbstruck at the pile of smoking bodies, all of which had attempted to steal the car, paying no heed to the bodies strewn about before them.

"There has to be twenty people piled around the thing." Mandy commented in caustic disbelief. "How are we gonna get out with that many bodies in the way?"

"HAHAHAHA!" Billy racked with laughter as they began to make their way towards the still charged vehicle, Tak being careful to keep her distance as they approached. Without wasting a second Mandy reached out with the keys, unlocking the vehicle from afar. Billy raised his scythe, flinging the half-cooked bodies piled in front of the car aside before calling and instantly releasing the powerful charge back into the source.

Most of it anyway.

"Don't worry." He spoke as he reached for the driver's side doorhandle. "It's perfectly-"

"_Bzt!"_

Billy recoiled at the shock he received, his vision blurring into a mass of spots and disorientation from the remaining static charge.

"Whohoa tingly! Teeheehee!" He light heartedly shrugged off the jolt, gripping the handle again to open it outwards and move the seat forward. He held it open politely for their guest of honour to step over into the back. "Ladies first."

Staring for a moment Tak gave a wide smile as she stepped through the gap in the seats into the rear of the cabin, clearly unused to such respect and chivalry as the gentleman Billy moved the seat back so Mandy could take her seat behind the wheel a moment later, the two women sharing a smirk as he made his way around to his door. Starting the car as Billy settled in Mandy ordered the windows and roof panel to retract back, easing their way out onto the streets with caution. Pulling out they turned and manoeuvred around the garbage Mandy had left on the road and whisked off away from the burning apartment building just as the inhabitants began to pour out the front door in hysteria.

With their view of the decaying world of vice now largely unimpeded, Tak found herself gazing at her familiar surroundings one last time as they drove steadily off down the litter strewn street. They each grimaced at the broken down wrecks of human beings that littered the footpaths, the whores that searched for their next job, the pimps that beat them for their earnings, and the junkies looking for a fix. Now that she was leaving here for some place new she came to realise just how much she hated this place, and the people. Even if where she was going was infested with just as many worthless sociopaths, at least she wouldn't be the only sane person trapped in it all.

Cruising on down the road they approached an intersection, part of the roads leading to and from it blocked by rubble from a collapsed building. Driving steadily up to it, taking care not to run over any of the bricks littering the road, they drove out into the crossroad. Upon getting there the three were immediately alerted to the sound of a car's engine revving far harder than their own. Turning to the left they saw an old grey Corolla hurtling towards them, its breaks locking in a slide as the driver noticed their appearance. Mandy too stabbed on the brakes, but too late, the Porsche stopping directly in the path of the car as it continued to shed speed.

They braced for a side impact, but were relieved when the old bomb managed to pull up little more than a metre shy of Mandy's door. Relieved they looked across to the reckless driver as he sat hunched over the wheel, recovering from the shock. As soon as he had recovered his plump features turned into a twisted, reddened visage of rage.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! YOU ALMOST HIT ME YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!" He roared, shaking his fist through the open window. The three in the coupe didn't bother to reply, knowing full well that any attempt to tell the arrogant fat man that he was at fault would only escalate his already palpable fury. Even from where they sat they could make out beer cans through the glass littered throughout his car, indicating that he was a drunkard. Tak narrowed her eyes on the man, his features hidden partly by this rage and the dirty glass.

'_He seems familiar.'_

"Sorry," Billy called out, "we'll be more careful ne-"

"THERE WON'T BE A NEXT TIME YA HEAR! YOU LITTLE SHITS ALMOST MADE ME HIT YOU! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME!"

Without further ado Mandy depressed the throttle again, easing the car away from the violent drunkard as they continued on down the street. Unfortunately for them they saw as behind them the old car pulled around the debris strewn corner, driving up to tail them closely.

"PULL OVER!"

The three grimaced worse and worse as the car behind them blared it's horn incessantly.

"PULL OVER!"

Mandy had to accelerate gradually to avoid the bumper of the Corolla just a few feet shy of them, the situation made all the worse by the on and off blaring.

"PULL OVER!"

The driver continued to rant and rave at them, positioning his car behind and to the side so he could stick his ugly head out the window and scream at them to…

"FUCK'N PULL OVER!"

Twisting around Tak saw the face of the man and instantly recognised where he had seen it before.

"That's my boss." She spoke to her comrades as they glanced back to the angry man. "He's always like this, fat selfish paedophile bastard!"

"Well I have a solution to that little problem right here." Billy said smiling confidently as he reached into his bag, withdrawing a green glass bottle with an oily rag sticking out the top. Mandy and Tak both looked at the petrol bomb in surprise, noticing two more stowed within the bag. They could smell the sticky gasoline on the air as he presented the crude home made weapon. Tak grasped the bottle by the neck, standing up out of the roof to face the angry lowlife, his face still red with furious screaming.

"YOU LI'L ASSHOLES PULL OVER!"

"Hey Gavin!"

The raving drunk immediately lost his ire, focussing on the blue haired girl in the back of the car. The girl he liked to terrorise and abuse while she worked for him.

"Tak?"

The girl with a molotov cocktail in her hand, lighting it with a spiny metallic projection extending from her back, grinning at him with insane glee. Moving the car further to the rear-right behind them he raised his hand to point at her with self-righteous hate.

"YOU'RE FIRED!"

"No Gavin, _YOU'RE FIRED!"_

Grinning crazily she hurled the flaming projectile towards her target. The burning rag whooshed through the air, Tak's perfect aim guiding the bottle in through the open window, striking and shattering against the sleazy man's cheekbones. The torrent of sticky goo plastered across his face and upper body, instantly conflagrating.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" He screamed in agony as his world became enveloped in flames. Reaching up he began to desperately try to wipe away the sticky burning screaming hell, leaving the wheel unattended as the car continued to amble along next to his would-be victims.

Tak and Billy watched as the flames billowed out of the window, the squealing pig inside flailing around in agony. Both held a similar vicious smiles of satisfaction, Tak's showing considerable more twist and mania to Billy's simmering psychosis, watching as their organic form of justice, as harsh and true as it was twisted and unforgiving, was served upon the depraved man. Mandy turned her cosmic eyes back and forth from the road to the rear view mirror overhead, lowering her face to intensify her deadly scowl as she regarded the scene with cold satisfaction, listening to his continued screaming as it added fuel to her furnace. She meditated on it as she drove, feeling it fill up her body and charge her batteries ready to crush more of her enemies.

The car began to swerve violently back and forth across the road behind them as the selfish paedophile grappled with the steering wheel in one hand, trying to pull the burning gel off with the other. His vision failed as the flames melted his corneas, causing his driving to rapidly deteriorate as the fat beneath his skin began to burn. Reaching up with both hands the three and GIR watched as he grabbed at his face and tore away two enormous flaps of skin and meat off his bloody white skull.

Tak sniggered at the show one last time before tiring of it, her features instantly hardening. Pursing her lips she ordered her four artificial limbs to extend from her pak, taking aim at the vehicle as it screeched and swerved across the street just metres behind them. In a flash of light four beams of searing energy coalesced together on the target, striking through the windshield to detonate inside the cabin. Gavin instantly ceased to be as the fireball up-ended the car, flinging it upwards as its rear wheels rocketed over the front. The three took satisfaction as the burning hulk slammed down on the road, landing on its roof as it ground to a halt behind them, the driver's mangled and burnt body somewhere within the inferno.

"KYAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" Struck by a sudden wave of crazy Tak opened her teeth and shrieked with her unstable, violent laughter for the first time since her betrayal. Instantly she felt the life return to her weathered soul, her uncontrollable mania against the corrupt igniting once more. She felt better than she had in a long time. Beside her GIR jumped up and laughed and cheered with her out the roof, while in the front seats Billy looked at Mandy with madness in his green eyes and face, seeing the crushing dark will in her iron scowl and burning orange eyes, both feeding each other's power immensely before they broke away to the road again.

Sitting back down Tak breathed deeply and roughly adjusted her optical hair, the rush of action and violence billowing in her lungs, flaring and blasting with every beat of her heart. She felt the same feeling of unrestrained power as she had on that night four years ago, an angel of vengeance ready and waiting to strike down the wicked and the vile and proud and shallow people of the world. Too bad she had to wait now for the chance to kill someone again.

Billy grinned at the transformation he saw taking place in the face of the girl sitting in the back, her inconvenienced features drawing breath through puckered lips as she tried to compose herself, calming down from their frenzy all the same. Looking to Mandy as she returned to normal he noticed her questioning gaze at the bag as they sank into their seats for the trip back to Endsville.

"Just how much do you keep in that bag of yours?"

"Yeah well I like to be prepared for the most likely scenarios. You know what life's like for us living in a giant crazy house." Billy answered her, leaning back in his seat, summoning the scythe once more ready to create the portal back to Endsville. He was startled when he felt Tak's mocking fingers worm across his shoulders as she poked her head in with a sly smirk.

"Say Mandy where do you go to get items like this one?" She sneered at him as he sniggered and ducked his head away, Mandy glancing across with a smirk. "You don't find guys that'll open a door for a lady much anymore, treat her all classy. Can I borrow him for just a little while?"

"Get your own gentleman Tak, this one's mine, and I'll burn him to ash before I let anyone else have him." Mandy answered toying with them.

"You're a lucky woman Mandy to get a hottie like this." Tak ran her fingers up his neck and into his hear while Billy began to struggle and laugh with the scythe still held awkwardly in his hands.

"You like sexy classy men do you Tak?" He answered, Tak nodding enthusiastically.

"I do now!"

"Well…"

He fell silent as his wide face showed a sudden thought. Tak frowned at him, before Mandy and he both turned to each other.

"I'm pretty sure we just had the same thought." She spoke to which he nodded.

"What? Thought what?" Tak pressured agitated, but to no avail, Billy raising the scythe to point out ahead near the front windscreen.

"Never you mind." He spoke smoothly in response. Tak let it go and watched on in interest as he cast the portal ahead through the glass, Mandy setting her eyes on the road again as they drove through it, leaving the ruined hellhole of Townsville behind, all three quietly looking forward to the day they would return to destroy it.

* * *

**I'm pretty proud of the you're fired bit. The guy telling them to pull over was based on something that happened to me. Take that road rage piece of shit! Not sure if the whole emotional talk part came out quite right but I'm happy.**

**Next we return to Endsville, where there's something big waiting for Junior. This next one is his coming of age chapter.**


	46. Nergal the Second

**Just got this in within minutes of my personal deadline!**

**As I said before, this chapter is all about Nergal Junior. It is his coming of age, and the culmination of everything that has happened to him to this point. A few funnies along the way, but this is really a pivot for this part of the story. After this we start winding down towards the end of the second part of the story, and everything that comes after it. This is also where we close the book on the Membrane family.**

**Thanks again for the reviews. Love you all, hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

**Nergal the Second.**

Mid afternoon.

"One thing's bothering me, why were you taking orders from Zim?" Tak asked over the sound of the air rushing over the open roof as the car cruised through the light traffic on the freeway outside of downtown Endsville. She poked her head into the front with her hands on the headrests while the radio softly played electronica music.

"We found ourselves in need of someone skilled with advanced technology who could do some jobs that we needed done." Mandy replied as she guided the car through the hectic streets. "In addition to having the necessary skills we needed someone who was arrogant and stupid whose ego suffocated their brain, and Zim fit the bill perfectly." She answered, laying many of Tak's potential fears to rest.

"What jobs?"

"A former friend of ours had been hard at work for a few years developing a robotic army for us to use in the takeover. In addition to that he was also supposed to develop a serum for immortality. After he was murdered we needed someone who could complete his work, someone we could control." She responded.

"I spoke to him and filled his head with all kinds of stuff about how great he is, and how he was betrayed by everyone, and told him that we wanted to make him the ruler of the Irken Empire. He only had to work for us so we could build up a base here, from which we'd take over Irk in his name." Billy regaled them of his meeting with Zim, and how he came to easily sway the arrogant fool by playing on his bloated ego. "He agreed to it, but first to ensure our loyalty we had to take out this little bigot named Dib who had driven him underground. He was quite powerful at first, he even destroyed all of downtown to try and stop us, but we killed him in the end, and his sister while we were at it, along with levelling every house in the neighbourhood as a show of force. Mandy threatened him that if he ever didn't do what we told him, or did anything stupid like try and betray us or something, then we'd mop the floor with him."

"Wait, you killed Dib Membrane?"

"Yeah. Why, does that bother you?"

"No. It's just… I knew him for a little while. He had it coming." Tak trailed off at the memory of the so-called respectable enemy. But if he had been able to level much of a city then obviously he had grown in his depravity since she had been gone. "Okay, but if you want Zim working for you, then why do I come into this?" Billy began to sheepishly explain his mistake in bringing her up before Zim.

"Well the thing was we didn't really know if you were still out for revenge or not. I bought that up and told him that while you did pose a threat, I also told him that if you really wanted to kill him you would've done it already. But you know how he is. He started ranting and raving about how you should be killed for not worshipping him, and something stupid like that. What could we do?"

"After we bought it up we couldn't back out of it, so we figured we might as well get it over with quickly." Mandy explained. "The reason we didn't go through with it though was because we read the file on you. It told us all about how you were betrayed and how you were fighting against the corrupt, and we respected that about you." She faced the blue hared girl as Tak sat back in her seat.

"It wasn't acceptable for us to kill someone like that simply because of an inconvenient order from a raving narcissist, and neither of us could allow such potential to just go to waste like that, not when there was so much we could accomplish together."

"That's why we spared you and offered you to come with us." Billy outlined his sentiments to the young Irken agent as Mandy kept her eyes on the road again.

Tak remained silent, nodding in understanding as they explained it all to her. She could sense no lie in his words, and the fact that he had admitted to having originally planned to kill her made all the difference, showing they were open with her. Their original assignment really didn't weigh on the young woman much at all. "Okay. So how many of there are you right now?"

She noticed as Billy and Mandy exchanged an awkward look before Billy looked back to her. "Well, counting Mandy and I, plus you, that brings us to… three, plus Zim on the side."

Tak stared at him with a look of disbelief. "You mean… you're talking about a global takeover, with just three people?"

"How many people did you have helping you when you almost turned Earth into a giant snack bowl for our beloved Tallest?" Came Billy's reply, instantly routing her argument. Mandy looked over and smirked.

"In case you hadn't noticed Billy and I are not considered ordinary people. We wouldn't be seriously considering this unless we considered it at least possible with the abilities we have available to us. We've already seen proof that it can be done, the main challenges we face now are doing it while there's still a world to take over, and making it work once it's done."

"_Uuh… Err what about me?"_ GIR spoke up next to Tak.

"No, you have your own job separate of us. If we involved you in our plans we would all die horrible degrading deaths." Billy told the little droid who nodded back enthusiastically.

Around them the traffic began to slow down dramatically, Mandy downshifting repeatedly as the traffic slowed to a crawl and a chorus of shouts and beeps began to resonate ahead of them. One man sitting behind them, a conniving white collar solicitor travelling in a late model silver Lexus, was becoming increasingly irate as he tried to change lanes. Though he tried time and time again to get into the slightly faster moving left lane, he always missed out due to the slower rate at which the four were travelling along at in their lane. It wasn't their fault of course, but to the stuck-up suck-up it didn't particularly matter.

"So what's the plan now?"

Billy opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by the loud blast of the car's horn from behind. Waiting it out he again opened his mouth, only for the beeping to begin again. This time though the longer he waited the more incessant and endless it became.

"COME ON MOVE YA IDIOTS!"

"_BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!"_

"MOOOVE!"

"_Awww, someone's gwumpy. He needs a time out!"_ GIR spoke from his spot as he climbed atop Tak's shoulder looking back, seeing the man pointing, shouting and shaking his fist at them, wholly unconcerned by how his actions may harm the person on the receiving end.

Billy grimaced in quietly growing irritation before quickly digging into his bag of hell once more.

"So many assholes on the road today." Retrieving his second Molotov bomb he held it out to Tak. "Can ya gimme a light?" Without hesitation she extended one of her metal limbs, the tip burning with enough energy for Billy to use as a lighter for the rag. "Thanks."

Without looking back around he simply tossed the bottle up over his shoulder, sending it careening out through the open roof, down onto the bonnet and windshield of the luxury car behind them. He waited and listened, hearing the sound of the bottle breaking and the napalm inside conflagrating, followed by an engine revving and tyres screeching. Mandy watched in cold interest at the traffic accident her partner caused as the panicked driver urged his car recklessly into the other lane, colliding with another entry level luxury car owned by another self-important prick; this one a contractor. Billy watched and smiled in deep bliss at the sound of a vicious fist fight breaking out between the two pompous buffoons in the middle of traffic, holding up yet more angry middle class white drivers behind them, all the while GIR cheered and giggled with fulfilment.

"I love my life. I have a beautiful, terrifying girlfriend." Mandy smiled at his affectionate words "I'm surrounded by great people who hate everyone just as much as I do, and I get to commit minor acts of domestic terrorism against corrupt government officials. I'm having a very happy and spiritually fulfilling moment here." He took a deep breath, slowly letting it out in a long sigh. "Aaaaahhhhhh."

"_I like happy-"_

"Don't interrupt me GIR!" He retorted hotly, going back to his blissful state a moment later. "Aaaaaahhhhh… Okay. Now we gotta find something to do with our friend Tak here." He reverted back to answering her earlier question, reaching forward to turn off the music. "Seriously though, we didn't really plan this out in advance so what can we do with her for now?"

"Well maybe she could stay over at our place tonight, assuming your… our mom's alright with that." Mandy spoke as she drove steadily amidst the worsening traffic, reaching across to touch a button and close the roof from the acrid air and language outside. "Perhaps tomorrow we could get started on finding her an apartment somewhere around here. But then there's the issue of getting enough cash to set up."

"Maybe she could move into Max's part of town." Billy suggested.

"I don't think so. I don't think she could handle any more urban blight in her lifetime."

"I don't have a problem with places like that." Tak spoke as they crawled along. "After living in Townsville I can live just about anywhere, so long as I have people I know nearby. And I can raise the necessary funds to get started and keep my skills sharp at the same time; I learnt that in Townsville too. " A slightly creepy grin broke out across her face. Looking between them Mandy relented with a shrug.

"I guess we'll start getting that sorted out tomorrow." Said Billy leaning back in his seat watching the traffic out the window with Tak gently petting GIR across the top of his puppy disguise. Growing bored and irritated by the yellow haze Mandy reached forward an turned the radio back on and began cycling through channels, noticing that there were only half as many now than there was before they left. She soon found a news broadcast, which she and Billy both listened to absent-mindedly.

"_China has responded to Russia's presence in Mongolia by strengthening their forces along their northern border. Russia's recent expansion into territories formerly part of the Soviet Union and beyond has bought relations between the two powers to their lowest point since the Sino-Soviet border clashes of the Cold War, however representatives from both states have dismissed claims that war may be imminent."_

Despite the grim nature of most news nowadays Billy felt a nostalgic smile creep up his lips. The fact that they were still broadcasting information about world events meant that National Unity had largely disregarded radio news, meaning that while the airways weren't free, there was less brain rotting propaganda to be expected here than on television. There was something very pure and romantic about radio news in Billy's eyes.

Mandy though had other thoughts on her mind. _'A war between Russia and China? Those two will be a significant hurdle in taking full control, particularly Russia's nuclear arsenal, and they're not gonna implode on themselves anytime soon. If I could play them both off against each other…'_ But other matters came up that drew her attention away.

As they crawled over the crest of a rise in the road surface she managed to see down the road ahead of them to what was causing the traffic. At an intersection ahead of them a number of army trucks had assembled a road block. A number of soldiers were checking the identities of everyone that passed through. Billy and Tak both noticed, and quickly realised that driving a stolen car underage was not something the army would tolerate, especially once they realised just who they were.

"We need to get off this road." Mandy spoke with noticeable urgency.

"Look." Billy pointed to a sweeping road leading off to the right nearby. Turning out onto the side of the road Mandy accelerated past the standing cars, pulling into the smaller road away from the military presence in time to not be noticed. The road led away into an old outer suburb of Endsville north of where they lived, which they remember coming to once on the Halloween they first met Jack.

"_In local news Mayor Roachspam is making a public appearance today for the opening of Membrane Labs' new recreational drugs factory here in Endsville. Critics say that Membrane Labs' line of drugs are considerably more damaging than the drugs they replace, however Mayor Roachspam has denied this as being the case, and has strongly pushed for the introduction of a plant here in Endsville."_

Scoffing at the news Mandy was quick to reach across and switch it back to the channel playing David Guetta. Increasing her pace she wheeled the car hurriedly through sweeping residential corners, moving past a series of houses still under construction. Beyond them in a less populated area that could have been mistaken for a park she cast an eye towards the local cemetery to their right.

Billy was surprised when he felt himself shift forward in his seat as Mandy pulled the car over to the side of the street. Turning to her he saw her gazing across past him at the cemetery gate with a heart-struck look. She shifted her gaze slightly to meet his eyes, and he quickly got what was on her mind.

Turning off the engine she led them out. Tak narrowed her eyes at the larger human's back as she pushed open the dreary iron gates in a manner that almost mocked their oppressive air, even GIR seeing fit in his childish mind to keep quiet beside Tak's feet. Mandy stood and surveyed the rows of hundreds of gravestones with a sigh of despair, all these names and she didn't even know if they were here or not. But she ventured out anyway, single-mindedly checking the name on every grave she passed.

Billy moved to follow close behind her but felt a hand tug at the sleeve of his shirt, turning around to see Tak looking to him for answers.

"She's looking for some people she once knew." He answered shortly.

"Who? Who's she looking for?" Tak persisted, Billy looking back to her as she searched

Her family."

She let him go so he could join her in support, watching the girl from a short distance as she picked up her pace. She saw the pain of desperation in her eyes and her erratic step, and minute by minute as Mandy scoured the cemetery rows she began to take on the appearance of a young animal lost from its parents' side, helpless. How accurate this was to the reality of her situation right now. Looking down she almost pitied the small dog looking up at her not knowing what to do or how to react to the situation. Reaching down she took him in her arms protectively, allowing him to rest his head against her shoulder reassuringly as she set off slowly after the two humans.

Mandy delved deep into the irregularly set graves and tombstones, before long abandoning any kind of method to her search as she looked left and right hurriedly. Though it was reassuring to look back and see her partner standing there with her through the stress of the moment, it did little to calm her growing need to see them again, to find them, becoming frantic even though she had no real idea what she was supposed to do when or if she found their resting place. But all the gravesites looked old and weathered, all showing names she did not recognise.

She came to a stop at the far end of the cemetery, looking out at the hundreds of graves with no sign of her family, desperate to find them and with no way out.

"They're not here."

Mandy turned around at the familiar velvety voice to see Junior striding calmly in her direction with his hands in his pockets, with Piff following him from a distance. He looked at her sombrely through green-tinted spectacles as she faced him with a fragile worry he had never seen in her before.

"I had a feeling you'd come here about now."

"Where are they?" She insisted immediately. Junior stopped before her with his face lowered.

"Dad and I suspected the police would abuse their remains while they had them. Luckily we came and took them back with us before they could do anything." He told her before pausing uncomfortably, doing her the honour of looking at her as he told her. "We had hoped that you may be able to come back in time to see them off, but when it became clear that wouldn't be the case we conducted our own service in their honour, and cremated them. We distributed their ashes out to sea, far away from this ghastly place. I'm sorry that you couldn't be there, but we felt we had to do the right thing by them as we saw it."

Mandy lowered her face in thought. She would never get the chance to properly say goodbye to them, but what was the alternative? They couldn't have come back while Max was looking for them, and Junior and his family couldn't hold onto them waiting for them to return. But more than that, she trusted the Nergals and so did her mother and father, knowing that it was them to send them off on her behalf gave her the knowledge they were treated with the highest respect. And she had bid them goodbye in her own time, when she had burned their summer home, letting go the last tie she had with them. Beyond that the fact they were laid to rest far from here took a weight off her shoulders, they were too good to have to sit anywhere near this place.

Closing her eyes she bowed slightly with content. Looking up to Junior as he faced her quietly she stepped in and wound her arms around his shoulders in a gentle embrace. Junior faltered momentarily, caught by the sudden affection shown by the girl he had once known to be everything she wasn't now, but soon saw right to wind his arms around her the same.

"Thank you." Mandy spoke as she let go back, quietly recomposing herself again before facing him with an orderly front. "So, did you get done what you wanted to do?"

"The day has been productive." He responded with his usual air of sophistication. Mandy turned her attention to the other familiar face as he stepped up to stand off to the side behind him, deciding to stay outside of their conversation.

"I see you ran into Piff again."

Junior would have regaled how he came across him again, but something caught his eye. Strange pale skin, shining amethyst and sapphire, he turned his gaze away to look past Mandy and Billy to where a mysterious girl a little younger than them was stepping up slowly with her eyes on him. His voice fell mute, he didn't know what to say anyway as his mind drew blank at the sight of the girl.

Tak made sure to keep some distance between them and herself, she didn't feel at ease pushing herself to the forefront of matters she had no experience in. She had never really socialised with people on an equal level before. So when a mysterious young human a little older than her, with pale skin, black trousers and top and a red muffler, and a set of dark green tinted shades, began taking a very pronounced fascination in her, she quickly found herself unable to do anything but gaze back the same way he gazed at her.

Junior tilted his head slightly with wonder as he looked at her, and Tak saw that his eyes were actually the same shade of green as his glasses, as were his edged teeth barely visible through his lips. Studying him with steadily growing interest she saw a similar green tinge through his skin and fingernails. Quickly she began to feel the same mind bending fascination as he did for the mysterious youth.

Looking between the two Billy and Mandy quickly saw that neither of them was going to be able to do anything on their own, wherein Mandy subtly cleared her throat.

"Junior, this is Tak." She addressed him as he flicked his gaze back and forth between the two women, allowing a break in the strange tension that had suddenly arisen between them. "We met today in Townsville. She's going to be staying here for awhile. She's one of us."

That drew Junior's attention back to Mandy, seeing her give a quiet nod. For her to say that so shortly after what they had gone through with Max meant a great deal. It did to Tak as well, the words bringing her a feeling of belonging and acceptance unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She lowered her face as the gravity of it struck her, and she was forced to set it aside to dwell and relish in later.

"Tak, this is our friend Nergal Junior." Mandy continued gesturing towards him. "Junior and we have a lot of history. We've gone through several types of hell and back. He's a good guy."

"He likes to think he's real cool. We let him." Billy added sarcastically, smirking as Junior looked about awkwardly. "No he's a real gentleman. You'll get along with him just fine."

Turning to face each other again Tak began to step in closer towards him as Junior smiled to the ground awkwardly and recomposed himself.

"I'm sorry, where's my manners." He extended a slender hand to her. She took his hand and they gave a light shake. "It's good to meet you Tak."

She gave a light-hearted smile at his welcoming her into his life. "Thank you. It looks like we're gonna be seeing a lot of each other later." Junior smiled back with a slight chuckle.

"I like the sound of that."

Letting go they followed Mandy as she and Billy waved for them to come back down towards the gates of the cemetery.

"By the way, that's Piff." Billy pointed to the other youth trailing behind the group, who gave a lazy wave in response. He then returned to the previous two. "Tak here is actually an alien of the Irken species. And Junior here is a demon from the centre of the Earth."

"Billy." Mandy was quick to step in, seeing as Tak and Junior were both anxiously gesturing for him to shut up. Billy though just sniggered and kept walking.

"Hey I don't care anyway. Besides, they're both outcasts, they've both gone through the same shit for being different, they'd be good for each other." He answered laid back. Behind them Tak and Junior exchanged a wary look, seeing neither being judgemental or wanting to pry. Junior smiled to her to ease her worry.

"I understand. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." He answered her fears, allowing her the chance to open up in her own time if she wanted, which was well received on her part.

Tak simply smiled and nodded back. Throughout her life, particularly in her years of training in the academy, a number of her fellow Irkens had approached her with seemingly good intentions. They smiled and were polite, and generally treated her with far more respect than what she received from everyone else, more in fact than she herself felt she deserved. These seemingly friendly comrades would do their best to try and befriend her, and then the moment they felt they had earned some level of trust, they would ask her about what she really felt and thought. She would always respectfully decline their request for information, believing that a real friend would leave it at that. Immediately they would all try pressing harder and harder for information, all manner of respect and friendliness dropping in moments as they tried to pump her for all she was worth.

It was due to these betrayals that she was hesitant to trust Junior or anyone with any information about her. But what Junior had done by simply respecting her boundaries was something none of the treacherous fools from earlier in her life had ever shown her. Then there was his own distinct background similar to hers. It wasn't enough to gain her trust but it was a great start.

"Anyway Tak, if you're gonna be staying here in Endsville you should know a few things. First, we spell 'school' with a 'c-h' here, and we celebrate Halloween four times a year, not sure if they do that anymore though. Also you're gonna need to get a filter for your drinking water, as the Mayor has contaminated it. Try not to look anyone in the eye, even if they're middle class types, because if you do they'll probably try to kill you."

"Okay. Wait, what?"

"It's true." Junior added. Tak's eye twitched.

"So I take it the whole collapse of society into madness thing's happening here too?" She asked at the sight of graffiti on a tombstone.

"Yes, it was always bad here." Mandy responded of the cesspool they lived in. "Somehow it's still getting worse by the day. The people here are shallow they can barely think beyond themselves at all anymore, except when it comes to race. When you have an entire city full of people like that, working as everything from labourers to executives, lawyers, government and police, the entire society starts to devour itself and everything around it. But since the nationals came to power that's sort of how everyone is nowadays, the entire country's just like this now, and our country's not the only one that's going crazy."

"And that's where we come in." Billy piped up beside her. "These killers and liars ruined the world for people who actually give a shit about others. We're here because those people have to be stopped, and made to suffer for the shit they've done. They call people like us traitors, and vermin, and they hate us for not falling into line or being normal like them. But every living person capable of feeling deserves to be respected, the same way they respect others. They're the ones making life a living hell for people like us… Well not so much like us but people who genuinely care about the well being of others. Unless we put these people in their place this shit that's happening now is never gonna end."

Junior listened and thought quietly. He remembered what his father had told him when they took Claire and Phil away to be cremated, he had to do what he felt was right, even if it meant facing facts that he did not want to face. In the time they had been gone he had come to see the truth that these so-called people would never see reason, that they had long since shed their humanity so they could be selfish and proud, either as individuals or a collective. But what was he supposed to do now? What kind of person would he be if he stood back and let them kill and rape the rest of humanity just for being different? But what kind of person would he be if he fought back against them, and turned all their cruelty and hatred back on them? Could he really do that, or would he become the monster they said he was?

The group strode down through the gravestones out through the gates again. Junior took note of the onyx Targa with interest but kept his attention on Billy and Mandy, as they walked up to it and stood leaning back on it.

"So what have you guys been… What the hell are you doing with that!"

"With what?" Billy asked in mock wonder, all the while suppressing a fit of laughter that tugged at the edge of his mouth

"The car idiot! Holy shit did you steel a Porsche?" At this point the red-headed youth sputtered and gagged, tears welling in his eyes at the sheer absurdity of what they had done.

"We… We stole it from a pretty little rich boy… and his plastic sex doll! HAHAHAHA!" He spasmed and racked with mad laughter as many of the day's events caught up with him. Junior gaped at him, and before long he was failing to hold back laughs as well, with Tak and GIR joining in the merry madness.

"You actually carjacked someone's Porsche?"

"I shot a machine gun at them too! HAHAHA!" Billy rolled back against the door as he laughed, before they each slowly came back down to semi-sanity again as he faced them leaning backwards. "Anyway, so did you find anything in Max's apartment?"

"Yes. The place was still abandoned when I got there, same way he had left it when he left town to go hunt for you guys. It was mostly empty, but I found an old laptop there. He mustn't have come back after he stole that car. Anyway I bypassed the security to get in-"

"Wait, you can hack into computers and get through passwords?" Billy asked, Mandy quietly filing the bit of information away for later reference.

"I learnt to do it with this." He held out his index finger. Tak's eyes widened in wonder as the tip extended out in a very thin strand of dark green matter thinner than a hair at the end. "I use this to get inside the computer and take over from within. Once I get through the password I'm free to just search through at my own pace."

"So what did you find?" Mandy asked, silently apprehensive for what the killer had inside his computer. As if to confirm what she suspected Junior's face darkened slightly, himself uneasy over what he had uncovered.

"He had files and data on all of us. Every scrap of information on us, school reports, newspapers, and there's more than that. I found files taken from the FBI and the CIA, even State Security on there about all of us, especially you Mandy." He spoke in a state of dazed, disturbed astonishment. "Besides that he had secret information about the military, about troop numbers, equipment, finances, even the locations of Generals. He was able to gain access to all their databases and take whatever he wanted from it."

Neither of the two had expected their foe to have been so deeply involved in what he had been planning. He had gone so far as to hack into the computer networks of intelligence agencies in order to gain every scrap of information he could to work with. Then again it shouldn't particularly surprise them, he'd been bred for the task.

But more importantly another thing they hadn't expected was for all these agencies to be keeping a tab on them. While the regular police were too lazy and corrupt to be any threat to them, these people, under the control of the party's own right hand organisation, were far more attentive. For files on them to exist meant that people had dedicated time and effort into doing research into them, drawing up the data into a comprehensive report. For someone to dedicate resources into finding out what they were doing meant that these people suspected them of being a threat to national security and to their hold over the people.

"This is bad." Mandy spoke with heavy set features. "If multiple intelligence and security agencies have taken an interest in us, then that means we have some pretty serious enemies now."

"Enemies?" Junior trailed off as he quickly put the pieces together. "Guys, what are you planning?"

"Make an informed guess. It's not hard." Mandy replied flatly. She watched as Junior seemed to breathe in the gravity of what it meant.

"So you're really serious about this after all, taking over, world domination, just like you said when you were younger."

"Junior at what point did you figure we weren't going through with this? I mean we told you about how we saw the future where Mandy had already taken over on her own." Billy answered him.

"It's just, if history has taught me anything it's that the world is too large a place for one person or group to take over." He explained awkwardly.

"I beg to differ there." Tak responded flatly. "The Irken Empire takes over worlds like your tyrants take over countries."

"And as we were explaining to Tak earlier we wouldn't be doing this unless we thought we had a good chance of succeeding." Billy continued.

"To date no one has been able to achieve world domination yet because everyone who tried lacked the resources to achieve it." Mandy explained her rationale to the young demon. "Even now we have more than those maniacs Napoleon, Alexander and Genghis Khan ever did; we have the scythes. In addition as of today we have access to advanced alien technology through another Irken we conned into following us, and we already have a base of operation, an island off Florida I bought off that Hector Con Carne guy. And don't worry Billy, it doesn't look like a bunny anymore. I took care of that with a few tons worth of explosives." Billy lowered his finger, his question answered before he asked it. "It did damage the interior though so it needs work, plus I've made plans for another base under the desert outside Endsville."

"That's not enough. No one's powerful enough to take over on their own."

"Our associate Zim is going to be finishing work on an army for us. Once he's finished the designs we'll be putting them into production in underworld factories. Once we've built up an army large enough we will make our move. Simple."

"But what about all the people who will be killed, and everyone who will have to live in fear and suffering just so you can be the ones in control?" He protested again. Mandy nodded with her head lowered.

"I understand what you're saying. It used to be just about my own power, how great and fearsome I could make myself out against everyone below me, but ever since the Nationalists took over it's become more about doing what we were talking about before. I have to bring order to this world, and stop those people who do evil to others for their own amusement, and make it a safe place for honest people to live and grow." She explained and looked up to face him. "I don't deny it's still as much about our own power and greatness as it was before, but that's not what's really important here anymore. There's been too much horror and suffering caused by people who don't care for me to sit back and watch anymore."

That again put pressure on Junior. Billy and Mandy both watched as his eyes became unfocussed as he retreated into his head with the same internal argument again.

"Shit like Mindy and Sperg are all too willing to grind people's faces under their feet just for kicks, but they're all so scared of taking responsibility for their actions." Billy spoke up.

"_Hehehehe, they're scaredy cats! Lots an lots'a scaredy cats!"_

"That's right GIR, they are just a bunch of stoopid scaredy cats." Billy appraised the light-hearted little droid in Tak's arms. "And do you know what we do to scaredy cats?"

"_We feed them to the bunnies! THE BUNNIES WILL DESTROY US ALL!"_ GIR waved his stubby arms in excitement as scenes of playful violence flashed through his crude central processor. GIR, like Billy, knew of the darker side of the squishy little creatures, with their cute fluffy tails of death, and their sweet little twitching noses of unspeakable horror.

Taking the chance to force his inner conflict down again Junior returned to other topics.

"Anyway I remembered what you said about how Max had called you out to the Doolin mansion that night, so after I left Max's apartment I went there. I figured he could have been using it as a second hideout. When I got there I found his presence everywhere. I found leftover ammunition in a room at the top. In another room, I found Jeff."

Billy's eyes flashed wide and alert, but saw as Junior looked at his chin.

"He'd been dead for a long time. It was Max."

He let out a mournful sigh as his shoulders slumped, especially that it had been Max of all people to take the spider away from him, but carried on nonetheless.

"I also found his black cloak, with a hole burned in the shoulder." Junior watched as the two seemed to shrink at the memory of when they had first encountered the spectre wearing it. "Just after that Piff caught up to me. He just missed me at the apartment. Turns out he suspected Max all along." Piff was content to remain silent throughout the conversation about him. He had never been particularly interested in socialising anyway.

"What about you?" He asked. Billy and Mandy both looked back at one another before Billy took over again.

"I'll tell you later. Right now we have a bigger issue that we need to talk about." He began before Mandy took over.

"Before we met Tak we talked to Dib Membrane and his sister Gaz. He was the heir to Membrane Labs, the company his father created. He's also a psychopath, a genocidal maniac, a rapist, a cannibal, and had some demonic powers. In order for Zim to join us we had to kill him, and after we did that we also took care of Gaz. But before I took her she told us that Dib had a contact working for him here in Endsville."

Junior raised his face with concern at that. Behind him Piff raised an eyebrow as he peeked out over his glasses, taking a real interest for the first time. Without moving he listened in intently as Junior grappled with a heavy concept.

"She couldn't tell us his name, but she said he had been here for a few years now watching us. Dib got enough time at least once to send a message through to him, so they probably already know that we killed him. We don't know what they could do now so keep an eye out okay." She spoke with a hint of care in her voice as he stared low. She didn't know how this could potentially affect him. It was obvious he was plagued by something on his mind, he didn't need any more to push him to one extreme or the other.

"Junior?" He nodded, still obviously troubled.

"I will."

Looking at how vulnerable he seemed after this Billy turned around to face his partner, Mandy mirroring his thoughts with a small nod, turning back to him.

"Junior, how would you like to join us?" Billy asked him tentatively. Junior looked at him taken aback as he spoke. "We could use someone like you. You've always been good to us, and I just know someone with your abilities wouldn't go to waste."

He opened his mouth but his words fell short of his lips as his conflict came up again in him.

"You deserve better than to be treated like vermin by these people." Mandy spoke up with a hard gaze. "Stand up and take back your dignity." Billy held his hand up for her to be still, seeing that his cousin didn't need more pressure.

"I don't know." He murmured hesitantly.

"We won't force you to do anything you don't agree with. You'll be part of this of your own free will. I give you my word, we'll look after you." Billy continued as Junior looked to the ground, stripped of the aloof composure he had used ever since the story on his father and him years ago just to protect himself from the constant burning scorn.

"I can't become a monster like they say I am." He admitted with pain in his voice.

"You're not a monster." Tak added almost without thinking. Junior and the others turned to her and se shrugged matter-of-fact. "I've met more than my share. You are not a monster."

He looked at her surprised, but her words had done much to calm his distress for now. Taking the opportunity Billy reached out and patted his shoulder affectionately.

"Look, just take your time. We'll respect any decision you make. Just sleep on it for a few nights." He spoke with a gentle smile, and soon had the green youth in better spirits.

"I will."

"You wanna come back to our place with us?" He asked as he opened the door and slid the seat back for Tak to climb into the back with GIR. Junior considered it for a moment but shook his head.

"No thanks, I wanted to see this new drug factory they had opening this afternoon. There should be a good turnout of freaks." Junior spoke with a smirk. "The Mayor's going to be there. Who knows, with that many drug addicted lunatics in one place there might even be a bloodthirsty riot."

Billy smirked with him as he and Mandy took their seats and closed the doors, Junior standing back as they started the engine.

"If you see anything give us a call." He called before Mandy pulled the car out and they took off down the road again.

"Now then, what shall we do now?" Billy remarked as Mandy ducked and weaved through the various streets towards their suburb.

"_Ooh! Ooh! I know! We can start a fire!"_ GIR added cheerfully. _"Can we start one?"_

"Maybe later li'l buddy." Billy said. "I just remembered, I want to introduce you to a guy I know. Trust me, I just know you and him are gonna be bestest friends forever!" Mandy glanced across as her partner gave an insane smile.

Junior watched them vanish into the distance until the howl of the engine passed, looking up to the sky tainted a thin yellow.

'_So someone else has been keeping an eye on me. Dib must have had an interest in everything that had been happening here, and in Endsville's resident scientific oddity.'_ He mused bitterly, knowing that he would be first and foremost on any bigot's radar. _'People just can't get enough of their favourite demon freak.'_

Turning his head back to ground level he pivoted around on his shoes and began the long walk north towards where he heard Endsville's shiny new drug lab would soon be opening. Glancing back at Piff he looked to check he was following.

Nobody was there. Stopping he looked around further, turning to face behind him as he searched the area around him and the graveyard adjacent for his quiet companion. But he could sense no trace of him. He had slipped away while he was talking with the others, when Billy and Mandy had turned to each other.

A feeling of dread descended on him like the shadow of a cloud as he turned around to face where he had been going.

'_Last time this happened it didn't end well.'_

But there was nothing to be done. Attempting to claw his way back from the fear of what this may mean he continued on his way towards the gathering in the north of the city.

* * *

Mandy guided the sleek, low slung vehicle in towards the familiar house not far away, its abstract crystal sculpture standing out like a beacon in the dull suburban landscape. She slowed the car to a halt a few hundred metres away, careful to avoid being seen in their new, stolen possession. She turned the engine off, unbuckling and stepping out of the vehicle.

"Why are we stopping here?" Billy asked as she moved her seat forward for Tak and GIR to step out.

"Well would you be able to explain to our parents why we have a three hundred thousand dollar sports car, and not get grounded until we're eighteen?" Mandy replied. Billy held his mouth open ready to speak his brilliant plan, only for no brilliant plan to materialise. Relenting he stepped out before she shut and locked the vehicle. "People will ask difficult questions if we just leave it lying here. Billy, send it to storage so we can use it later."

Mandy led Tak onwards down the street, ignoring the flash of green as a vortex pulled the car through to some corner of some other dimension used primarily as storage space. Tak looked around to see the powerful vehicle disappear into the green ball of energy, leaving just Billy with his jagged scythe standing in its place.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"…"

"Oh, that. Mandy and I have these scythes. They have supernatural power that makes them… well… do stuff." He looked to Mandy for help. She sighed, taking over his conversation.

"Four years ago we tricked the Grim Reaper, the human incarnation of death, into playing a little game with us over the soul of a sick hamster. If he won he could have the hamster and Billy, while if he lost he would have to serve us as our best friend and slave forever." She droned on as they continued towards their house. "Needless to say he lost due to my superior skills and tactical mind."

"She cheated." Billy elaborated.

"Thank you. So for the past four years he's been serving us as our loyal friend-slave, doing whatever we tell him to do, and taking us through hell and back. He uses a scythe designed for manually reaping the souls of people who refuse to go to the underworld when they die. It is also a powerful weapon, it can create portals between this world and the underworld, and summon monsters, and more." Extending her hand she ordered hers to form in her hand. Tak watched in wonder as a shaft of ruby red light took shape, an edgy geometric blade forming at the top, before the entire mass solidified into another such weapon.

"This is Judgement. Two years back I told Grim that I was tired of relying on him for underworld power and that I wanted my own scythe. So he and the tech department built this. It's different to his in that this is designed from the outset as a weapon, capable of destroying any enemy. While it can also create portals, reap souls and summon demons, it's nowhere near as good at that as Grim's, having most of its potential being based around destruction."

She pointed towards Billy's savage green weapon. "Billy just got his scythe Berserker yesterday. It's designed to be good at whatever he wants it to do, and though it's not as good at destroying stuff as mine, it's capable of a much wider variety of tasks, and it's much more savage. It was made so that its powers would bind with him so that he could himself become a demon at any time he wanted with or without the scythe. I've managed to absorb a small portion of my scythe's energy as well, but not to his extent. So far his own abilities are limited, but that will change as time passes and his mindset becomes more suited. They respond to the will of their masters and mirror our personalities. That's why mine's dark and merciless, while Billy's is always savage and violent. They are, to an extent, a part of us, and can only be controlled by the force of our will. That's how we can order them to form and disappear, and to cast portals, and blow our enemies away without saying a word."

By the end of her lecture on their terrible weapons they had arrived out the front of their home. In the front lawn they could see Harold watering a patch of the grass with a hose, the turf laid down not long ago to cover the hole dug by Billy the day before.

"Hey dad." He called out.

"Hey Billy. Hey Mandy. Hey, uhhhh…" Harold furrowed his brow at the blue-haired girl and scratched his head.

"Tak." Billy stated.

"This is."

"Oh yeah Tak! Now I remember!"

"She's a new friend of ours." Mandy explained to the stupid man. "We just met her today."

"Now I remember!" The man grinned to himself while Mandy flat faced.

"We were hoping she could stay the night here until she could find a place to stay nearby." She went on. Harold looked her over suspiciously.

"Well I dunno. Is she an evil agent sent from the future like Max?"

"No." She replied.

"Is she a space alien exiled from her people for thinking too much and now has plans to take over Earth?"

"… Yes."

"But she's not an evil agent sent from the future right?"

"Right."

"Make yourself at home Tak!" He immediately returned to watering the lawn as the five made their way to the door. "Nice car by the way." They froze, eyes wide with alarm as their heart rates began to rise.

"You won't tell anyone will you?" Billy asked nervously. "I mean the guys who gave it to us didn't really deserve it. Aren't you tired of always having to answer to those stupid yuppie suck-ups?"

"Don't worry, because of all the times I played bat-head as a child I've already forgotten. What were we talking about again?"

With that the group passed through the front door, shutting out the ill-witted man behind them, in time to miss his quiet little smirk Shortly thereafter Gladys made herself busy in the kitchen preparing a meal for the four of them, having not eaten since breakfast at least ten hours earlier. Tak watched in veiled concern as she heated up the meat patties for the burgers, knowing full well the price she would pay for biting into one.

"So Tak, how long have you been in America?" Gladys asked as she served a frypan full of onions onto a cutting board, piecing the burgers together in front of them.

"Uhh… About four years now." She answered, trying to blink away the burning in her eyes from the smell.

"And what part of Britain are you from?" Tak looked to the others hesitantly.

"… Moscow?" Billy gagged on a laugh as Mandy put her hand on the bridge of her nose. Gladys turned to her with an odd look.

"She's not from Britain." Mandy added before she could speak.

"Then why do you have that accent?" Gladys asked, placing the burgers on four separate plates. Tak looked across to her new friends nervously, urging them to help her out of her situation.

"She has a minor speech impediment." Mandy answered, Tak nodding in response.

"Yes… I just learnt to talk like this… is all." Though an unconvincing lie it was, it was enough for Gladys to figure out it would all come out in her own time. She handed the four of them a plate as they thanked her.

"Bon appétit." She said with a smile, leaving them to eat. Three of the four immediately got to work, their near constant ravenous hunger taking over as they chowed down. Tak looked upon the meal before her, clearly uncomfortable with the burning presence of meat. Gently she hoisted the meal up with her fingers, careful to avoid touching anything toxic as she moved it towards her face. Looking across she saw GIR had lowered the head part of his disguise and had already smeared half of his across his metal face, while Billy and Mandy were looking to her with concern.

"Is something wrong?" Mandy asked.

"Well, yeah." She spoke, putting the dangerous food down on her plate again. "Irkens are very sensitive to your meat. It's the iron in it that's the problem. Irkens have more copper in our cells than humans. It causes severe burns to our skin, and if eaten… Well I don't really know what would happen, no one besides Zim has ever been stupid enough to do it before. I can't eat this, or drink water that's not completely pure of any pollutants. It'll burn me inside out if I do."

The two thought for a moment. "So while you look human, you can't eat human food or be exposed to anything remotely acidic." Mandy spoke. "That disguise is pretty limited. You'll need something better if you want to infiltrate human society for longer periods."

"I have an idea. What if you could become fully human, and be able to change back to Irken again at will?" Billy suggested. She and Mandy listened on in wonder as he spelled out the concept. "Mandy you remember how Grim found a way to turn himself human? He said that my scythe could change the form of people and objects to whatever I wanted them to be. What if…" He willed his scythe to his side again, raising it as if to pose the question to her visually.

"Wait, what are you-" Tak's eyes became as wide as diner plates as she suddenly had a very psychotic looking blade shoved millimetres away from her face.

"Just hold still for a moment!" Billy's features curved into a wicked grin as he channelled a surge of green power into the blade. "Don't worry! This will hurt you much more than it will me!"

* * *

A few moments later.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"_KYAHAHAHAHA! YAAAY!"_

"Tak come on! You're not afraid of me are you?"

"STAY AWAY YOU PSYCHO 'ORRIBLE FREAK!"

"Just stay still! This'll only hurt for a moment! BWAHAHA!"

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

"_KABOOM!"_

"_TEE HEE HAAAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

"Why do these things always happen on Mondays?"

* * *

Another few moments later.

"…"

Tak staggered in place, still stunned by the impact of the green energy. For a mere moment she had felt its presence as it sank through her figure from her antennae to her feet. As soon as it had come it was gone, leaving everything feeling somewhat off. First thing she noticed was that she felt slightly higher, and… tougher. Checking herself over she failed to immediately sense any apparent difference, until she felt her whole centre of gravity shift inside. For a moment it felt as if she were moving, yet staying still at the same time. She found herself at a loss as to the cause of the sensation, until…

"_Clunk!"_

Whipping around to look towards the floor directly behind she froze in alarm at the sight of her pak lying on the floor, having fallen off her body once the connection disappeared. With the shock still fresh in her mind she bent down to grasp hold of it. Upon linking her fingers around the device she was shocked to feel not only extra fingers but just how light it had become suddenly, hefting it up onto her lap with far greater ease than previously, no doubt due to the new, superior muscles in her arms.

Now, with the symbol of her oppression clutched in her hands, she finally felt as if one of the few remaining shackles placed on her by the Tallest, her identity as an Irken slave, was gone. She was now her own being, completely off the grid of the Irken war machine as a human.

Tak had long since known of her disguise's deficiencies. It was not enough to look and act like the enemy. If one was to truly infiltrate the enemy and gain their trust one must become the enemy. She knew too that even her Irken body had limitations that made it inferior in performance to the stronger, more organic humans, a fact she never let slip from her mind during her time in Townsville. But many of her abilities lay within the metal case in her hands, and she needed her Irken body in order to properly utilise them. To be able to switch back and fourth at will would be an incredibly useful ability, one she could ill afford to live without now that she was working with Billy and Mandy.

"Well? What do you think?" Billy asked as they surveyed the girl. The primary difference noticeable to her holographic disguise was that her new form had two extra years worth of development, bringing her up to the same visual age as they. Of note was her higher stance, bringing her into line with Mandy, with her waist coming in at the sides somewhat, while her chest came out at he front likewise.

Internally there was absolutely nothing carried over, with only the memories of her life being transferred from one body to the other. She sat the pak on the bench as she flexed her fingers, getting a feel for the large mass of tendons and the muscles throughout her arms and legs, twice as dense as previously. To have such strength in the body of a mere… something year old was quite amazing.

"No wonder you human's like to exert themselves with your sport and your games and all that." She marvelled, clenching her hand into a fist as she looked up to where her companions watched on, unaware as to the meaning of her little proverb. "It's good!"

"Alright then." He stuffed his hamburger into his gob once more, tearing off a chunk to chew it up in his mouth. "If yu wab to be Iwkem agim, jusf …" He gulped down the mass before he continued. "Just will it and it'll happen. There's a bit of the scythes power left in your body to go back and forth a few times but don't push it. You're better off coming to me, if you want that is."

"I'll tell you if I ever do." She spoke as she once again picked up the burger on her plate. The once acrid smell of toxic proteins had been replaced by an irresistible combination of aromas that triggered something inside her, causing her mouth to water with some kind of digestive juice. Bringing the large sandwich to her lips she bit down. Immediately a rush of flavours and overwhelming sensations assaulted her. Regular Irken food was a bland, chewy affair based wholly around function, with the occasional snack used to pacify the masses. Good taste was a luxury only high end executives, generals and the Tallest could enjoy, and there was little to be had there either.

With no previous experience with good flavours, the surge of sensations in her mouth completely overwhelmed her. She smiled, listing forward drunkenly as she revelled in the taste of the meat, onions and sauce. She ate it bite by bite, swaying drunkenly with each flood of flavour that struck her like a truck. Billy, Mandy and GIR had long since finished before she had made it half way through hers.

"Are you okay?" Mandy asked.

"Kyyeeeaaaaaaahhhhhh…" She groaned blissfully in response, her cheek smeared with sauce as she slumped onto her food.

As she lay there barely clinging to consciousness the other three were distracted by the sound of the front door opening. Turning to face the door they saw Grim moving into their presence, a decidedly irritated look on his bone face. As Tak slowly raised her head to face the new arrival they were greeted with the sight of the source of Grim's irritation coming in just behind him, having continuously sprouted nonsense to him all day.

"Hey maybe we could go out, and we could go talk to that nice lady at the ice cream place! She was nice and called me a monster and told me to go to hell, which made me feel nice! Yes."

"Hey Grim. Why didn't ya just send him back to the underworld like normal?"

"I have, several times." The spectre of death grizzled, all to Tak's amazement as she outright stared. "He keeps coming back, so I just stopped tryin and ignored him. I can't say de change in tactics has worked as he's still drivin me to me."

"No surprises there." Mandy remarked, turning to the new girl beside them, the rather bewildered new girl. "Tak, our servant Grim. Grim, this is our new friend and associate in destruction Tak."

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Uuuuuuhhhh… Mandy, it's a walking skeleton. Why is that so?" She droned in a dazed state. Grim smiled, using his supernatural energy to form an illusion of him towering high overhead in a ruinous landscape of scorched rock and bright green flames.

"_**Because mortal, I am the Grim Reaper, master of the forces of life and-"**_

"_HEY! He looks like a piggy on two feet!"_ GIR cried out pointing to Fred. _"Heeere piggyyyy!"_

"WOW!"

Immediately Fred rushed over towards where the small suit clad robot sat. Much to their confusion before he reached GIR he veered to the right, coming to a halt to stand pointing at…

"Look! Blue hair! Blue hair! Blue hair! Blue hair!" He chanted as he pointed towards Tak's unusual hair colour. Her eyes widened in surprise, trailing up to where the plump green demon was pointing. A moment later her features deadpanned, all in much the same way as Mandy's had done when confronted by a similar, equally idiotic scenario years earlier.

"Hey Fred, get over here." Billy ordered. He turned down towards GIR as Fred approached. "Now GIR, you remember how I was telling you about this great guy I knew who was gonna be your new friend?" He waited to see the robot's head nod vigorously. "Well GIR, I'd like you to meet… Fred Fredburger."

Turning his bright cyan eyes on the green… thing he hoped down from his stool, looking up silently as Fred mirrored his interest.

"Fred, this is GIR. He's gonna be your new robot buddy." Billy said, filling in the thick-headed devil as they continued to stare silently at each other. For moment after moment, second after second the two forces of chaos and stupidity regarded each other, until finally GIR spoke up.

"_Doody doody doody doody doody doody… DOODYDOODYDOODY! Tee hee! Hi!"_ He beamed out happily.

"Hello! My name is Fred Fredburger! I can spell my name real good. F, R, E, D, F, R, E, D, B, U, R, E-wait… G, E, R. Fred Fredburger! Yes."

"_Your name sounds like a pink bunny eating nachos!"_ He babbled as together they made for the door, leaving the four behind. _'Hey, do you like nachos?"_

"Yes! I also like music. Say, do you like music? I like all kinds of music, yes. Hey, do you know a song about doom?"

Billy gave an evil smile as they watched the two go out into the orange sun, content that Fred would not be back to bother them again, and with GIR out of Zim's antenna his quality of work would hopefully improve. In addition together they would prove a force of madness that would be able to bring societies to their knees.

"Now all we need is Eris." He grinned and turned back to them as Grim closed the door. He looked over Tak as she examined herself.

"The loss of the ability to use your pak while human will be a limiting factor, but this will be a far better disguise than-"

Tak frowned as Billy's face suddenly lost its contented smile, along with all its colour, to turn into a mask of horror. He turned to Mandy, and soon she too realised what he saw with a sinking dread.

"The illusion." She spoke.

"Junior!"

"How long is his disguise supposed to last?"

"It wasn't supposed to last this long! We don't even know if it's working now!" Billy's horror grew incrementally. "He's on his way towards that mob of bloodthirsty psychos, and the illusion could fail at any second! OH SHIT!"

"We gotta get him before they do!" Mandy stated as she and Billy made for the door.

The door was already open, and they just caught the tail end of a set of metal spider legs as Tak reverted back to Irken, fitted her pak and raced out ahead of them before they were even finished talking. They turned to each other, and to Grim who looked perplexed.

"Grim, stay here in case Junior calls. Billy, we're going to get him." Mandy stated as they called for their scythes again.

* * *

Late afternoon.

Junior knew he was close to his destination when the telltale sound of someone screaming mindlessly reverberated to his ears through a set of public loudspeakers.

He was in part of Endsville's limited industrial area just to the west of the urban blight side of town where he had gone earlier that day. Reaching the end of a street of small apartment blocks and garages he turned right, and saw just a few hundred yards ahead of him an enormous crowd of people, almost a thousand at a guess, packed in a wide arc across the road. Standing before them was a large white building made of three large blocks with small windows joined together in a U shape. Atop the centre building was a sign with 'Membrane Labs' in large letters, with several smoke stacks rising from the back, which had already begun streaming toxic chemicals into the atmosphere.

Leading up to the entrance of the centre block from the street was a long series of white concrete stairs. Standing at the top of the stairs overlooking the star struck crowd was a series of men in suits, along with several armed guards, and standing at the podium with the microphone to his mouth was a man Junior had never seen before. His thin brown hair was a straggly mess, he was wearing a shirt, jacket and jeans, and he was screaming his brain out, his voice carried over the crowd by a set of speakers set up either side of the platform.

Junior didn't know wether to smirk in cynical humour or scowl with disgust, seeing the man had the same look of total insanity as the one standing behind the counter at the ice cream shop, as he had torn out a woman's throat and then stabbed himself to death to kill the person in the mirror. On top of that was the way the crowd, all of which looked to be normal working class people, were looking at him with acceptance and enthusiasm, as if he was doing and saying everything that was inside their own heads but had not quite made it out.

Stepping over to stand behind and to the side of the crowd he looked over the assembled bureaucrats standing to the side, all smiling smugly amongst themselves. He couldn't find one of them that he recognised as the Mayor, but there was good reason for that; he didn't actually know what the Mayor looked like. He had seen his face before on the television, but to him all of them looked like he remembered him as being, fat with a round face, and carrying a look of disgusting satisfaction.

Returning to the man at the podium he watched on as he started to shake, then thrash with his tongue sticking out. Suddenly he seemed to stop rigid, his voice falling silent as he stood with his face so clenched in hate he looked like he might have…

He had. Two suited guards stepped in and took the corpse away off to the right hand side. The man had bought on an aneurism, perhaps helped by any of the new drugs he had probably taken for the occasion.

Stepping out from behind the group of bureaucrats another plump man smiled and clapped his hands at his display, taking the podium as the body was taken into the building out of sight.

This time Junior knew who it was. The suited man with three chins and a thin comb over was like every caricature of every greedy corporate fat cat, every arrogant politician or filthy corrupt bureaucrat ever made, squared. This great big collective pool of shit went by the name of Dick Roachspam, the utterly depraved Mayor of Endsville.

"That was David Reynolds everybody, showcasing Endsville's newest and most favourite drugs!" The round man spoke with a voice that sounded as rough as a broken gearbox. Junior actually shuddered, while the crowd listened excited. "I and my associates have campaigned tirelessly on your behalf for this facility to be built, exclusively for the people of Endsville's enjoyment. Many filthy creatures tried to get in the way of you getting your wonderful drugs, the Jews, the niggers, the Asians, Muslims, faggots, old people!" For every one the boos of the crowd rapidly turned into a half-frenzied roar. "And let's not forget our greatest and worst enemy above all others… _Nergal Junior!"_

Junior only watched on, as a mindless scream erupted from the masses, shielded from their hatred by his aloof stance, mostly. _'Everyone just loves to hate me.'_ He saw as several men began throwing free packets of pills and powder out to the people below, silencing them as they reached up and struggled amongst themselves for a sample.

"But I was able to stamp these people out!" The Mayor continued with open arrogance. "I have rid our beautiful town of the vast majority of this vermin. Now only a few pockets of scum remain, and they will meet their end soon! And where is Nergal Junior now? That freak hasn't dared shown his filthy face on our streets in months, all thanks to me, your wonderful Mayor Dick Roachspam! Thanks to me you can now enjoy the incredible and long lasting highs that Membrane Labs' line of stimulants can give you, cocaine, crystal meth, ecstasy and heroin, at half the cost of the regular products!"

A great cheer erupted from the crowd, and Junior suddenly felt queasy. He knew now this wouldn't be as entertaining as he thought it would be. He lowered his head, wishing he had gone with Billy, Mandy and Tak.

A vibration and ring tone came from his right pocket. Looking down he reached in and took out his phone. He recognised the number, but couldn't place who owned it. Turning away from the crowd he answered it and bought it up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"_Junior."_

"Piff?" He responded surprised. "What's up?"

There was a pause. Already the heavy tone of his voice had Junior frowning. "Piff?"

"_Are you at the drug factory opening?"_

"Yes. How did you know?"

"_I figured, you wanted to see the show."_ Junior smirked and the tension eased out of his body. He blinked twice, a funny shimmer of colours had come up in his eyes. Reaching up he gave them a rub, that made them go away.

"What's up Piff? You sound serious."

"_Do you know the train line that runs through north Endsville?"_

"It brings stuff in interstate. Why?"

"_There's a small station about ten minutes walk north of where you are now. There's a bridge across the tracks there. I want you to come and meet me on that bridge in ten minutes. I'll be waiting."_ Junior's eyes began to widen as he stared out ahead of him, the heavy shadow of dread falling on him again, making his legs feel stiff under the weight.

"… Piff, what's going on?"

"_I know who the contact is."_

His heart constricted in his chest, and he began to feel light-headed.

"_Remember, the bridge north of you, ten minutes."_

Junior managed to pull himself into a stance of being ready to act, and was about to ask his friend more. But he was already out of time.

Due to being able to walk his home city from top to bottom all day without being harassed for being who he was, like had been able to in the past, Junior had completely forgotten about the illusory disguise his cousin had placed on him. That disguise was only meant for that one day, and that was over twenty four hours ago now. The energy keeping it up had now run out. Had he taken any notice of the moment when he rubbed his eyes clear he would have realised that was the moment when the illusion failed and dispersed around him.

Nergal Junior was now standing alone and unprotected out in public in the city that hated him, next to a group of a thousand mindless stark raving psychopaths, half of which were already drugged up beyond any ability to think, and every last one of them wanted to torture, rape, kill and eat him down to their very core.

Out at the edge of the group a stout bald man in a red sweater momentarily glanced off behind him, his unfocussed eyes catching on a familiar sight. Squinting he began to make out a boy wearing all black clothes, with a red scarf around his neck, green-black hair swept up and back, a set of glasses visible by his ear, and skin with a pale green hue. Opening his mouth he gasped, there was only one name that came to mind.

"HEY IT'S NERGAL JUNIOR, THE FILTHY DEMON FREAK!" Instantly Junior's face turned white, looking back around as at the same time every person in the group turned to face him. "AND HE'S BEING _DIFFFFFFEEEEEEEEEEENNNNT!"_

A deathly silence descended, and Junior put his phone away.

"GET HIM!"

Junior bounded off the tips of his feet with the fucking terrified grace of a Gazelle as in an instant a considerable percentage of Endsville's population was running at him with their hands outstretched, screaming as much as their rotten minds and souls could as they ran to kill him.

Dizzy with adrenaline Junior already had his plan laid out. He had to escape being killed and eaten by the… things behind him, but he also had to speak with Piff on the bridge north in ten minutes, in case he never got the chance to tell him again. He also had to loosed the crowd before he got there, otherwise they're conversation would be short and full of swearing.

He took off racing back towards the street he had come from, hearing the sound of gunfire as bullets flew past where he had been moments ago as the guards opened fire with their Mini Uzis. Glancing back as he ran he saw a wall of so many people they were hard to tell one from another coming at him. Their scream collected in the air like the howl of a giant tornado all around him, and the ground vibrated under his toes.

Disappearing behind the apartment he had stepped out from earlier he tore back the way he had come, the sound of the crowd growing suddenly louder as they rounded the bend just a few seconds later. Passing one building front, then another, then another far faster than he thought he ever could he quickly checked down each alley for an escape that didn't lead to a dead end. Passing the fourth he found one, turning and sprinting as hard as he could down it.

There was a fence at the end, and beyond that the alley veered off against a white concrete wall going left and right. His heart momentarily saw hope. Jumping at the fence he clawed his way up, the wires cutting at his hands as he reached the top, and levered himself over. He fell and hit the ground hard on his side, gasping with the dizzying pain. But he could hear the crowd again, seeing them coming down the alley towards him. The fence wouldn't stop them for long, if he could climb over so could they.

Getting up he pushed onwards, pumping the left and right sides of his body as he turned right and followed the concrete wall. At the end it turned left, with more buildings and alleys branching off intermittently. Reaching the end corner he took the chance to stop and look back. The masses of people chasing him had piled up against the fence so hard that none of them could even begin to try and climb it. The sight eased his terror down a few notches, by the time they started getting over or managed to break the fence down he would be gone again. Looking down the side of the concrete wall he saw yet more maniacs running past, unaware that if they looked to their left they would see him standing there with no fence between them and him.

Junior turned around and followed the back wall down, hearing the constant drone of their screaming starting to lessen behind him. I occurred to him that he was actually following the perimeter wall of the drug factory, he had looped around behind them and they were none the wiser. Turning off it he disappeared down another long, wide alleyway down the middle of the block between the two rows of buildings. He sprinted down past the halfway point of this, spurred ever onwards against slacking off by the sound that still came at him from all around. Turning left down another brick alley he encountered another fence, beyond which was the street. Pausing he reached up with his coils, latching on to the top of the fence, and quickly pulled himself up and over. When he reached the street again he stopped and hid behind the buildings, looking left and right for any sign of people. There were none, all having gone behind him. Where he was standing he was facing north, towards where Piff said the train station would be. He sprinted across the road, down another alley on the other side, and repeated the process heading in the same direction.

Through several minutes of this, winding north through the buildings, out through another street and into a yard with rows of warehouses and construction machinery, his running slowed to a jog. Breathing heavily he moved between the buildings and stopped. Looking back the way he had come through his glasses he listened. The screaming mad roar of the mob had died down to a muddled shouting of voices in the distance, while he could hear someone speaking through the microphone, though no words could be made out. Over that he could hear the distant wail of police cars, some of the few left after their headquarters was destroyed. He was alone again.

_Alone._ Even the word sounded hollow to him.

'_What the fuck is wrong with me?'_

A cramping grief welled up inside him. The majority of his life this was how people reacted to him. Bar only a precious few every person he met reacted to his existence with bodily disdain. Why?

'_Is it me? Everyone reacts the same way. They're all calling me a monster and an abomination, and it's only me and a handful others that say I'm not. What does that say? Am I really an abomination?'_ He milled it over in pain, before some little core of resistance and pride pushed back._ 'That's bullshit.'_

A confusing mix of grief and anger swirled in his head. Standing still in his same old conflict he turned his gaze down to his hands, holding his palms up. A strain of anger pushed out of the mix, and he clenched his hands into loose fists. A crackling sound of bones and muscles changing shape emanated, a sound familiar to him from his years of struggle against all manner of demons from hell. Opening his hands again he beheld them, a set of large powerful claws, long fingers tipped with razor sharp claws that could gouge through meat easily.

'_This is all bullshit. How dare they have me thinking I'm the monster, after all the times I saved all of them from hell. I suffered and bled for them, now they want to butcher me.'_ His anger fell back down again, and his hands reverted back to normal. _'But what am I supposed to do? If I act out and take revenge on them, what kind of person would I be? I would become the monster they said I was all along. But if I just lie down and take it, what does that make me, a worthless coward?'_

Torn apart inside he looked to the sky above the buildings around him for escape. The sky knew his pain. Though the pollution formed a picture of sad beauty, the truth was worse. She had been raped, and was left with a humiliating yellow taint by those people, the people he had saved.

'_I'm so tired of running, and hiding, and trying to escape their hatred. Even in my head I can't escape them anymore. I can't do this much longer.'_

Out of his struggle to reach up to that sad goddess above him, he remembered the face of the girl he had met in the graveyard. He remembered seeing the same thing in her eyes as he saw in the boy looking at him through the mirror.

"_Tak."_ His thoughts just managed to slip through his lips.

Soon the strain inside of him kicked him onwards. He ran down through the warehouses, passing through another block of dilapidated apartment buildings. As he emerged out the other side the orange of the sun now beginning to set made him stop and look away. Adjusting to the mournful light he looked out ahead, and saw that across the empty road was a wide stretch of unused dirt and dust, beyond which was the railroad tracks. Down to his far right was a series of large buildings and sheds vaguely reminiscent to a shipyard for trains, slowly rusting in the evening sun. Following the tracks across to his left he saw a set of concrete platforms and small buildings for the conductors. Over the tracks connecting the two sides of the station was an arching bridge, and standing at the centre of it was a lone figure his size with his back turned looking at the sunset, a backpack held by his side.

Looking at him as if he were hope solidified Junior took off across the road towards the station. As he crossed the expanse of grey dust he thought back to what was probably happening behind him. Right now the Mayor and his cronies would probably be leaving, and the mob would be fanning out looking for him, with the police in the lead. It was only a matter of time before they reached the road and saw them, then they would come after him again. Whenever they saw him they would come after him. There would be no escaping it this time. Even underground he couldn't escape their voices in his head. And now he was to learn who had been watching him, waiting for the order to make his move.

Sweeping over the dust he arrived at the station, making his way up the metal stairs. As he reached the bridge he stopped, Piff turned to face him in silence, reaching up and taking off his glasses as he set the backpack down. His eyes were amber-brown in colour. Slowly he stepped up the bridge towards his friend as he stood watching him with flat, cold features. He was still gasping and desperate as he stood before him, a far cry from his usual refined charm. Piff glanced off behind him at the sound of insanity in the air.

"I see you've been busy." He remarked coolly. "The disguise failed while you were there didn't it?"

He opened his mouth but faltered. _'When did I tell him about the disguise? I'd forgotten all about it by the time we met.'_

Piff cocked his head, drawing Junior's gaze up to him again. "So what do you know?" Junior spoke at last.

"Everything." He stated simply and looked out to his left away from him. "I happen to know everything about the Membrane family, even the things they never let public." Junior looked at him mute, narrowing his eyes as Piff's eyes became unfocussed in the distance and he began his story.

"In public Professor Membrane only had two kids, Dib, who was born out of a tank, and Gaz, who was birthed by his wife shortly before she killed herself. In actual fact he had three. Dib was suppose to be his crown jewel, the perfect human being, but shortly after he came out of the tank it quickly became obvious to him that he was not as great as he thought he would be, a worthless failure. So he started work on a second perfect son, with a set of expectations far closer to what he could achieve than the first. When he was birthed from the tank shortly before Gaz was born he showed good progress, so he transferred Dib's name to him, as he was the real perfect human being."

Piff clasped his hands behind his back, turning to begin to step slowly down the bridge away from Junior, who watched his odd increasingly distant behaviour with wonder, and a slowly growing concern. Off hand he momentarily glanced at the backpack sitting by his leg.

"The real Dib Membrane grew leaps and bounds, demonstrating himself over his worthless older brother and younger sister. He was on his way to taking over Membrane Labs, as soon as he overtook his creator. That concerned the Professor. So when the original failed son began to show the first flickers of development in his powers, regardless of his obsession with the paranormal, he quickly turned his interest to him. So when he was nine he transferred the name 'Dib' back to him, and the real one was hung out to dry."

Junior began to notice how he seemed to pour contempt onto the original Dib. He could have been imagining it but it gave him the impression he was taking sides, in particular the way his words seemed to turn to ice at the end.

"After a year of being considered yesterday's news the second son decided to leave and start over on his own." Piff explained with extraordinary detail. "So he went to Membrane about setting him up in another town, on the bonus that he would be out of his hair, and the threat that he would let something slip about how the first son was created. Caught by his logic Membrane agreed, and when the son decided on Endsville he bought a house to set him up in, and supplied him with everything he needed. Then he started going to school with us, where he noticed Billy and Mandy, Grim, Eris, and all the other freaks. _And you._ That was four years ago now." The way Piff spoke about him made Junior's skin crawl, and a knot formed in his stomach.

"Piff?" He stammered hesitantly. Piff seemed to grimace momentarily.

"When the first son grew powerful and took over his father's empire by force, he realised that by feeding him information about what was happening here he could gain his brother's interest and get in close to the heart of power again. That is why he first began informing on you, waiting for the time to strike and turn you into a laboratory experiment, and from you create a weapon that would allow him to kill his brother and take his rightful place. Then, just before Dib was killed, the order came through to purge all targets at will."

"Piff?" He pressed, his anxiety growing ever deeper as his face seemed to darken even with his back turned. Finally he asked what had been troubling him since he started. "How do you know all this?" Piff turned his head back towards him slightly.

"Look in the backpack, and you'll understand everything."

Looking down at the unassuming black bag sitting against the railing beside him Junior reached out and picked it up. Unzipping the top he opened it and looked inside, and frowned. There were papers, a stack of them, some larger than others, all printed with bold text and colour backgrounds. Reaching in he drew out the front few, seeing it was a series of small posters.

'Is your friend a traitor?'

It was the same garbage that had lined the halls of the school. As Junior flicked through them he found dozens of them, coming upon another set, and another.

'DEATH TO THE RACE TRAITORS!'

That he had found pinned to his Billy and Mandy's front doors. Aghast he looked up to him.

"It was you. You were the one putting up the posters." Piff seemed almost apathetic to the fact however.

"That was just a hobby, something I liked to do to pass the time. They're all true after all." He passed off casually. "It was just to relieve the stress."

"The stress? Of what?" Junior all but cried out in shock. Piff glowered at the sound of his voice.

"The stress of having to be near you, of having to pretend to be your friend for so long, and keeping quiet about everything you are, you disgusting mutant freak."

Junior gaped, dropping the bag and the papers in horror, as a feeling like someone putting a spear through his heart stopped him dead. He was Dib's contact, the one who had been watching over him. All these years he had honestly thought he was one of the few people who respected him, who treated him with dignity. All along, everything he had ever said to him and done with him, had all been a lie. His heart and mind both stopped. He couldn't accept the revelation, it was too much for him. Looking at his friend's back with pleading eyes he sought to find some other truth that would spare him this anguish.

"Piff?" He reached out to him hesitantly, but saw his muscles tighten with anger.

"My name is not PIFF!" He turned around and screamed back at him, causing Junior to recoil in shock at the sight of his features twisted out of shape with hate. "Your worthless traitor of a friend gave me that name, because I saw that you were unworthy to even hear my real name!"

Junior stepped back fearfully as the mad beatnik walked in towards him with a hard set scowl of contempt on his face.

"My name… is Dib Membrane." He announced with a dark note. "And you, you have no name. Vile freaks like you don't deserve names." He looked off to the side. "Guards, come on out."

At that Junior looked around behind him and saw as a number of men in blue Membrane Labs uniforms stormed out of the small office building on the platform behind him. The four men quickly took their positions, two standing below looking up at him while two made their way up the stairs, keeping their distance from him at the beginning of the bridge. They each held what looked like a small gas powered harpoon gun, taking aim at him from all around. Looking back down the bridge he saw another two storming up the other side to take aim at him past their master.

Junior gazed at his old friend with open heartache as the reality of what had happened to him finally sank in. Once again his world seemed to collapse in on him. Piff may not have been the closest friend, but he was still important to him. Now all of that history was torn out of him, replaced by open scorn and disgust, just like everyone else had shown him.

The pain in his chest grew, and this eyes began to tear up. Turning his face down in grief he sought once again to escape the bitter hatred that now came from the eyes of someone he used to trust.

"I saved your life." He could barely mutter to the ground. "I bled for you. I suffered for you!"

"Well now you're going to bleed again." Dib answered with absolutely no remorse for what he had done. "Thanks to your traitorous friends not only do I get to take my rightful name again I am now the sole owner of the Membrane empire. I had to sit by and pretend to accept your existence for four years, so now that I have free reign I'm going to take you away and turn you into my personal experiment. You may have been an abomination, but the living weapons I will create from you will more than make up for how you tainted this world, especially when they help me take over from the nationalists."

He stepped off to the side of the bridge to allow the guards behind him a clear shot. "Take him."

The guards fired their harpoons with a loud discharge, each sending a barbed spearhead hurtling towards the boy. Junior gasped in shock and agony as he felt them punch through his arms, legs and body.

"AAAAUUURRGH!"

Dib watched on as Junior howled with pain and grief as the barbs latched into his flesh. He smiled cruelly to himself as the six gaping wounds poured green blood out onto the deck, and with it Junior finally let go of his tears, not just of this betrayal, but of the betrayal of the rest of the world. The guards pulled back on the thick cables attached to the barbs, dragging the anguished youth down to his hands and knees before their master.

The ugly holes inflicted throughout his body, cutting through bones and arteries and organs, not only let out the blood of the wounded youth now gasping for breath from the blood in his right lung, it let out all the dammed up pain of everything the people he had suffered so much for had done to him. He had put his life on the line time and again for them, he had put himself in situations he honestly didn't think he would survive to protect them, and for all the insults and hatred they directed at him for the crime of being different to them, he had always forgiven them. And they had simply taken everything he had given, and then used him as their own punching bag to make themselves feel superior, with absolutely no concern for what he had done for them at all.

And then, through all the tears he shed for everything they had put him through now all coming out, there was his anger. They had taken his pride, his dignity, his very soul from him. But these things were his and his alone. They could never take these things from him. They could never take him. Though his aversion towards violence and killing others remained, his anger still welled from deep below to flood his entire being.

Dib stood and grimaced as Junior curled his fists, seeing his downturned face snarl with rage.

"Oh stop! This is not about you, worthless demon freak! Stop being selfish and come quietly."

Junior opened his eyes wide as in that moment everything became calm and still for him. The sheer overwhelming hypocrisy of his words pushed him over the edge, and his inner conflict dissolved.

"I'm going to kill you." He stated with a hollow, heavy note, his quivers of bodily rage giving way to stillness. Dib scoffed at him.

"Say it all you want, I know you can't do anything. You're too weak and gutless to do it."

But when Junior raised his face to stare up at him, instead of the struggling and broken youth he had seen before, now a face set in a look of complete and total hate and rage. Everything Junior had learned and done had let him to this, where all his fear and doubt and hesitation fell away, and his glowering bright green demonic eyes and the monstrous razor claws that grew out of his enlarged hands gave only clear focus and finality in his purpose.

"Dib, I am going to kill you." He stated again evenly. Dib smirked and with a flick of his fingers ordered the two guards behind Junior to move up and take him away. They quickly moved into position behind the figure on his hands and knees, keeping the wires holding him taught as they prepared to sedate or otherwise incapacitate him before the mob arrived. Junior listened to their approach in waiting. Turning his eyes around to the side he heard them stop just behind him, and in a single instant all his demonic instincts kicked in at one.

Opening his mouth with a snarl of rage he revealed a set of enormous jagged teeth, as he launched himself up to his feet once more, tearing out each of the barbed heads holding him. Before either of his enemies had realised what had happened he whirled around on the nearest one, and with bestial ferocity and speed clamped his enormous teeth in on his throat, only to keep going past him, tearing out his throat altogether.

The guard stood gaping in shock as an enormous amount of blood and flesh exploded from the huge bite. Before he could pass out Junior et go of the hunk of flesh in his jaws and bought his razor clawed hand in on the guard to his left. The force was so extreme that it tore his skull and brain apart completely, the bloody shredded remains sent careening off the side of the bridge while his headless corpse stood unmoved.

Dib gagged in horror as the bodies fell, the creature covered in their blood crouched low, turning his eyes to glower murder at him again.

"Oh shit! KILL IT!"

Dropping their harpoon guns as he stood the guards drew their pistols and fired. Junior bellowed as he recoiled with each debilitating impact through his already fatally wounded body. Snarling with hate he never budged an inch under their fire, even as Dib watched as his body became riddled with gaping holes all over.

When finally their ammunition ran out they lowered they fell silent and saw that Junior still stood, opening his mouth to give out an almost inhuman scream of rage that made their insides squirm. The pain drove him ever deeper into madness. He couldn't breathe for his lungs were destroyed, as was his heart, and every other vital organ in his torso. But they were human organs, in a human body, and he was not human.

Fixing his bright green eyes on Dib again he kept his gaze on him, watching his reaction as he dissolved and reformed his physical form almost in one movement. Across the bridge Dib frowned, unable to understand how he was still alive when he was clearly dead, when in front of him the gaping exit wounds seemed to close in just a few seconds. Before he could even change his expression to bulging-eyed horror and dismay Junior was standing there completely unharmed, without even a drop of green blood on him, or a single hole in his clothes. But the crystal clear killers purpose in his eyes remained.

For the second time that day Dib's sphincter clenched.

Reaching down Junior seized one of the handguns from the bloody corpses, disengaged what he presumed to be the safety, and while the guards were still trying to reload he turned the gun roughly on the blue uniformed soldier on the right side of the staircase. Pulling the trigger of a gun for the first time he felt it ram back uncontrollably in his grip. But the shot caught the man in the shoulder, and he staggered back screaming in pain and panic. Adjusting to the recoil Junior took aim again, and even as he felt the bullets of the three other guards rock his body he braced his arms and fired. This time the bullet took out a chunk of the man's brain.

Turning the gun on the guard on the left he fired off three, four and five rounds, easily controlling the recoil in his mad demonic state. The man dropped his gun and seemed to freeze in shock, still standing until after the fifth bullet had blown through him that he finally fell back.

Dropping the gun Junior turned back and snarled viciously at the remaining two on the other staircase behind Dib, the bullet wounds they had inflicted on him still brutally painful even as he healed them almost without thought. A pair of coils launched out of his back and arced over and down towards the two feeble depraved thugs, each opening at the tip to reveal a nasty jaw full of teeth. One guard stood gaping in shock as the jaws clamped down on his throat, while the other turned and ran, the head of the coil knocking him down before it could take a second bite and latch onto his right leg.

Hoisting them both high up above the station the stupid guard met his end when before he could bleed out he was rocketed down again, slamming his fleshy and bony body of blood and meat into the concrete platform, with predictable results of a loud crack and no further movement. The cowardly guard shouted and shrieked as Junior cruelly tormented him, dangling him by his bloody leg over where the other had been killed, before opening the jaws. Screaming as he fell the coil reached down and sank its teeth into his leg again before he could hit the ground, and pulled up so violently that it tore his leg off at the knee. The guard continued to scream in agony as he dropped to the ground clutching his stump pouring blood, before the vine clamped down on his throat, tearing his head off, flinging it down onto the concrete to burst like a watermelon.

Dib looked at the awful things he had done to the last two with all colour gone from his face. Looking back to Junior wide-eyed he shook as he glowered murderously at him.

Junior paused, lifting his head up as a familiar sound reached his ears. Looking back towards where he had come from earlier he listened as the sound of hundreds of people screaming and snarling uncontrollably reached him, getting rapidly louder with each second. The mob had heard the gunshots, they were almost here.

Turning back to scowl darkly at his so-called friend Piff he stepped in with a menacing slow gate, as a terrified Dib reached behind him and drew a serrated hunting knife, holding it up at him with a shaking hand in a desperate attempt to warn him off. Junior lunged in towards him, Dib shrieking and ducking his head away as he closed the gap and grasped the knife in his monstrous hand, snapping the carbon steel blade with his thumb. Reaching upt with the same hand he clamped down on Dib's throat.

"No! NOOOOOO!" Dib screamed in cowardice before Junior forcibly turned his face towards him, gazing into him with a stone hard, utterly pitiless face. He wanted him to see the person who was going to kill him, and know it was the same person he betrayed.

But the rumble of a fast approaching passenger train drew his attention, and a twisted idea soon came to him. Hoisting Dib up by his throat despite how he thrashed and struggled like an insect, he lowered him over the railing, allowing him to see the train coming towards them beside the sunset. Dib's eyes bulged in terror, looking back to Junior in time to see him let go.

"AAA-GAHH!" Dib heaved and shook as he just managed to cling on to the bridge surface below the railing. Terror stricken with his face stained by tears he looked up to Junior desperately, seeing him gaze down with hatred and contempt.

"Junior, you can't do this! Remember what you always said, you can't kill a parson! YOU CAN'T KILL ME-HE!" He screamed up at him in between weeping, but found no more sympathy in his burning angry green eyes. "If you do this you'll be as much of a monster as they all said you were. You don't want to be a monster, do you?"

Junior looked up from him to see the fast moving train closing in. It was time to open himself to all of his darkness. Turning back down to Dib below him he put his foot on one set of fingers, crushing them and forcing them away from the edge. Panicked Dib watched as he positioned his foot over his remaining hold, gazing down with wide eyes that reflected all the hatred that had been poured onto him over the years.

"I am a monster. And this is what monsters do."

Pushing off his remaining hand Dib fell from the bridge with a loud cry, crashing down onto the tracks right in front of the oncoming train. Facing it with his arm outstretched he uttered a piercing shriek, before his body simply exploded underneath the train, plastering the track and much of the station with blood and pieces of meat.

Breathing deep in the moment Junior gazed upon what he had done without remorse. His whole life he had been their victim, stripped of his very dignity and eventually even his soul. Now he stood the victor, looking down with anger and contempt on the arrogant lowlife he had once thought of as his friend. He had conquered his fears, taken his pride back from the people who took it, and crushed his betrayers.

But this slaughter had only just begun.

Junior's features twisted and darkened as he heard the hundreds of screaming mindless narcissists and human scum now pouring out through the alleys and across the street, running at him with their arms outstretched and flailing so they could grab him and tear him limb from limb. Casting his gaze the way he had come he saw as the enormous mob came barrelling in towards the train station where they could see him standing atop the bridge.

Out of the mindless crowd a single police car appeared out of one street with its lights and sirens going, knocking over and killing dozens of people as it punched out ahead of the mob towards him. Sliding to a halt across the dust a single plump officer stepped out and ran hard at the front of the bloodthirsty crowd pouring into the station. Junior recognised his face, and realised it was Dougie, the depraved officer that he had encountered in the police station morgue. He grimaced and lowered his face away, as the sick chubby man led the mob up the stairs to stop before the youth. He sniggered at him with a twisted grin on his face.

"Hehahaha! TIME TO DIE DIFFERENT!"

His grin fell away when Junior let out the worst snarl, a sound like an enormous machine running on broken parts, turning to face him with a mouth full of massive teeth, huge clawed hands, and his face twisted in an appalling murderous hate. Until now Junior had never fought back against his attackers. Now everything they had ever done to him was to be repaid in full, and no matter how much they tried to deny or blame, they could not escape this fate.

Turning towards them with his body angled low Junior gave a bloodthirsty roar and charged at him. Screaming in panic Dougie turned around and drew his handgun, shooting the people in front of him to try and clear a path down the stairs to safety. He made it to the bottom of the staircase before Junior lashed out and wrapped a series of tentacles around his arms and legs.

Stepping into the crowd through the path Dougie had cleared Junior hoisted the corrupt cop high overhead, allowing everybody to see him as he cried and thrashed. Securing his arms and legs tightly Junior began to pull hard. Dougie cried out as the force on his body got worse and worse, the crowd gaping up at him shocked at what they were seeing from the boy they had been accustomed to being able to degrade at leisure. Eventually the man closed his eyes and screamed, his skin and muscles being the first to rip open and pour out the contents of his belly, before his entire body was torn to bloody pieces that rained down on Junior and the surrounding crowd.

Gaping in horror and covered in blood the mob followed the coils down as they retracted back into the body of the crouched demon. Staring at him they began to shout with fear and panic, rising to a howl in the air as those closest to him tried to get away, only to be stopped by everyone else that had come driven by their intolerance.

"_**HRRRRRRR…"**_

Junior snarled and bared his teeth as he gazed over the circle of bulging-eyed people surrounding him, the memory of all they had done to him overwhelming him as once more he opened himself up, and turned all of their appalling actions back on them.

Their fearful faces opened up to cry and scream in mindless terror as he lowered himself down on all fours, another series of razor tipped coils extending out of his back to tower high above them. Junior watched as they struggled, setting his eyes on the nearest one in front of him. Rearing his whole body back he uttered a monstrous bellowing roar, and launched at him with his jaws open wide.

* * *

Tak flew across the Endsville cityscape high above the streets on her spider legs, still cloaked in her old holographic disguise. She had come and gone past the drug factory, finding the mob after him had already moved elsewhere, but when the screams of loathing had turned to terror, she had quickly followed them north.

Stopping with her legs planted in the corner of a brick building she gasped as looking down she saw dozens of brutally torn apart corpses. Following the street with her eyes she saw the number of dead grew by the inch. Ahead of her through another set of buildings was a railway track, and the ground around it was piled up with death.

'_We're too late.'_ She realised with plummeting spirits and raced on towards the bloody ground.

Emerging from the last block Tak touched down in the street facing the open ground. Retracting the spider legs back into her case she set out across the ground strewn with bloody corpses. Looking at them as she passed she saw some relatively intact, with bite wounds where something had torn off a small piece, while others had been reduced to mincemeat and piles of entrails and severed limbs. There was little space for her feet to go, so many times she had to tread on top of the bodies, it wasn't the first time in her ugly prior career.

She paused, hearing a sound like grunting, and tearing. Looking across to her right she saw a large man in a singlet, plastered head to toe in blood, crouched beside the horrifically mutilated body of a woman with her torso open and her organs falling out. Approaching him warily she looked at what he was doing, and felt like she wanted to throw up.

It was a zombie. He was eating her, one organ at a time, reaching in to pull out something else to bring to his gore encrusted mouth and tear off a piece, grunting as he chewed.

The undead creature seemed to sense she was there, turning around to search for any sign of life before his eyes locked on her with a bored look.

"The fuck you looking at?"

Tak gaped at him, unable to find any response that suited what she was seeing. This creature wasn't a zombie at all, he was a normal human being, who was eating the organs of another human being. He tore another chunk out of the woman's liver, chewed and swallowed.

"I'll kill you too bitch. She's my daughter, I can kill her and eat her if I want."

Recovering from her shock she looked on in revulsion as he went back to eating the young woman. Extending one of her spines she fired a small pulse of energy through the man's head, blowing a hole in his forehead and out the back like an anti-tank warhead. His eyes rolled up and he fell backwards.

Turning away Tak continued aimlessly, looking forlorn out across the field of corpses, searching for any sign of the youth she had met earlier. How she had become so caught up in this one boy's life after just one meet was something that perplexed her, but she knew something had occurred between them when they saw each other.

There was the tearing and chewing sound again.

Stopping she frowned in disbelief. Turning back she saw the man was up again, eating his own daughter, with a hole blown right through his head. She gaped at the sight wordless.

'_That's not possible. Most of his brain is wet slop inside his skull, he couldn't possibly... Wait a minute...'_

The thought was immediately proven correct. Turning back to her the man now opened his mouth to let out a weak gurgling growl, before returning to his meal just as he had before being shot through the head.

'_Of course, there's almost no change because apart from when he spoke to me his brain wasn't working any more anyway.'_

The man was a zombie, except his body was alive while his brain was mostly dead, except for the endless hunger of his ego. Tak drew her spiny appendage again ready to blow his head away completely, charging the tip for a larger blast.

She almost cried out when a long green-black lash flashed past on her left, curling up and striking the zombie from his hip to his eye socket, an enormous gash blowing out halfway through his body, opening him up and splattering him over on his side.

Looking up at the bladed lash Tak watched it is it retracted back through the air, following it back towards its point of origin. There she saw Junior, sitting atop the stairs leading up to the bridge, looking out at the sunset as the coil disappeared back into his body.

Tak dashed across the bloody ground past an abandoned police cruiser towards the station, stopping before the stairs where the massacre had started. She looked up at Junior sitting on the right corner, and for a moment wondered if it was really him. The menacing teeth and large clawed hands, the blood all over him, was so different to the gentle charming boy she had met, but most of all it was the bitter frozen stare in his eyes. But he still looked to the horizon for escape, and his curled posture with his hands clasped together over his knees gave away his underlying vulnerability that had previously been shielded by his aloof confidence.

Junior turned to face her like a ghost as she stepped up towards him over the bodies strewn before him, like the defeated enemies of a great and terrible tyrant. Tak looked at him quietly, accepting there wasn't much that she could say to him at this point. She looked at his demonic figure once again.

"So this is what you really look like, your real form." She spoke. Junior shook his head gently.

"This isn't me. I have no true form." He regaled coldly and looked to the sunset again. "This just fits better."

Tak cocked her head tentatively, knowing if he was to open up it was to be only if he wanted to. She faced him with compassion and acceptance, and remained silent. Junior remembered how he had done something similar for her, and suddenly his hard gaze softened.

"They were right about me." Junior spoke with a heavy heart. "They were right all along. I am a monster." He turned towards her with the same ghosts that haunted her. "I killed the spy. It was Dib, or Piff. Either way he's all over the tracks. Then this vermin showed up. I did the same to them, and I loved it."

The shadow of a smile formed on his face as he looked past her out towards the field of bodies below. "But I only got to kill about a hundred or so of them. As I was killing them they turned on each other. They killed ten times more of each other than I ever got the chance to. And you know what, I loved watching them do it, every second of it."

His face filled with disgust for himself. "This is what I am."

Tak gazed upon the broken figure agape with compassion, before her features hardened.

Junior looked at her with renewed curiosity as her entire body seemed to flicker and become a strange blur. Her pail skin, blue hair and clothes seemed to come apart, and in their place was revealed a green skinned creature with two curled antenna, wearing clothes that weren't far from rags. She looked to him with gleaming purple eyes, and on the side of her head he saw a small but prominent scar. She had the same burnt-out visage as he did, and the same ghosts of past fears and hesitations, and of heart crushing betrayals, and the voices of the people who had scorned and hated them.

"I told you before, and I'll tell you now, you are not a monster." She told him with a stark note and hard stare that left absolutely no room for discussion. She pointed to the hundreds of bodies strewn all over the ground behind her. "They are monsters. They are the ones who crush you at every opportunity, just because you were different to them, who turn on each other every day without remorse. You aren't a monster; you are a demon, like us. Your purpose is to hunt down and kill these monsters, so they don't get the chance to do the things they do to real good people."

Junior was speechless. Now it all made sense. This was the only thing that made sense to him, and it was perfect. Tak stepped up to him and held her hand out for him to take. He reached out and grasped her hand and she helped him to his feet again. They remained there for a moment, holding each other's hand, before they made to walk away to where Billy and Mandy were still looking for him nearby.


	47. The Plan

**Hello again beloved readers! Thank you again to everyone who got back to me, and for putting up with my late replies.**

**I'm not entirely sure what I think of this chapter, it seemed to just grow out of people just talking. And yet it's still huge, the biggest so far, and there's still more that I could have put in it. But it all came together nicely this time.**

**Here I guess the focus isn't just on making plans for what they're gonna be doing, but also on the family relationship, and the bond the characters share with each other. After all, negative stuff is too negative. Plus I wanted to fill out what else was happening in the world, catch up on an old character, and start bringing this part of the story towards its climax and close. I hope it inspires your interest, thank you!**

* * *

**The Plan.**

Billy was awake, and had been for perhaps fifteen minutes. In his current state though he didn't really know having no real sense of time, his eyes still closed to the bedside clock radio beside him, therefore it could have been anything from that to an hour. Still there wasn't any music coming out of the small grey box, so it had to be before seven, the time the radio alarm was set to wake him. He liked it that way, it gave him time to think about the beautiful girl sleeping in the bed next to him.

Last night after dinner it was realised that because Mandy had moved into the spare bedroom there was no space for Tak. Either she would have to sleep on the couch, or Mandy would have to spend the night with Billy again. Though at the time they hadn't shown anything more than a blush she was more than happy to comply, leaving their new friend to sleep in her bed while she spent the night in her young partner's arms.

Now, in the hours before rising, Billy found himself in his bed, with Mandy snuggled in next to him, her head resting gently on the pillow next to his. He smiled as he held her, his hands wrapped softly around her waist, feeling the perfect warmth shared between the two of them as she breathed gently in and out in her sleep, or what was probably a poor disguise as sleep, her arms wrapped around the base of his chest. He smiled as she felt her slender hands ever so slowly move from one place to another across his sides and back, clearly too often for her to be simply shifting in her sleep. He should know; he was doing the same thing with his hands along the soft curves of her waist.

His slightly roughened fingers picked up the sensation of her skin under their touch. He felt the incredibly silky smooth texture of her skin as he trailed his palms and the tips of his fingers across the alluring expanse shown by the small top she wore to bed. He smiled as her petite figure guided his hands across her curving flanks, feeling her nuzzle into him slightly with every breath.

Mandy had awoken shortly after Billy had, awoken by the sensation of a pair of hands gently moving across her body. She had yet to open her eyes, pretending to stay asleep so he could continue to explore her, a tiny smile tugging upwards on the edge of her mouth at the knowledge that it was Billy who was touching her. As he continued to ever so slowly explore her, holding her close in between moving his fingers from one place to another in a vain attempt to feign sleep, she began to pick up what her own hands were telling her.

It was a warm night, and Billy had decided to forego his shirt, more likely so he could feel closer to her. For long she was happy to just lie next to him and let him gently touch her, but before long she had begun to comprehend the feel of her hands tucked up behind his chest, lying across the muscles of his sides and back. She knew fully well of the effects of his hyperactive lifestyle had on his body, having taken the opportunity to study it that time after he came out of the shower cloaked in naught but a towel, and the times they had stripped in front of each other. From what she could feel now he had gained an extra few percent in muscle density in their time in hiding from all the training and exercise. She slowly traced her slender fingers up along his back, along his shoulder blades, examining the lean muscle density she felt standing out under his skin while still attempting to feign sleep.

He felt everything she did to him, every movement of her slender hands across his shoulders, up to the top of his arms, then back down to his lean sides. It took some effort not to give out a sigh of bliss as he felt her short fingernails tracing lines across him. He never ceased in his exploration of her soft flanks, even as he felt her going over his ribs one by one with her fingertips. _'I never would have thought Mandy would one day become so loving and affectionate. Thanks Tak. If you weren't here we might not have stayed the night together, and then we wouldn't be doing this to each other now.'_

He had good reason to be grateful. Aside from the immense personal history he shared with the girl and the close emotional ties they had grown, as he had seen previously Mandy had grown quite a figure in the past year, and the exercise she had done had perfected it to shape her in just such a way as to make every gentle sloping curve and contour just right for his hands, heightened further by the way she was laid out on her side. And yet that training had done absolutely nothing to detract from the softness of that skin. And the blankets pulled up over them both trapped the heat in, making everything seem absolutely perfectly warm under his touch. Moving his hand down from her side he began to explore the gentle curvature of the front of her abdomen. He smiled again at the feel of that silky expanse as he drifted the tips of his fingers along the front of her waist.

Mandy paused in her own exploration as she felt the sudden change in direction, her senses heightening as she picked up his fingers trailing down the front of her waist. She bit her lip as her nerves flared under his affectionate touch. She gave a soft, contented sigh as she snuggled into his arms further, placing her head by his shoulder and pressing herself more into the young man she had come to love. _'I can't believe this is happening. I never thought being in love was going to feel like this. How did I ever think I could live without this?'_

As his fingers continued to glide across her belly he came upon a particularly sensitive spot above her hips. Immediately he felt her react, suddenly tensing under his touch.

"Hn…"

Though she stifled it immediately she knew all too well it was too late for that. Billy grinned as he continued to trace over that spot, seeling her continuing to shake and shudder, trying to suppress a grin and breathe normally. Mandy quickly forgot about her hands around his back as she struggled not to laugh, biting her lip so as to bring back some kind of control to her once dark and foreboding self. The two continued their romantic standoff, Billy smiling with his eyes still closed as he continued to gently caress her waist, Mandy biting her lip, struggling to keep herself from breaking out in a grin and some very uncharacteristic laughter.

"_**-ow how to hurt, I know how to heal."**_ The radio chimed in, activated by the arrival of its designated time.

"_**I know what to show and what to conceal."**_

The two lovers opened their eyes at last at the sound, breaking their little standoff. Immediately they locked their gaze on each other, Billy looking down to where she lay against his shoulder, looking up at him with the two dark orbs he had come to love. He slid his hands around her again, holding her to his side as she smiled softly up to him, content to rest against him for as long as they both wished.

"_**I know when to talk, and I know when to touch."**_

"Good morning." Billy cooed to her.

"Good morning." Mandy replied. She felt him raise a hand from her soft flank, pulling it around behind him to turn off the radio. She quickly bought up her own, catching his hand in her own. "Leave it going. I always liked this song, it kind of speaks to me."

_**"****No one ever died from wanting too much."**_

The young terrorist complied, bringing his hand back down to his diabolical lover's side as she touched the side of his face. Pushing herself up in the bed she moved her face over his, and hesitated a moment so they could feel the flare of tension between them as he felt her breath on his lips. Mandy closed her eyes and lowered herself to him, opening her mouth to join with him as they shared a long kiss, feeling the wet warmth of his mouth as he wrapped his arms around her back to bring her in closer. How she loved being held so close by him.

Billy could scarcely believe how he had been so blessed. Nothing could be better than this. But as Mandy reached up and ran her fingertips up the base of his spine he was proven wrong. Opening his mouth he let out a soft groan. Mandy pulled back and watched as he breathed deep with a smile that seemed to well up from some deep happiness inside, and when he opened his eyes to face her she saw a shimmer that hadn't been there before.

_**"****People like us, know how to survive."**_

_**"There's no point in living if you can't feel the life."**_

"What is it?" He shrugged a little.

"Just thinking, a week ago I never would have dreamed this would be possible. I never would have dreamed I could hold you like this."

Mandy smiled to him and lay back down with her head on his shoulder. Together they lay listening to the music, wrapped in each others warm embrace under the covers. Mandy bought her hand up from his shoulders, gently running her short nails through his wildly flayed orange hair, sensing his whole body go limp as she ran them from front to back along his skull. He closed his eyes again as the feeling of bliss he felt at just holding her close increased, a tingling going through every cell down his arms, to the base of his spine. His smile curved upwards a little more as he revelled in the sensation, feeling her breath against his collar as she continued to caress his head of wild flowing hair.

She examined his hair for just a moment. _'I could've sworn his hair was a little less red than this.'_

Bringing his head down he rested his forehead on hers, opening his eyes to look into hers as he nuzzled into her. Moving his hands again along the gentle curves of her sides and back he caressed and embraced her, examining her with the same gentle care she showed him, running her fingers through his fringe. She smiled as she pressed her face to his, a feeling of absolute content coming over her as he stroked her. She had never really experienced something like this before a few days ago, a feeling that everything was perfect just the way it was. Before the greatest joy and satisfaction in her life came from crushing the corrupt and the weak under her merciless iron fist, but that was more a sense of her will and her revenge being enforced. What she felt now, the warmth of her lover's hands on her waist, and his breath on her lips, was something she found to set her so absolutely at ease. It reminded her of the first time she had nuzzled into him on their last night at the cabin. It made her feel calm, and safe, and content, and…

Happy. She couldn't think of a moment in time when she had ever felt this truly happy before. And furthermore there was something in the way her partner looked at her, some serene calmness in his blue eyes, which continually gave her the impression he was feeling the same.

_**"The world is not enough, but it is such a perfect place to start, my love."**_

Turning his attention to another topic, Billy had to admit her choice to leave the radio going was a good one. It was a strangely befitting song for their personal situation, and added nicely to the magic of their little golden moment together.

_**"And if you're strong enough, together we can take the world apart, my love."**_

"This is a nice song." He spoke softly to her. "It really suits us don't you think?"

"It does, doesn't it?" She spoke back, toying with his fringe in between her fingers. "Still, since I became less selfish it doesn't really represent the real reason why we're doing this anymore."

"Hey, you know, maybe this could be 'our song'. I mean every couple has a song they remember when they think of each other. What do you think?"

Mandy shrugged. "Mh. I'll consider it." She answered with analytical indifference, Billy sniggering slightly as they settling down to listened to the song play.

_**"And if you're strong enough, together we can take the world apart, my love."**_

_**"The world is not enough."**_

"This is just perfect." She spoke, snuggling into his embrace.

_**"The world is not enough."**_

"Yeah. We could just forget all about the horde of bloodthirsty maniacs trying to destroy the world and stay here all day." He replied.

_"**No nowhere near enough."**_ He reached his arm up from his lover's side, back around to hover above the off button on his radio.

_**"The world is not enough."**_

Shutting off the radio before the annoying voice of the presenters could come on he bought his hand up to her face. He gently brushed the hair around her fringe back into position, framing her face perfectly as she lay contentedly on the pillow. Her smile was such a rare sight to behold on the face of someone so foreboding, but when she did, it was like the parting of grey clouds to reveal a sunrise, a beauty unbefitting the tainted world they lived in.

He leaned in to her, wrapping his lips around and into hers again in a loving kiss. Mandy wrapped her arms up around his shoulders as he held her close by her small waist, neither pulling away as they savoured what they had both denied themselves for so long. They each studied each others warmth, getting a feel for the smell and the taste of their lips as they continued to kiss, exploring the new and wonderful sensation with desire and longing. After another few moments of bliss they separated, lying back in the bed together in time to hear a knock on the door.

"_Billy, Mandy, are you two up? You have school today so you'd best start getting ready."_ Gladys' voice permeated the stillness of the room.

"We're up, don't worry." Billy replied, hearing her footsteps fading away as she left. Biting his lip in though he returned his attention to his partner as she too began to stir from her position by his side. He flashed a grin to her as he sat upright. "Maybe we could just pause this for a little while, until this afternoon maybe?"

Smirking she followed him up out from under the blankets, kneeling up to face him again. She weaved her arms around his shoulders again as he held her. "Billy your attention span's so short you can barely remember what to do next. How are you gonna remember this?" He grinned, running his fingers across her waist again in response making her sigh.

"Because I can't stop thinking about you all day." Smirking he leaned in and kissed her again, his partner complying with another, followed by another and another. They continued to kiss and taste each other's lips until they picked up on the sounds of Gladys' footsteps approaching again, parting immediately as she past by their door.

Releasing his hold on Mandy as she unfurled her arms from around his shoulders, they both stepped off the bed to set about getting ready for the day. Billy sighed and set himself down to business as he opening the closet, selecting his regular shirt and shorts, all the while sending glances across to Mandy as she picked up the pink dress and underwear she had bought from her room. He fought off the urge to stare at her figure as she paced the room, clothes in hand, the blinds still closed to the clear morning sky outside, all the while she continued to covertly examine his. With the blinds closed the light from the outside was reduced to a glow that highlighted the two youths in an orange relief, parts of them still veiled in shadow to the other.

Mandy noticed him as he glanced across to her every few seconds, still largely unable to ignore her alluring figure. Smirking she moved so as to give him a good view of her in the faint light. Turning to face him she arched herself back in a long stretch. As expected he froze, locking his eyes on her as once again the hem of her top rose up, giving him a good view of everything up to and including the bottom of her white bra, her face a mix of feigned ignorance and smug satisfaction.

She almost heard it as all coherent thought dumped from his brain, before he forcefully tore his gaze away from her. He grabbed a change of clothes for the day as he shut the closet door, all the while struggling to keep his mind together as Mandy's face flushed red.

"Oh Mandy why do you torment me so?" He whined in a pleading tone as he made his way towards the door. Behind him Mandy's smirk grew another notch as another idea came to mind on how to taunt her partner. She turned around, sitting back down on the bed, her back facing him as he made for the door.

"Get used to it, there's more to come."

Making his way to the door, his clothed in hand, he intended to take a slightly too long shower to get his head together before he came out to face her again. He knew that today there were serious matters to attend to with Junior and Tak. There were plans to be made, plans that would affect their future and the future of the world, and he couldn't make good decisions with his mind on Mandy's amazingly soft, warm, delicate, curvaceous-

'_Shut up!'_ He ordered himself, pausing before the door. Grasping the door handle he relaxed, content that for now at least his mind was clear enough to get started. He glanced back to Mandy for a second as she sat on the bed.

'_!'_

He froze again, his entire system grinding to a halt at the sight before him. On his bed facing away from him sat Mandy, her shirt lying in a heap beside her, her bra dropping down onto it a moment later. His heart stopped, opening his mouth to gasp as he locked his eyes on the vast expanse of her completely bare back. Coherent thoughts fled as he scanned her over, from her shorts, up across her elegantly sloping hourglass waist, to her shoulder blades and blonde hair lying down her neck. Nothing, _nothing_ he had ever seen in his life could compare with the sheer indescribable delicate beauty of his young lover's small, undressed figure.

"Mandy! Oh god… you're…"

Mandy turned her head to look back around to her young lover, her arms crossed over her small breasts. Her face held a calm, neutral façade, belying the pleasure she felt seeing his mouth hanging agape as he so openly stared up and down at the area of her bare back.

"Don't you know it's not polite to-"

"… you're so beautiful."

She gaped and froze, a sudden wave of dizzying terror going through her. Billy flicked his eyes up to hers once he had managed to tear his mind from her alluring curves, and saw just how vulnerable she had suddenly felt. But he couldn't think properly about it, all he knew was he needed her so badly everything else became hazy. Mandy kept her eyes on his as he slowly stepped up close to her, seeing an almost trance-like state in his features as he looked at her. Her breath became fast as he knelt down on the bed behind her, looking down her back as he lightly placed his hands on her sides again, making her gasp and turn away.

"A… Ah…" She closed her eyes as she felt his fingertips tracing upwards, moving across her bare back between her shoulders. Then she felt his breath on her neck again. The tightness inside her grew, but even as she opened her eyes to gape out ahead she refused to protest as the rest of her began to melt into him once again. Billy saw the way she reacted as her hairs stood on end, and moved in to kiss her where he knew she was most sensitive below her ear.

"Oh! Ohhhhhhhh…"

Whatever anxiety Mandy may have had melted, along with the rest of her. Billy's eyes widened when she collapsed back into his arms. He placed his hands around the front of her waist as she laid her head on his shoulder, still weakly covering her chest with her crossed arms. Opening her eyes she looked up to him in a daze as he held her.

"Billy, no one has ever touched me or seen me like this before." She spoke as the same nervous tension began to worm through her belly, telling her she was taking this too far. Billy looked at her wide-eyed and shy, before he lowered his face serious.

"We should probably be careful about this in the future." He spoke after a moment, Mandy giving a nod. "I don't want us to do something we later regret… even if we want it so badly." His eyes trailed down to her nude shoulders, and his eyes began to glaze over before he could turn back to face her again.

Looking at him calmly Mandy leaned across to give him a light kiss on the lips, wanting to share each others warmth one more time before they parted.

"I love you." She spoke softly. Billy smiled as he felt her words touch him.

"I love you too." He told her before he let her go and moved off the bed, taking his clothes and making his way out the door.

Watching him go Mandy looked back to the window shades in front of her again, lowering her gaze in thought about what had just occurred.

'_Is this such a good idea?'_ She wondered to herself as she turned herself around so she could prop her back up against the pillows with her legs out in front of her. _'I ran my hands all over him, I let him run his hands all over me… I striped for him, and it wasn't the first time. This is moving so much faster than I ever would've thought. This could go so badly for us if we get this wrong.'_

Pushing through the dizzying fear at the prospect she looked down to her chest. Even with him gone she still felt compelled to cover her breasts, as if to guard one of her most personal boundaries against the mere thought of what had happened between them. _'But it felt so good when he touched my body like that, when he looked at me all over. I've denied how I felt about him for so long I need him so much.'_

Thinking about what it had felt like bought on a familiar intoxication. Her eyes glazed as she looked up at the ceiling, feeling her heartbeat in her sensitive breasts. Hesitantly she moved one of her fingers up along the centre of her chest, imagining it was him. Instantly she gasped and rolled her head back, opening her eyes when it became clear she had to snap herself out of this spell.

'_I have to control myself. I can't let things go too far in the heat of the moment, then wish we had waited until later when we were ready. I have to set some boundaries for myself, no matter how good it felt to feel him tracing his fingers across my skin, and to have him stare at me like he wanted to touch and caress-'_

"_Nh."_

Closing her eyes momentarily against the train of thoughts Mandy propped herself up again and looked across to the window and the orange and yellow light filtering through the cracks in the blinds, wondering what all of these changes meant for her life as she waited for her turn in the shower.

* * *

Half an hour later.

Mandy descended the stairs, her damp hair brushed up in the twin peaks that fitted her personality perfectly, along with the mismatched pink dress she insisted on wearing. Before she had made it halfway down she picked up on the familiar greasy smell of bacon and eggs, along with some other breakfast meat, which instantly made her mouth water and her insides feel very hollow. Along with the aroma came the sound of Billy ravenously devouring whatever was served in front of him, making noises that sounded like relief and desperation instead of just enjoyment. Upon reaching the bottom she found Tak sitting at the table, a half eaten hot dog in her hand, with bits of food on her face. Occasionally she would glance with morbid curiosity across to Billy as he sat at the other end, ravenously devouring plate after plate of fried eggs, bacon, toast and weenies, but didn't particularly care. They both turned to face her as she entered and sat down, taking note of Billy's near frenzied state as he devoured all in sight with a ferocity that stunned Tak, when she wasn't too dazed by the new tastes of what she was eating to think.

"Just imagine taking him to a buffet. He put one out of business once." Mandy remarked as Harold appeared behind the boy, carrying another plate of bacon and eggs. "Now they scream and wail at the sight of him. Morning."

"Hey Mandy. You're late to the feast. Billy's gone mental on account of the bacon."

Tak smirked as Harold placed the plate in the middle of the table, causing him to raise his head up from his plate towards the new addition. Looking to Mandy who had yet to eat a bite he nodded and gestured with his fork, while he continued with what was left in his mouth and plate. Immediately she tore into it, heaping several pieces of everything onto her empty plate and then taking them and heaping it into her mouth one after another, both savouring it and gulping it all down at the same time. Tak picked at it slowly, taking far longer with what was in her hands as her eyes became unfocussed with each bite. Billy looked at the food with desperation as he lounged back in his seat.

"Mandy, I'm so hungry right now. I've never been so hungry in my life." He lamented while still not making a move, letting her have her share. "It's all that demonic stuff we were doing yesterday."

The new demonic powers and capabilities he had discovered required an enormous amount of energy after each use, and though this energy was otherworldly it still demanded some physical refill, thus after yesterday his hunger had increased tenfold, driving him into a frenzy at the first smell of breakfast. However considering the way he usually ate it was somewhat difficult to spot the difference in demeanour.

"You were fine at dinner." Mandy remarked with curiosity.

"That's only before bed. I'm not doing much after that. Breakfast is symbolic."

"I didn't know any creature could eat like that." Tak added in a moment of lucidity. "And this food. Do you people always eat like this?" Tak asked.

"Yes, Gladys is an excellent cook and she does spoil us, but it is best to have a balanced diet." Mandy replied. "She makes sure we get it too."

With a smile Harold soon disappeared back into the kitchen to tell his wife what he'd heard, and in just a few seconds bought another heap of food out, fast enough to draw a raised eyebrow from Mandy. As Billy started eating again Mandy found herself noticing something strange about the dark haired girl sitting opposite. As she bit away at her hotdog every now and then she would look down with interest to her chest. Billy too paused for a moment in surprise as she bought her free hand up to poke at one of her breasts, getting a feel for the new additions to her figure. As an Irken woman she, along with all women of her species, had never developed in the same way as human women did. They were not needed to raise children anymore due to the standardised artificial birthing and reproduction used to screen out genetic defects. Now she didn't know what to do with the strange new… things.

"Grim went out again this morning." Billy said as his face began to relax and his hunger finally eased, pulling his and Mandy's attention away from the awkward topic. "He said he'll be back later on today again."

Settling down the three continued to eat, Gladys coming in to greet them.

"Good morning Mandy. Billy are you still…" Billy gave a warm smile and shook his head.

"No, I'm good now, thank you very much." He looked up to where she stood looking quietly satisfied. "Funny how only your cooking can fill a bottomless pit."

Gladys cocked her head curious. "Where are your uniforms?" She asked as she picked up several dishes.

"We don't need them anymore. The whole place has gone to hell while we were away." Mandy answered coldly, Gladys pausing to listen. "It's not really even a school anymore. It's a place where people come to be made even more insane, and beat each other to within an inch of their lives. Anyone who actually wants to learn something has already ditched the place. They all go to the library now and use Time magazine for textbooks. Speaking of which…"

She reached over to take hold of the local paper delivered earlier that morning, Gladys leaving with the plates as she read the front page. Most of what was written in Endsville's local paper was trash, designed purely to appeal to people's stupidity and desire for cheap entertainment. Still, it did occasionally provide useful information on a local and national level. And right now she wanted to know if what had happened yesterday had been recorded, or if such trivialities were of no relevance to ordinary people.

'JUNIOR MURDERS THOUSANDS'

The front page showed a graphic picture looking out over the open field near the railway station. It came as no surprise that the blame went solely to Junior for what they had done, with no mention of the mob of 'innocent citizens' coming to rip him apart with their hands and teeth. Scanning over it quickly it made no mention of how many were killed all up, but from what Junior had told them when he had come back with them he had killed only a small percentage.

Huffing she set it down on the table, the lower half of the title facing Billy.

"You know one day we're gonna have to tell em." Billy spoke up, seeing as how both his parents were out of ear shot.

"I guess, but how are we supposed to explain world domination to them in a way that they'll respect?" Mandy asked as she flipped through the pages. "I mean I couldn't tell them that we weren't going to school anymore so how-" Billy raised his hand for calm.

"I'll tell them later." He replied, relaxing back in his chair. "I think I can explain it in a way that caters to their values."

Mandy nodded as she looked out the front window, Billy following her gaze thoughtfully.

"What are we gonna do about Junior?" He asked bringing his fingers up to his chin.

"I don't know. It all depends on how he's gonna take what happened yesterday. It can't be easy for him." She replied.

"That stupid son of a bitch Piff." Billy muttered shaking his head. "I can't believe after all he was doing he could actually call Junior selfish."

"On top of that everyone in America's going to be baying for his blood now so it's not safe for him anywhere near here anymore. And we still don't know what we're actually supposed to do with him now that he's gonna be working with us."

Tak cleaned her face off with her hand and thought quietly to herself.

"I think I can help with that. I bought him into this, and I can also teach him things that could make him very useful in the future." She spoke and finished her hotdog, continuing to look down to the funny meat bags on her chest. Once again her companions tried to ignore it, trying to focus on other matters.

"Oh well." Shrugging Mandy turned her attention back inwards around the table. "Come on, we gotta keep getting ready. We've got to meet up with Junior near the school, and go somewhere we can talk in private. We've gotta set out some plans for what we're gonna be doing in the next few years in preparation for… What are you doing?"

Tak pursed her lips in intrigue as she continued to incessantly prod and grasp at her chest, Mandy staring at her in a deadpanned manner, unable to ignore the elephant in the room any longer.

"What are these stupid meat things? They're all squishy, and…" Tak trailed off as she saw Billy snigger and put his hand to his face as he blushed at the concept.

"They're called breasts Tak." Mandy explained with great inconvenience. "Girls grow them around this age. Normally you wouldn't poke and prod them in public. Go up to my room and put a freaking bra on, and for god sake stop touching them. Billy is my boyfriend."

With much embarrassment Tak smirked and stood, crossing her arms over her chest as her face suddenly grew very warm. Mandy and Billy both watched as she sniggered with glee anyway as she made her way up the stairs. Now that she knew they were special, she could figure out how to use them.

As she left Harold stepped in again, a mug of coffee in his hand. He moved in as Billy stood and made way for him, Harold sitting opposite Mandy as Billy went to the kitchen.

"So how are things going with you two?" He asked as he sipped at his mug, closing his eyes as he savoured the warm brew. Mandy shrugged, unsure how much she could really say about what was going on between them.

"It's going really well so far. It's only been a few days so there's not much to say about how this will progress." She explained, deciding she would keep details like what happened this morning to themselves.

"You're in that love struck phase. It's very wise of you to be able to see that yourself and not get carried along-"

"Like some lovey-dovey teenage girl?" Mandy smirked slightly as Harold chuckled.

"Hey mom?" Billy called as he entered the kitchen, Gladys turning to face him.

"Yes Billy?" She spoke, but saw him halt with a baffled look on his face with his finger raised to ask a question. Looking back she already knew why. In the kitchen behind her a small army of half a dozen or more Nerglings darted about on the floor or on the counter top, carrying fry pans, dishes and utensils, with others crowded around the sink doing the washing, rinsing, drying and packing away.

"… I thought you could use some help cleaning up after breakfast but it looks like you got it covered." Gladys smiled heartfelt by her son's simple gratitude for all her not so hard work.

"Your uncle lent some of the Nerglings to us as thanks for looking after Junior. You and Mandy are good people to look after him after something like that." She spoke as she and Billy stood leaning back against the corner facing each other.

"You know Gladys has been so happy to see you two get together." Harold went on as Mandy looked at him with renewed interest. "She remembers how you two have been together for most of your lives, and how you both changed each other. We were even friends with Phil and Claire before you two came along. After you guys became friends we used to wonder what if you ever did get together, we never thought it would actually happen. I'm positive up there they're proud of you for who you've grown up to be."

Mandy bit her lip and turned her gaze down. It reminded her of the last time she had spoken with them when she was asleep, how everything had been laid to rest so that all of them could finally be at peace. She was grateful that she had that chance, and that she had people like these around her to back it up. A tiny smile wormed its way through.

"I know."

Billy meanwhile pushed the tips of his fingers together awkwardly. Gladys had a fair idea what was on his mind, but she merely kept herself open and understanding.

"Say… I've been thinking, since Mandy and I got together, I understand that relationships aren't all easy, and that people don't get along perfectly like Swiss watches, but do you know anything about how I can make this as good as it can be for the two of us?" He asked her awkwardly. Gladys smiled warmly, trying to suppress the part of her that wanted to cry and tackle her boy in a bear hug.

"Well the fact that you're asking me relationship advice, and how you're talking about you and Mandy both instead of just you means you've already got most of it right. All I can say really is just to remember a few main things, and you two can work out the smaller details yourselves."

He nodded. "Okay."

"Well first, any relationship is based on meeting both people's needs, and on a bond of care and respect. It's just in love relationships that bond is far greater." She watched as he nodded. "Now it's not about your or her needs being more important, it's that both are equally important to each of you. You have to have a lot of empathy and care for each other. But I'm sure you already understand all this, yes? I mean you've been friends for most of your lives."

"Uh huh."

"Second, you have to act on how you feel. You can't love someone and just assume they know it, otherwise it just becomes hollow. This also means that you have to be open with what exactly you need from them, the same as you need her to be open with you, and trying to work out something which works for both of you. That gets pretty complicated at times, but remember to be patient, and don't try to argue when you're frustrated otherwise that's when things go bad. Telling her about how you feel also comes down to learning little things, and you'll pick that up over time so don't worry too much."

"Okay." Billy listened rapt as she continued.

"And third, don't get complacent. You must never allow yourself to fall into the trap of taking each other for granted. Then you loose what you have together, and the whole relationship becomes hollow. You have to remember how and why you fell in love with Haro… her in the first place." Billy smiled as he picked up on where she had begun to loose track of her thoughts, seeing the funny little love struck glint in her eyes as she was speaking. "Remember to work at making it better. If you find doing one good thing gets boring switch to doing another for awhile. Enjoy every moment you have with him-_her._ Other than that it'll be good for you two to figure it out yourselves."

"So you and mom and dad were friends before Billy and I came along?" Mandy spoke up with interest. Harold nodded with a smile.

"Phil and I were drinking buddies from way back. We raised all kinds of hell together. Gladys and Claire were the same. We were sad to see them go." He admitted with a sombre note, but soon changed that. "You know Phil used to talk to me about you on the nights we went out." Mandy cringed.

"Ugh, I can imagine what-"

"He said you were inspiring." Harold interrupted, causing Mandy to look at him wide-eyed as he nodded. "Of course he still told me about the whole picture, and I know it wasn't all good, but I remember he told me something you taught him about dealing with people."

Mandy cocked her head "What did he say?"

"He said that as he and Claire watched the world around them going all crazy like it is now, you taught them that one way or another each person has to do what they honestly think is right, by themselves and by the world as a whole. He said that even if it's just to resist inside your own head, he had to take a stand in some way against the corruption and the evil that was going on around him every day at work, because he was part of the bureaucracy, even if it meant being branded a freak or a traitor by just about everyone else." Harold raised a finger knowingly, smirking as he leaned in towards her as she leaned towards him.

"But the one thing he said you taught him above all else was that those people who said he was in the wrong, he didn't want their respect anyway. Because as much as they call people like us traitors, and look at us and talk like we're the ones in the wrong, because of you he knew the truth."

"… What? What truth?"

"Deep down, every last one of those people are full of shit." Harold and Mandy both gagged with laughter.

"He actually said that?" She asked beaming with a grin.

"He said that as much as they fill their brains with all kinds of lies and crap, and as much as they spread it around, deep down on some unconscious level they all know it. And they know that you know it. And they'll come after you, and make no mistake they will. They'll lie to you, try to turn you against yourself, make you feel like it's your fault, these days they'll even straight up kill ya. And you can't reason with them, to them it's always your fault. But even if you're surrounded by these people and have no way of fighting back, he said there's one weapon we all have, which cuts through all the lies they try and hide their shitty hearts with and lets them know that you still know what they really are inside."

Beaming Harold leaned in as Mandy listened rapt on the edge of her seat.

"Fuck you!"

The two burst out laughing again. Mandy held her eyes closed as she clamped her arms around her sides, Harold leaning back happy that he'd been able to bond with their newest family member.

"This whole time I never knew dad thought like that." She answered as she sat back with a small smile on her features, facing each other quietly.

Harold faltered however when he saw Mandy bite her lip, and tears began to well up in her eyes. Mandy held tight against the wrenching in her chest that made her want to cry, raising a hand to wipe away the tears that escaped down the side of her face.

"Hey, I'm sorry." Harold tried to console her, but she waved it all off.

"I'm all right." She settled herself, though her nerves were still on edge and her eyes were red and wet. "It's just gonna take some time. Not exactly the reaction you were hoping for was it?" She joked, easing the tension until the two were at ease with each other.

"I'll keep that in mind." They both said, Billy smiling to his mother as he stepped in and embraced him lightly, holding her back as in the opposite room Mandy and Harold shared a smile. Gladys looked to the clock on the wall.

"Alright, you two have to keep getting ready." She spoke, Billy smirking quietly as that was exactly what they had in mind for the day. She let him go as he stepped out of the kitchen, Mandy standing as she saw it was about time for them to head out.

"Let's walk to school. There's no way I'm setting foot on that bus again." Mandy stated as she led the way to the door. Billy was about to move when he spied the paper again. Picking it up he read the caption in the lower right as Mandy watched and waited.

'Military Buildup-President Johnson Paves the Road to Glory'

Beside the title was a small map of Mexico and Central America. Billy narrowed his eyes.

'_The road to glory? So that's what's gonna happen next.'_

"Billy?"

"Okay."

He abandoned the paper on the tabletop and moved to join her by the door, hearing as upstairs Tak exited the spare bedroom. Looking back Billy and Mandy each faced Harold and Gladys as they watched them go, sending them a quiet smile each before opening the door and exiting, Mandy holding the door open for their friend as she descended the stairs.

"Tak, the bra goes on _underneath!"_

They would never know of the bug in the kitchen. Or that it had picked up every word of their conversation.

* * *

Meanwhile.

Several hundred metres below ground, Junior was himself flicking through the paper. His views on it were the same as Mandy's, that of contempt and disgust, but had to admit some of it was useful. It gave him an insight into what was going on in the world from the biased mentality of the other side. It came as no surprise that they blamed him for what had happened yesterday, and though it did anger him somewhat that they always lied through the teeth about how they were inevitably innocent of any wrongdoing, he cared little for what they thought in their diseased minds. It did come as news that he was now wanted across the country, so he would have to find a safe place for himself above ground, something they would discuss today.

He had already briefly read the article on the military buildup. After having poured forth unending volumes of hate against everyone who wasn't their kind of white, including Latinos, as well as how they had already subjugated Canada on threat of nuclear annihilation, it was only inevitable that the next step would be to expand their selfish intolerance outwards. Mexico, though economically more stable, had nowhere near the numbers of troops or weapons. They would be unable to defend against the coming invasion, especially when nuclear weapons, nerve agents and viruses were certain to be used against their cities and military, annihilated just like the Aztec before them.

'_The only question is when is it gonna start? That and what's going to be left once they've taken everything they came for?'_ All Junior could imagine their aim to be after what he had experienced of the crowd yesterday was to totally eradicate all life in their soon to be conquered territories save for a few slaves, with little regard for how they were going to use the land once it was theirs.

He suspected his friends would be worried about him after what had happened, but he was quite alright. The massacre, or at least the hundred or so people he had killed before the rest killed each other, had been coming for a long time. Those people had presumed that they could do whatever they wanted to him, and that he had no right to fight back. But now that had changed, now he was going to be taking the fight to them, and as much as they denied responsibility for their actions, they couldn't escape their punishment. The only thing that saddened him was the knowledge that before they could complete their takeover those people would have likely already destroyed much of the world they were hoping to save, so much history lost because some people didn't like things that were different. Aside from that he was largely the same, calm and aloof, with his own ever-present sense of style.

Flicking through he turned to the financial review, the only decent window into the happenings of Wall Street and the world marketplace available to him then and there. Junior didn't take any profound interest in finances, at least no more than any other level-headed person. In comparison to the masses he was completely captivated by it simply for paying it any attention at all.

He opened the page, setting his sights on the stock chart on the right hand side.

His eyes widened immediately. His interest perked he began to read through the document in his hands. Finances were not something he was overly adept at, he only acknowledged they were a vital part of society, but even with his basic understanding what he was seeing was dire. As he absorbed each sentence his eyes widened further as his mouth gaped.

"Oh…"

* * *

"… my…"

Tak gaped at the sight of the school filled to the brim with all manner of insane individuals. Standing out the front by the gate she saw the same terrible hunger in their eyes in the few out the front as she did in the murderers and rapists in Townsville. She hadn't quite known that children could show the exact same level of sadism at such a young age, the same desire to kill and maim and do horrible things to innocent people just for the thrill of it. While she had seen similar evil tendencies in smeets at the academy, they at least focused their evil on their intolerance for anything different. These 'people' didn't even have that, attacking their own brothers and sisters for kicks.

Near the steps leading to the front door a small group of four girls armed with baseball bats and crow bars spied the stunned purple girl. Smiling viciously they soon made their way up towards her.

"Hey hey, new girl!" Shouted one punk as she pointed in her direction. Tak cocked an eyebrow at them, gesturing for Billy and Mandy to stand back either side and not intervene.

"Heh. Alright listen bitch, you're gonna do what we say and join our church, or else we'll smash your face in." Another called out as the girls stood before her, a crow bar wrapped in her hands. By the pentagram pendant around her neck Billy and Mandy realised they were part of the demonic cult they had encountered briefly earlier. Tak locked her eyes on them menacingly. Taking aim through her minds eye she willed her spider legs to come out and vaporise him. But nothing happened.

'_Oh yeah, I don't have the pak now.'_ She remembered with a start. Setting her gaze on them again as she advanced, she relaxed again. _'Oh well, I still have hand-to-hand.'_

"And by the way, joining involves a ritual beating of all new recruits anyway, or anyone we-"

Tak frowned as the four sneering girls suddenly looked at her like they were about to shit themselves. Their faces went wide-eyed and blank, with much of the colour draining out of them, and Tak realised they were actually looking past her off to one side.

Directly behind Tak was Junior, stopping to bore into the four girls with the same murderous intent he showed the mob of people just like them. This time instead of pouring bile on him they paled in terror at the sight of his sharp green eyes and deadly hard glower.

"Go." He stated with heavy force.

Instantly the girls began to retreat backwards, turning to run terror driven back towards the school. Junior watched them go panicked and swearing with satisfaction. Though they still hated him, now that he was infamous across the country they feared him even more.

Tak turned to face Junior as his features relaxed. She noticed if anything he seemed to brighten slightly at the sight of her.

"Hey Junior." Billy spoke next to him. "You ready?"

"Sure. But what the hell is all this about?" He asked as Mandy led them back away from the school and off down the footpath.

"We're gonna start making some real plans for the future." Mandy said as she looked out ahead, aware that though the average mindless citizen may fear Junior, an armed squad would be a different story. "Judging by how things have gone downhill worldwide in the last few months, here, in Europe and Russia, China, Indonesia and now Myanmar, sadly it looks like we don't have the same unlimited time to act anymore as I liked to imagine in the past."

"So what do we have to do?" Junior asked.

"We have to start getting organised, if only vaguely at this stage. I have a few ideas we can work with, but I'm sure we can come up with others. Then we need to start putting these plans into action, because the longer we leave this the worse it's gonna get everywhere." She narrowed her eyes as she checked her surroundings, houses and a nearby park.

Following the three Tak kept pace beside them as they made their way from the mad cesspool vaguely towards the centre of town a few blocks away. Walking along the footpath in the sun she could feel the warmth of the day's heat on her skin far more than her unnatural Irken body ever did. Her sense of smell, coming from the new chasm somewhere inside her face, picked up so much more than her antennae ever did, such as the sweet scent of the grass in the air. On top of that came the noxious odour of the pollution that had turned certain cities into barely habitable toxic waste dumps, such as the megalopolis she had confronted Zim in. It was only a matter of time before Endsville too would have deadly acid rain falling from a ruined red sky.

"So do you guys actually have any real plans for how to take over so far?" She asked as they made their way onwards.

"Like I said I have a couple of ideas. They're still quite vague but all up they're pretty simple. All we have to do really is fill in the blanks." Mandy answered her, seeing the city centre coming up as they made their way over a hill, the Endsville Central Tower blanketed by smog.

"But first we have to find a place where we can talk in private." She looked left and right in thought, aware that they were in the wrong city for such a talk. "Now that it looks like the feds have been looking over our shoulders for some time we're gonna have to start taking precautions. They're gonna find out things sooner or later, and the less they know the less chance they'll want to take the risk and make a move on us. But out in the open here they could have someone listening in on us with one of those dish microphones from a distance. We gotta find somewhere no one would look."

Billy's eyes flashed with insight. "I think I know a place."

* * *

The Endsville shopping mall was silent and empty these days. It had been two months ago that either of the four had set foot here, where they had seen the level of decay up close in the form of the businesses withering away, and where their fight for survival had first begun. But the explosion that had destroyed the fuel station added on to the site had been the killing blow. Now the car park was empty, save for a few cars that had been abandoned, burned and gutted, and a handful of trolleys lying about left behind by the vandals who by now had spread the rest all over the city. The glass front doors had long since been smashed in, and in addition to the burnt out wreck of the fuel station building there were spots on the exterior wall that had been burned.

Inside the story was similar. It was dark save for the light coming in through the entrance and the windows in the ceiling, many of which had also been smashed. The looters and vandals had taken their toll, every shop front that wasn't already completely empty had been ripped through and turned upside down for anything remotely valuable. Many of them had been burned.

But they were all long gone by now. Nobody had come through here in weeks, until that morning when a group of four youths made their way through the broken walkways to take a seat in the middle of what remained of the food court.

"Gotta hand it to ya, this is a nice place to hang out." Tak commented as she gazed gleefully around where they sat at the small white table on some old plastic chairs. "It's like this whole ghastly world imploded on itself and we're all that's left."

"Yeah, but I think the wait on food will be awhile." Billy remarked. He frowned. "I wonder if Sassy Cat Land is just like this?"

"I don't know, but I bet the lines are shorter." Mandy answered with dry humour, causing billy to smirk. "There are less people alive now to see it."

"Actually that's not true. Endsville's population is still rising because people are moving here as other areas die off. The city is entrenched so deep within the nationalist power base that it gets special consideration from the rest of the party, so it keeps going while other communities cave in." Junior explained to them. "You know they're building a new mall on the other side of the city, even though the economy is drying up here as well. They're also building more apartments and more suburbs to house the people coming in across the state."

They remembered the construction sights they'd passed yesterday. Mandy frowned. "But how can all this work be going on when the economy is slowing and everyone's already drowning in dept? Doesn't it all get top heavy?"

"It already is. But when has common sense ever stopped people who can't even tell reality from fantasy?" Junior replied. "Speaking of which, did you guys read the financial review this morning?"

The three looked at him offset and shook their heads. Junior clasped his hands on the table with a small pout.

"Well after I saw it I did some research. Did you know that at the beginning of the Great Depression, between the days of Black Thursday and Black Tuesday, the Dow Jones lost something like twenty three percent of its value? In the follow on from that over the next few months and years much of he economy worldwide collapsed."

"Okay but how is this relevant?" Billy asked.

"Well in the financial review it showed that just yesterday and overnight the Dow Jones lost forty percent of its value." Mandy's eyes shot wide at the news. Billy and Tak, though not fully understanding the stock market, could still understand the gravity of what Junior had told them, stating it calmly and evenly.

"Those investors you told us about months ago, all pulling out, they knew it was gonna happen soon." Mandy stated. "And they still told people to get in on it."

"So what does this mean now?" Tak posed.

"Well because so many people are trading on borrowed money the first thing that's probably happening right now is those lenders are probably calling in all their loans, and people won't be able to pay up. So that means the banks will start to fail. And when they all start to go people will loose everything, and companies won't be able to invest or grow, and the same thing happens all over again."

"But the system's already broken all around us. Just look at this place." Indeed as Mandy said the mall revealed the true extent to which things had really degraded, despite the fact a new one was being built. "What's this gonna do to people considering how bad things are now?"

Junior held up his hands and shrugged. "Every action has a reaction. When people and governments cannibalise on everything within their own country…"

"They have to start cannibalising others." Billy took over. "The invasion of Mexico and Central America."

"Wait, what invasion?" Mandy asked.

"That was the other thing that was in the news." Junior went on. "Johnson was bragging about how we have less minorities, literacy is at an all time low, and about the military buildup. Basically now that they've killed or taken away nearly everyone who's different at home, they wanna start killing people in other countries and taking their land. It was inevitable anyway, they've already started with Australia and in Africa."

Mandy thought to herself. "Then it looks like we have even less time to work with. Billy you sure no one will find us here?"

We're the only ones here, and the sound echoes so if there is anyone else we'll hear them." He answered.

"Alright let's get down to business shall we?" She announced, bringing the attention of the four back to the subject at hand. "Now I assume we all know why were here?" She asked, waiting for them to nod in response. "And what our end objective is? And why we are doing this? Good. We know were we're at now, and we know were we want to be in the future. First thing we have to do to get there is fill in the blanks."

"Well you said that you had some ideas. You might as well start with those." Tak spoke.

"Okay, well I guess the core of all this revolves around using the underworld to build an army. I've been working on that on and off for awhile now, long before I met Zim and you." Mandy explained as the group listened. "Originally they were just supposed to be robots, but my previous associate Mandark had developed a soldier that was equal parts machine, living creature, and demonic entity, but he was murdered before he could finalise his work. Right now we're waiting for Zim to complete Mandark's designs for the cyborgs, to a level where they've already been improved and are ready for combat, so we don't have to constantly bring newer models into production while we're waiting. As he's making the finishing touches designing them we can use Billy's scythe to create the underworld factories, and once he's done we can have them set to work at building the army non-stop. With automated factories running around the clock we can just sit on it while the army grows larger with each day. Getting this up and running will be our first goal."

"We've also got our arrogant little crony working on a formula that'll make a human immune to death and growing old, but that could take awhile to make." Billy added. "If we're gonna be overlords of a vast empire, then I don't want it to be for just a brief moment before we're too old and senile to make our subjects fear and admire us. So that should be our second goal."

"If that's going to take the most time then I suggest we don't take any major action until at least that part is complete." Junior suggested. "After all, it's no good to anyone if on the day we begin our takeover you two have not yet gotten your little formula, and you both get killed before you can seize anything."

"You've got a point there." Billy responded. He glanced back and forth between the two sitting on either side of the table, thinking of the special nature of his friends. "Hey Tak, how long does an Irken live for?"

Tak thought for a moment. "About eight hundred to a thousand years."

"But in your human form that's a lot lower." He spoke, still buried in thought. Mandy almost shook her head in amusement, finding the sight of him thinking to be so at odds with what she had known of the boy previously, before the proverbial door had opened in his head. Now the previously long dormant gears inside his brain whirred away like a Swiss watch. "What about you Junior? How long does a Nergal demon live?"

"We're naturally immortal. My dad will live until he wills himself to die, and so will I." Junior answered him. "So will you if you remain in a demonic state indefinitely. But we forgot to mention if you stay like that forever, you will eventually loose your human side, and you might even end up something like dad." Billy's eyes widened at the prospect, somewhat alarmed at the previously unmentioned side effects. "Don't worry, if you only use it on and off like you do now, even staying human for a little bit at a time, you'll never change." He spoke, sensing the boy's alarm.

"Good, cause there'll be two less Nergals in the world if I ever do." Billy spoke in a flat tone, the only threatening indicator of what would happen if he failed to mention anything else.

"You're one to talk." Tak spoke up in her typical stressed British accent, gritting and straining her teeth together. "You never mentioned that this human form cuts my lifespan down to a tenth!"

"Relax Tak, we've got that covered. We'll get you the cure as soon as Zim develops it." Mandy answered quickly to calm the girl. "That way the same idiot who screwed you over before can now be working for you without even knowing it. As long as you stay human you'll live forever. How does that sound?"

Grumbling she folded her arms in front of her. Junior suppressed a smile at the angry young vixen's temper. "Grrr… Fine!"

With his higher than human level senses Junior picked up on the torrents of righteous indignation and aggression exuded by his new friend. Though Tak didn't know it the smell of her passionate fury filled him with a mild high, similar to the kind he had felt while in battle against their enemies. It bought a smile to his face, and a rare feeling of content, as if just through being with Tak he had achieved what he wanted in life. _'Why am I feeling this? What's so special about her that makes me feel this way?'_

"Still that does sound pretty good." Tak mused in a better mood. "But will this little upgrade make it so that we can't die of injuries or that we just don't grow old."

"It stops the ageing process, but our powers will protect us from death by any wounds we sustain." Mandy explained.

"So we're gonna need three doses of antideath, and only after we get them will we start the takeover." Billy stated, bringing Junior and Tak back to the matter at hand. "As soon as Zim's done with designing our delightful mechanical horrors we'll put them into production and have him get to work on a cure for death. Then all we have to do is wait until these two pieces fall into place before we begin. Later when we're done with Zim, you can have him."

"That's all very good, but what am I supposed to do before and after that?" Tak asked. "Remember you still haven't really given me a job to do so far, Junior too. What're we supposed to do while waiting?"

"I've been giving it some thought." Mandy began. "I think I have just the job for both of you. First, Junior, you said you'd learned how to hack into and control computers. Do you think you could use that to keep an eye on State Security and the feds for us?"

"Yes I think so. They will be much more difficult and complex to gain access to but with my abilities I think I can learn and manage."

"Good, because if what you told us was true and they're keeping an eye on us, then we're gonna need to know what they know and what they think about it. Basically you're going to be our informant on our enemies. We're going to need you to find out if and how they're keeping track of us, and most importantly you'll be our warning against any sudden attack should we be found out. Got it?"

He nodded in understanding. "I think I can do that, but I'm gonna have to develop a little more first before I start on something like that, especially without them finding out. I'm not a hacker or any sort of computer genius, I gain control by physically going in and that has its limits. Logically it's gonna require some equipment to help me do that."

"Zim can supply everything you need, and given a little time we should be able to find someone who can teach you." Mandy went on.

"Hey I know a little. They taught me computer warfare back at the academy." Tak spoke up. "I used those skills all the time on my jobs. One time I even made a security system turn on its controllers. I could teach him how to get inside even from a distance."

Mandy nodded in intrigue. "Good, I'll leave his training up to you. Remember I'm not asking for miracles, just do the best you can with what you have." She turned to Tak. "Now the file on you said you were good at what you did. It said that you poured vast amounts of effort into becoming an Invader, and successfully completed several suicide missions into enemy territory. Am I right?"

"Yes, but officially I was never awarded the title of Invader because I'm too different." She spat mockingly of the arrogance of Irk for their own species. "I'm not an Invader, but yes, I have all the skills of one, and more."

"Well this isn't Irk, and we're not conceited power hungry despots." Mandy sat her head into her hand in thought. "I was thinking while the army's being built you could make selective attacks against the major world powers. You could attack political bodies, blow up important economic sights, terrorist attacks on important or unstable areas, and do everything possible to destabilise and weaken the countries from within leading up to the attack. You could put your skills to use by infiltrating and trying to bring down the governments and start wars with other countries. When we attack they'll be weakened and won't be able to fight back as hard."

"I understand, basic sabotage and disruption. Easy, don't worry about it." She replied with a relaxed air, for the first time feeling a sense of achievement in having completed those suicidal missions. Mandy raised a finger for emphasis.

"I was also thinking that instead of just aiming to start wars between countries, it would be better to distract the population from destroying everybody else by turning them inwards against each other. By creating divisions among a highly intolerant society instead of invading and destroying other nations along with historical artefacts, we can have them limit the destruction to within their own borders, that way there's less unwanted collateral damage. After Alexander the Great died his successors turned on each other, and his empire was split up into pieces, none of which lasted long. Also if we could turn two hostile states against each other instead of having them invade peaceful countries, then we can kill two birds with one stone."

Tak considered it with intrigue. "That will be more difficult. It'll take a different kind of approach to achieve a result like that, but if Junior helps by spreading disinformation about who to blame, I think we can do that."

"Right, well that island base I told you about yesterday, though parts of it have collapsed it'll still make for a good base of operations once it's fixed up. You could stay there if you want until it comes time to make our offensive."

"Hey Junior you could also use the base as a place to keep track of things." Billy suggested. "You wouldn't have to stay there, just come and go whenever you want." It didn't take long for him to figure out he liked the idea, his thoughts given away by how he glanced across to Tak every few seconds.

"Ta… That sounds good… Yes, I'll do that." He stammered out, Tak giving a small smile as he ran a hand through his hair, turning to face away from her so she could not see the blush on his pail features.

'_What the hell?! Why does she affect me like this? Just because she's strong willed, and defiant, and independent… Why am I thinking this?!'_

"Anyway, with you two…" Billy paused as he noticed neither of them listening.

Meanwhile Tak was herself wondering something along the same lines, a slight frown taking over from her smile as she thought of her strange reaction to the boy. '_This is strange. I don't usually act like this around someone else just because they're…'_ Her eyes widened slightly as she began to see what effect Junior was having on her. _'Attractive? Hang on, I've never been attracted to anyone before in my life. But then, there was never anyone who-'_

"Hey!" Billy called. Immediately the two became shaken back to the present from their musings. "Are you two done spacing out yet, cause it's kinda weird talking to a brick wall. And I should know, I still do it sometimes."

"No surprises there." Mandy commented. "Now Tak seeing as you're the one with all the training and experience, I want you to take Junior and train him up." Tak and Junior looked at her in earnest. "I want you to teach him how to do what you do, because with his skills he could take on a small army if he just learned how to use them to their fullest. We'll need that when we make our move. Plus he will be a great help to you on your assignments."

Tentatively the two looked to each other, the idea of training and working together bringing up a whirl of thoughts. Junior was conflicted by a mutual attraction to the idea and anxiety for what it could mean. Tak thought the same for the mysterious youth, but how was she supposed to train him, especially when she didn't have any experience with his abilities? Perhaps they would sort it all out as they went along, after all they had already taken a serious interest in each other. Turning back they faced Mandy.

"We'll see what we can do." Tak replied. Mandy nodded.

"Anyway because we have the scythes, Zim, Junior and Tak's particular skills, we don't really have the same need for money and funding as other terrorist organisations do. We can obtain factories, bases, weapons, soldiers, just about everything we need without handing over anything at all. However it would be stupid to assume that there won't come times where we'll need cash for whatever reasons may come up. Does anyone have any ideas how we could go about raising funds, assuming lemonade stands and bake sales aren't one of them." She added, Billy lowering his finger as she sunk both of his ideas.

"Extortion against corporations could work." Junior spoke up. "After all, large corporations and conglomerates are bound to be rife with all kinds of dirty secrets they won't want anyone to find out about. There'd have to be a few major cases of corruption and underhanded business tactics, and I already know of a few. And even just the executives, they'd have their own secrets they'd want kept quiet, like bribery and expensive cocaine habits. If we could get hold of that then their habits might just become a whole lot more expensive. And best of all, they won't be able to contact the authorities on us because we'll keep our names secret. They'll never know who we are, but we'll know all about them. All the cards will be in our favour, and they'll have to pay us to keep quiet."

Tak nodded her head in agreement. "I like the sound of that. It'd be great to cut those pompous piggies down to size!" A slightly crazed grin spread across her face, again causing a small smirk of agreement to form on Junior's.

"Corporations are a good start, but unless it's something like selling weapons or information to another power none of that normal stuff is going to be any kind of problem if it ever got out." Billy went on to say. "I mean corruption and drug habits are now standard practice. No one's gonna pay up unless it's something they wouldn't want those psychopaths in government to know about."

"Alright then we blackmail them with bankruptcy. We can load massive viruses onto their systems, and if they don't pay up we'll wipe all their computers clean. Either that or we release a canister full of Sarin in their building. Nyehehehehhh!" Tak sneered violently. "We could use the money for hiring hit men and financing other terrorist groups to do some of the dirty work for us."

"Hey what about teeming up with the psychos in places like North Korea and Iran? They finance terrorist organisations don't they?" Billy suggested. "They'd love to hear what we were planning to do, about bringing down America and all their enemies, just so long as we leave out the part where we ultimately take over their countries as well. I think they'd have to be stupid not to give us money."

"That could also work. In face I made a deal with North Korea a few years ago. I sold them that laser gun we found while we were tangling with Boogey awhile back so I know how to get in touch with them." Mandy spoke as she thought about the idea. "Iran may work. Though the Pentagon would never admit it, they're really not as dangerous and psychotic as everyone says they are, but I still think that rich boy Kim Jong-un should be able to give us a helping hand. If not then Russia, China, Indonesia, all those fascists would be willing to fund us, especially if we help them with some of their problems that we created. Then all we have to do is launder the money and we can start funding terrorists and bribing officials to look the other way. We'll work out the finer details of all this as it comes."

The four relaxed back for the moment, content that they each had a fair, if still somewhat vague idea of what they were to be doing over the coming few years. They relished in the silence that had descended over the newly formed terrorist organisation as they each thought it over amongst themselves.

"Okay then." Spoke Billy. "One more thing though. Now that we have a vague idea of what it is we're gonna be doing, what kind of timeframe do you think we should aim for? What time do you think we should set for our attack?"

"Well I've been tossing around some ideas we should plan for, but it all depends on when Zim can get the machines finished so we can start production, and the antideath." Mandy answered with a disdainful scowl for the bigoted alien. "Give him a call. Ask him if he's doing his job."

Billy nodded in response, drawing his phone from his pocket to select the number he had saved earlier for their most hated assistant. Holding the device to his ear he waited, Zim very likely being unused to 'inferior human technology.' Still, after a few seconds he was greeted with the Irken's irritating loud voice.

"_Who is it who dares interrupt my work!"_ He screeched. Billy smiled though, already partially confirmed that he was at work on the task he had set them.

"Hello Zim, this is Billy." He greeted.

"_Who?"_

"It's Billy."

"_I know no Beel-"_

The guy you met yesterday! The one who's gonna get you everything you ever dreamed of that the Tallest denied you, remember?" He groaned inwardly at having to cater to the pompous green chauvinist's ravenous ego again. Already he looked forward to the day he would hand him over to Tak so she could teach him some humility. For now though she, along with what they thought of him, had to remain a close secret.

"_Oh, that Billy. What is it, why are you wasting Zim's time pathetic human wretch? SPEAK!"_

"Hey, watch it." Billy warned sternly. "Don't you forget for a second, you're _our_ subordinate, and you work for _us_. We took care of Dib and Tak for you, something you could never do, so now you owe a serious dept us to us. Remember that, because even if we are working towards your own power and glory, we still punish those who anger us and that goes for you too. You wouldn't want that now would you?"

"… _N-No sir."_ Zim stuttered nervously, able to sense Billy's growing dark and oppressive aura from hundreds of kilometres away, a smile creeping across the youth's face at being able to do so. _"Forgive me for my disrespect."_

"Whatever. Now then, tell us some good news, have you done what we asked of you?"

"_Yes. I infiltrated the Dark Systems laboratory last night and retrieved all the files on the underground computer. I then set charges and destroyed the building when I left. The files are now on my computer."_

"Very good. Have you started working on the designs yet?"

"_Started and finished."_ He replied much to the group's surprise as they listened in, a slight sense of accomplishment in his voice. _"The plans were already mostly complete before I got to them. It's quite impressive for a human to be honest, I've never seen a robot that is made up of regenerating cells, or possesses supernatural powers. There wasn't much that I could… uh, not much that I saw needed to be done on them. All I had to do was swap out the inferior power cell for an Irken one that will last for weeks instead of hours. They're all ready for production now. I was just working on weapons for them when you called."_

Billy looked at his comrades eagerly, seeing them sharing his surprise and good spirits, if only vaguely for the ever reserved Mandy.

"Well that's the infantry, what about the patrollers and gunships, and their weapons?"

"_They're as good as ready as well. They were a much simpler purely robotic design, so I was able to work with them more on improving on the basic designs of components. I should be done on them by the end of the day."_

"Good work my friend, you really are a credit to the Irken Empire. The Tallest were arrogant fools to deny you the status one such as yourself deserves, but we'll fix that in time."

"_Also there were plans for a large robotic tank and a surveillance drone, but neither of them were complete. Do you want me to begin work on them?"_

"Begin working on the tank, but the surveillance drone can wait. We won't have much use for it until after we've taken over for keeping an eye on our subjects."

"_Sir they could be used to gather information on what the enemy is doing, especially if I add a cloaking field to it."_

Billy looked to Mandy in surprise to see her nod.

"Know your enemy." She stated simply.

"Huh. That is good. Begin work on both of them. Now listen up, because this next bit is very important. There are people who have been keeping an eye on us, government people who specialise in hunting down organisations like ours, so from now on just keep working on your own, and don't try to contact me or any of us unless it is an emergency. From now you are to concentrate on developing human immortality, as well as building weapons. We're going to need three doses of antideath instead of just two so work hard because we don't have much time to do this in anymore. Don't ask questions, the fewer people who know the better. We'll be coming around tomorrow to pick up the designs."

"_Very well."_ Zim responded in a pleased tone at having his ego fed, his new co-conspirators deeming him able enough to go it alone for now. _"I look forward to it."_

"Good luck Zim. It is only a matter of time now before we begin." Ending the call he again selected Zim's number, deleting it moments later. "Speaking of which, when will it begin?"

"Alight, like I was saying I've been thinking about a schedule we should aim for." Mandy spoke. "Now it's been obvious for awhile now that the world's sliding into ruin because of people's mindless intolerance. The problem is I never thought it would all start unravelling this fast. This crash that's just happened wasn't supposed to happen for at least another year or so years by my reckoning. But after what you two told me about the buildup and invasion plans it appears it's all going to start happening very soon now, and in the coming few months and years I think we're going to see society start to decay much faster than I thought previously. We have to start moving very quickly if we want to do this right. I believe we should aim to make our attack in three years time. By then we'll have accumulated a big enough army, the antideath should be ready, you and Junior should have wreaked enough havoc to weaken the major powers, and there should still be some of the world left to take over."

"Three years?" Tak asked incredulously. "That doesn't give us a lot of time to work with. Do you really think we can get everything ready in that little time?"

"Nah she's right, three years should give us plenty of time if we work hard." Billy replied. "Trust me, everything tends to happen real quick for us. I mean two days ago we'd never heard your name, and now we're planning terrorism and world domination. If we can do that in two days imagine what we could do in three years, assuming we don't waste any time."

"I agree with that." Junior added. "I believe it would be time enough for everything to fall into place for us. Besides, the crash and this invasion has somewhat forced our hand. We have to do this quickly if we want to limit the death toll." With the other three in agreement Tak relented, shrugging in accord with their judgement. Though it went against much of what she knew, their situation was different to what she was used to.

"Alright then. I guess it's settled." She responded, slouching back in her seat.

"Well this has been productive." Mandy spoke as she made to rise from the table. Standing up she arched her back slightly as, Billy, Tak and Junior followed her up. She led them aimlessly off away from the food court down towards one end. "Come on. I wanna see the rest of this place."

The four fanned out as they window shopped at leisure through the destroyed shop fronts, loving that they had the entire mall to themselves. Billy and Mandy strolled along together while Tak and Junior went ahead. They stopped when they saw that whereas every other store selling music or clothes or insurance had been gutted and trashed, the bookstore appeared to be almost untouched save for someone ripping through the front desk in search of cash. The shelves were still lined with hundreds of books that save for a few lying on the floor.

"I always wanted my own personal library." Mandy said relaxed, aware that the public library would eventually be destroyed and its books and computers burned by an angry mob. Billy smirked.

"Hell this whole place is ours. We could seal it shut so no one else can get in and use it as our own hangout." He held his arms out and ran twisting and weaving through the vast space. We could even bring crowds of zombies in and have battles with them! We could pit one group against the other! And we could have the food court served by demons working just for us! We could lie around the bookstore on schooldays and study The Art of War!"

"Pinhead. I've already read that cover to cover a hundred times." Mandy answered. Billy smiled and waltzed over to stand behind her, running his hands in around her waist as he pressed his face in close to her ear, making her blush and bite down on a smile.

"Then perhaps you could teach me mah lurve." Billy cooed playfully and moved to kiss her neck as Tak and Junior both smirked watching. Mandy quickly slid out of his arms before he could.

"We don't get all weird in front of our friends. After all we have a reputation to live up to." She spoke with a smirk as she quickly ducked into a sporting goods store and came out with a wooden baseball bat, handing it to Billy as a gift for the young urban terrorist, Billy smiling and waving it around aimlessly as they wandered on.

Ahead of them they saw as Tak ducked into the old abandoned toy store they had visited last time they were here. Following her in they found her sitting on the ground with her legs out in front, with the pink and purple goo cannon splayed in front of her.

"Check out what I found." She bragged with a small grin.

"Forget about it, it's broken. I tried it last time." Mandy stated as she turned away down the other end of the isle. Tak smirked and closed a small hatch, hefting the big tube up to point it at a surprised Mandy.

"Oh? Then could it do this?"

A bang resonated, and a shower of thick pink slime plastered the girl from head to toe. Opening her eyes Mandy gaped at her and the working toy with total shock as Tak sniggered. Suddenly a huge grin broke out on the scary girl's face as she laughed uncontrollably. Running at her to take the gun Tak Bought it up and shot her in the face again, then plastering Billy with it as he laughed like an idiot. She missed as Junior snuck up behind her and began trying to wrestle the gun away from her, during which both got covered. They continued ducking and weaving between the isles laughing their heads off until the toy was out of goo, and they were each covered front and back.

* * *

Far outside the store a lone figure their size stood behind a corner wall watching and listening to their fun in disdain. A cruel smirk spread over her freckled face as she pressed the button to stop the iPod in her hand from recording with her quarry now far out of range.

'_The bitch and her worthless friends, they're all as good as dead! Sperg and the boys are gonna love this. I bet the FBI will too!'_

Mindy had followed the four from a distance as they left the school all the way here. Once she had arrived at the mall she quietly hid behind the counter of one of the abandoned fast food restaurants and recorded their conversation. She knew that her iPod wouldn't have been able to pick up much to be overly incriminating on its own, but with what she heard herself to back it up and fill in the gaps she would be able to convince them.

Now that they were moving again it wasn't safe for her to be here, especially out from her cover. She had what she had come for, now it was time to go before they returned and saw her. turning around she walked back towards the centre of the two storey complex and the entrance out the front.

"_You should never have disrespected me Mandy. You should have accepted your lowly position and bowed to my superiority. Now you're gonna pay."_ She muttered quietly to herself, clenching her hand into a fist as a particularly malicious expression broke out on her face. She resolved to take this to State Security only after she had the pleasure of dealing with Mandy herself. "You'll pay dearly you worthless common little looser, and your friends. This should even be enough to make them finally get rid of that freak Junior as well!"

* * *

Early afternoon.

"One thing's bothering me though."

The others turned to face her as they exited the abandoned mall and strode idly across the footpath back towards their suburb.

"What?" Billy asked with the bat still in his hand.

"In doing this, you must realise that a lot of really good, innocent people are going to end up dead because of us." She spoke sternly. The others of the group exchanged a sobering look between each other as they considered it, for as wicked as the human race was, not all of humanity's eggs were rotten. "I know you guys aren't exactly bleeding hearts, but still…" Her eyes took on a distant, glazed look as she thought back to the missions she embarked upon, and the hundreds she had felled simply on orders. "Ask yourselves, can you really handle knowing that you're responsible for the deaths of innocent men, women and children?"

The group of compatriots remained still, each in their own thoughts. One thing they hadn't quite thought of was the lives of the small percent of people who were actually decent human beings, who weren't swept up in all this madness. The death of only one of these people would weigh on their consciences regardless of how necessary it was. Though the four were naturally harsh and merciless, Mandy especially so, neither of them were completely detached from others. It seemed that while Mandy was the founder and general leader of the group, Tak was by far the most experienced in their specialised field.

"I think," Junior began, "that though it's not something to be proud of, it still has to be done if we want to do this."

"Agreed." Mandy stated gravely. "Everything worth doing will inevitably have its costs. Given what we're working towards, I say they're acceptable losses."

"Yeah. Besides, even if we didn't go through with it, that would mean leaving all those people to the mercy of mad men like Johnson. The death toll will be much higher if we don't." Billy went on.

"Alright then. Just wanted to make sure." Tak replied, continuing on down the footpath beside the park. "Sooo… Where am I staying tonight?"

"You could stay at our place again." Billy spoke hastily, the idea of spending the night with Mandy again a more than welcome idea. "We'd be happy to take you in until-"

"No I've already stayed at your place. I don't want to be a burden."

"Oh but you're no burden at all." He pleaded.

Mandy watched on with seeming indifference. It didn't matter where she stayed, after having felt the warmth and comfort of spending the night in her partner's arms, she had no intention of ever sleeping alone in her own bed. Beside the outwardly stoic girl Junior stood in his place, his mind working over a thought that had popped into his head the moment Tak had asked the question.

"You know, you could stay… with me-us, down in my family's cavern." He spoke in an unusually flustered manner. Tak looked to him as he subtly avoided eye contact. "There's plenty of room and visitors are always welcome. You could stay as long as you want until you move out to the island base."

She considered the offer for a moment. Junior did seem to her like a respectable person, the kind referred to by the natives as a 'gentleman.' She was still very much unused to the hospitality she had found in the three, which made the green demon's respect all the more valued.

"That sounds good." She responded with a smile as they exited out of the car park onto the roadside.

Before they could say another word Junior winced in pain as an empty beer bottle impacted on his back. Turning to the road where the bottle came from they were met with the sight of a carload of drunken halfwits, all pointing and laughing in their direction as they drove by in their old sedan.

"Aw kickass I got it!" One of the louts cried out with a laugh. "EAT IT FREAK!"

As the group hurled jeers and more beer bottles at the group, none of which found their target, Junior grimaced in disdain at the carload of filth. Pulling up next to them on the road one of their number opened the back door and stepped out, a bottle of vodka in hand. Billy smirked cruelly as he stepped up. The drunk staggered as he looked to him.

"I'm gunna-"

"_TOK!"_

The brute whirled around with a broken jaw and teeth missing as Billy introduced his bat to the man's face. As he fell back into the car Billy stepped up and bought the bat in on the driver's side windshield, shattering the glass in a wide area in front of him.

"Oh shit!"

The back wheels screeched as the sagging old car took off again, the thug with a broken jaw barely hanging inside with his door still open.

Junior watched them flee with satisfaction. Looking down he reached for the bottle that struck him.

"Allow me little girl!" Tak spoke as she took hold of the bottle before he could reach it. With a funny little grin she reared her arm right back, bringing it forward to hurl the bottle towards the car as it drove off. Her aim was flawless with decades of training, the bottle crashing through the rear window, shattering against the skull of the drunken lowlife who had originally thrown it. Immediately the other occupants of the vehicle panicked, the drunk driver veering off the road to crash into a nearby shop front.

"NYAHAHAHAHAA! WEEEEE!" She shrieked with laughter, Billy joining in with a slightly inhuman grin, all the while Mandy and Junior held their own quiet satisfaction at the scene of evil vengeful.

"Okay you asylum escapees come on. School should be closing soon. Let's head back." Mandy ordered the entourage, leading them away from the scene of destruction, anarchy and…

* * *

_"Kayooosss…"_ Eris slurred as she lurched and staggered forward from up the street unnoticed as they left, intent on taking in as much of the sweet havoc as she could while still conscious. She had the appearance and dignified poise of a drunken train wreck, her hair a dishevelled mess, the smell of hangover on her breath despite not having been drinking.

She had been like this ever since two days ago, when she had fallen victim to a sudden overdose of carnage in the form of Billy's attack on the Endsville Police Department. She had awoken that morning in an alley, unable to think or walk straight for another few hours. Yet as soon as she managed to rise to her feet, she had begun seeking out Billy, the psychotic anarchist responsible for the best time of her life.

Here now was her reward, a vehicle covered in broken bricks and glass, with four bleeding writhing idiots inside. With a drunken smile she staggered over to the wreck, the Apple of Discord in hand ready to get the lift she had so desperately been craving since waking up.

"Uhh… He… Hey bitch. Help." One of the injured lowlifes groaned from the driver's seat, the windscreen smashed in on top of him. With a smile Eris stepped up, handing him the apple through the broken window.

"There ya go darling." She drawled out much to his confusion. "That outta brighten your day a bit."

With that she lurched off, the three conscious victims examining at the apple in wonder and confusion. As he held it in his hand they were surprised as it suddenly changed shape, taking the form of a golden satchel of explosives, complete with detonator counting down three, two, one…

* * *

"_KABOOM!"_

Billy detonated the digital van bomb in front of an office block in one of his favourite games, as he and Tak laughed their sanity away at the beautiful, sweet anarchy it caused. Reaching up from the floor Tak tore the controller out of his hands and terrorised a number of corrupt bankers and sleazy lawyers with a flamethrower.

"_NYAHAHAA YEAH YEAH YEAH!"_

Billy and Mandy sat laid back on the couch, with Billy held loosely in her arms as he rested his head on her collar, while Tak and Junior both sat on the floor in front of them, Junior propped up on the right side armrest while Tak lay out flat. Two half eaten pizza's and a bowl of chips sat in the middle of them, each watching on contentedly as dozens of corrupt managers and office workers ran around screaming at a rate that wasn't quite human, and cars caught fire and exploded one after another, while not really accomplishing much else. They each awaited their turn quietly, Junior watching with a piece of pizza in his hands while Mandy outwardly displayed indifference, despite the sense of fulfilment as Tak turned and shot up a police patrol with an M4, killing both the officers inside. She handed the controller back to Billy, letting him carve out a swathe of destruction through the downtown section, carjacking a van and moving on to the area packed with seedy drug lords and gangs of rapists,.

He showed them no mercy, an ear to ear grin on his face as he mowed them all down with a MAC-10. "Heh heh. I gotta get me one of these. Machine gun firepower in the palm of your hands."

"You know your mom will skin you alive if she ever found out about your passion for guns." Mandy told him as he drilled two pursuing police cars smiling contentedly, while she reached up and began running her fingernails through his fringe affectionately. He gave a soft sigh of bliss and snuggled back into her arms.

"Yeah I know. I'm pretty sure I can sway her to the dark side though." He replied, passing the controller to Junior. He retreated back to the downtown area, setting up atop a building overlooking a busy street. Selecting the Heckler and Koch sniper rifle her zoomed in on the crowd, systematically scanning the area for the enemy. Setting his sights on an elaborately dressed pimp he levelled the crosshairs over his head and fired, the vile mans head exploding in an unrealistic fountain of gore. "Hey Junior's got a pretty good aim."

"Of course I do, it's a game. I'm not even holding a real rifle." He answered as he blew away a gang member's head, followed by the other two he was standing with, before a police helicopter arrived. Taking aim he sniped the pilot, the chopper careening out of control to explode in amongst the street, taking several cars with it. He didn't take his eyes off the screen as Grim returned home through the front door.

"It's done! Finally!" He called out happily. "I caught up on all dat work I missed out on during our two months away, and all in just two blood stained days!" Immediately he found Billy's scythe thrown to him. Catching it in his hands he looked to the boy perplexed.

"That's great Grim. Now I need you to go down to the underworld, and start making us a couple factories with that for the army, kay?" Billy spoke while watching the violence on the screen. Grim turned to see a pompous executive's head explode. "Oh yeah die! By the way, when I was fighting Dib I found the Tokarev and the Swedish K weren't cutting it anymore, so if when you're done there you could get me a MAC-10 machine gun while you're out that'd be great."

"You what? But… But I just got-"

"Grim, you wouldn't happen to be saying no to us would you?" Mandy asked with a stern, dictatorial scowl, making Grim shrink in stature slightly under her assault. "Because you know what happens when you say no to your masters and to a terrorist organisation."

"I wouldn't call a four man cell-" Mandy sent him a look that suggested he choose his next words very carefully. He relented irritably. "Never mind, I'll just go."

"Wait, Grim, I'm sorry." Billy spoke apologetically. "Nine millimetre, with armour piercing rounds."

Grim gave him an indignant flat stare, before a green whirlpool formed behind him from Billy's scythe still in his bony hand by his side. Without uttering a word he stepped back into it to set about his labour, the portal vanishing an instant later.

Stepping out of the portal he faced the vast flat landscape before him, a billion hectares of flat light grey dirt, and an endless bank of blue-grey clouds casting the lifeless landscape in a dull light. This was another part of Limbo, one of several intersecting plains. It bored him terribly, the stark landscape bearing nothing of any real significance.

'_No one should find it out here. A perfect place for Billy and Mandy's little factory ting.'_

He let the blade of the green scythe drop forward, burying into the compacted dirt up to the base. Focussing vaguely on what Billy had ordered him to produce he conducted the energy of the weapon through the blade down into the rock, looking straight out ahead as distant thunder rumbled through the air. The dull growling from the sky reflected off the ground, appearing as if it came from all around him in this land without life, enough to cover up the faint rumbling rising from underneath.

He felt it before he heard it, the faint vibrations of the ground beneath his fleshless feet coming from a kilometre ahead of him. Before long a wide flat bulge began to push up in the distance, breaking into several massive wounds with a rumble. Slowly an enormous mass of dark green coils rose like immense vines up out of the ground, hundreds twisting around one another in an enormous complicated tree-like mass extending up into the air, forming rails, guide rods, arms and assembly pieces out of the semi-organic matter, while the ground below collapsed and fell away in a wide area around it.

Grim stared on as minute by minute the enormous twisting mass solidified into place, the first part of the complex of factories that was to come. The assembly plant stood stark in the middle of an endless desolate waste, the individual vines reaching out like stray branches on an enormous alien tree.

Pulling the blade out of the ground he ordered his skeletal form to take off, using his own power to lift him up hundreds of metres into the grey sky. Looking down on the massive dome of dark green coils rising on a thinner trunk he saw down into the gaping hole in the earth where the resources were mined by the equally vast network of roots reaching out to cut into the surface of the hole

He swung the scythes again, casting out a stream of particles down towards the ground far below next to the giant structure. In mere seconds a monolithic black hexagonal obelisk rocketed up into the sky, a watch house from where the entire complex would be controlled via a simple computer desk on the flat open top.

'_Well dat's two down.'_ Grim thought, casting his gaze out across the flat landscape again now transformed by the two creations. Resigned to his state as the children's humble servant he cast the scythe at another patch of land near the two buildings and fired. _'A couple hundred more to go.'_

* * *

Junior handed the controller to Mandy as the group continued their videogame rampage. Immediately the group's interest peaked as she unveiled a digital RPG-7, destroying three police cars in a matter of seconds, much to Billy's entertainment. "Hahaha! Anarchy!"

Mandy devoted all her attention to the game, cold-heartedly wiping out the surrounding population, along with the police who arrived shortly after to stop her. Stealing a two-stroke dirt bike she tore her way south through the city, towards the helicopter gunship sitting on a secluded helipad. Hopping in she took off on a rampage of destruction which dwarfed what they had been doing earlier.

"Say Mandy, you said you wanted world domination right?" Tak spoke up.

"I think I've made that quite clear by now." She answered, blowing up a luxury cruiser in the water.

"Tell me just how big is this world you are talking about?"

"What do you mean how big?" She asked of the absurd question, pausing the game to face her. "The entire world, every nation on the planet of… course…" She trailed off as it sank in what Tak was really speaking of.

She nodded. "I thought so. You humans have such limited horizons. Did it ever occur to you that the world extends beyond this one pitiful nasty rock? There are billions of planets harbouring civilisation, all of which are rife with the same idiocy that's plagued humanity since its beginning. Are you really just going to take control of this one little rock and then be content with that? I mean in the grand scheme of things one planet's not really that big a deal. At its height, before Red and Purple came along, the Irken Empire spanned something like four hundred and fifty planets, many ten times larger than this, with civilisations a hundred times larger and more advanced than yours. Are you just going to ignore all the hell that's happening everywhere else?"

"I see your point." Mandy replied in a slight daze, the other three listening in equal interest. Their world had just gotten infinitely larger with what they had just learnt; meaning their grand plan to dominate the planet was just a storm in a teacup, as if they were taking over a tiny island in comparison to the rest of the globe.

"Well we can't do much about taking over other worlds right now. I guess we should forget about that until we develop the technology to do it." Junior said, calmly watching the frozen image on the screen. "Remember if all goes as planned we'll all be immortal soon, which means we have a lot of time to use, so there's no need for getting impatient. Once we've developed enough then we'll take the battle to them, but until then we focus here, on this world."

"Sounds like a plan." Mandy responded as she continued the game, using rockets to blow away a number of cars. By now though the thrill had died away, the fact that the people they were killing were made of pixels setting in to end the groups destructive fun and deadly games. "Well this is getting boring." Standing she walked over to the console, switching it off and turning the television screen a blank grey. Looking up she saw Harold enter the room with a can of beer in hand. "Hey Harold."

"Hey guys, how was school?" He asked absent-mindedly.

"Hey dad! School was crap. It's all gone to hell since we left. Now it's been turned into a factory for insanity."

"It's true, they don't teach anything there anymore. They take kids in and turn them into monsters." Junior added.

"Gee, that's terrible. I never would have thought. So how was it?" He asked again, his inactive brain wholly incapable of understanding.

"Fine." Mandy replied.

"Good. I'm gonna go check on Gladys. See ya." With that the buffoon trundled off, leaving the pact alone again.

"Speaking of teaching, what kind of training have you guys had up to now?" Tak asked again. The three each shook their heads.

"None. We just learnt by doing." Mandy answered.

"Well while I'm training Junior maybe you two should look at doing some yourselves. I know a great place called Hobo 13. It's an elite military training academy for anyone who wants to learn. The sergeant in charge said I was welcome back any time. I could get you two enrolled for a course there. They can teach you tactics and strategy as well."

"You know I bet Hoss Delgado would be willing to train you as well." Junior added. "After all he said he owed you for restoring his leg. He can help you develop your supernatural abilities."

Billy and Mandy looked to each other in thought and nodded.

"We'll keep them in mind." She answered. Meanwhile Junior had become distracted again by Tak's figure as she lay out beside him.

'… _Was shes… this beautiful yesterday?'_ He tried to organise his thoughts into something more coherent as he studied her over. _'Hang on, I don't remember her being so…curvaceous… like this the first time.'_

"I see you've finally noticed the change in her stature through your obvious ogling." Mandy spoke in her usual monotone, easily bringing a deep green blush to the demon's face as he turned away from the captivating girl, Tak looking to him wide-eyed. "Billy decided he'd bump Tak's age up to be level with ours."

"Yeah, I noticed." He murmured with his face lowered away. Tak found herself surprised at the strange set of emotions she felt at having him interested in her, if only very vaguely. She too cast her eyes away, disregarding it in the hope of easing the awkwardness the blonde punisher had bought on them. Billy looked back and forth between the two with a smile as Mandy continued to toy with his hair.

Junior looked down to his watch, seeing that it was already an hour and a half after school had gone out.

"We should probably get going. My parent's will be waiting for me and I should get our new friend Tak here settled in." He said as he rose from the lounge, Tak following after him as he withdrew a small remote device from his coat. Pressing a button the four watched as a square section of carpet, concrete and dirt was torn upwards, an open elevator car moving up into the living room. Stepping in with his dumbstruck friend he pressed another of the many buttons on the inside, the doors closing as the lift descended underground again, the carpet and ground sealing behind it as if it had never been disturbed.

"By guys. You know I was getting kinda tired of always having to cart him from one place to another." Said Billy in an obnoxious tone as he sat up next to her. "You'd think he'd have used that earlier instead of relying on the scythe all the time."

"Give him a break Billy. You know he lives a kilometre below the surface. It's a miracle he can get up here at all." Mandy stated. Lying back in the seat she saw Billy give a sigh, a disappointed look upon his face. "What is it?"

"Oh nothing. I was just kinda hoping Tak could have stayed another night here. I kinda… liked sleeping in the same bed as you." Smiling he looked across to Mandy as she sat on his right. She smiled back, leaning over to wrap her arms gently around the back of his shoulders and neck, leaning in close to his face.

"So did I. But you don't have to worry about that. I don't really plan to be spending any more nights in my own bed again." She said softly, her eyes half closed in an alluring manner that she would only ever reserve for the one person most important to her. Leaning in she kissed him on the lips, both savouring the taste and warmth of each other for the moment as Billy bought his hands in to gently cup around the sides of her waste. He felt his partner sigh softly as he gently ran his hands up and down her curves. Mandy smiled into the kiss as she continued to affectionately work her mouth into his, bringing one hand up to stroke the back of his hair, earning a similarly contented smile.

The two continued to kiss for another minute, both still new to the sensation they had found together, before they finally parted. Each smiled warmly to the other as they rested their heads close together. In the back of his mind Billy still couldn't believe that the cold-hearted, ever scowling bastion of darkness he had known and loved for the majority of his life, could have opened up and shown such a loving and affectionate side to herself. Indeed Mandy herself found her new behaviour to be so at odds with what she had conditioned herself to, part of her still wondered what the hell she was doing letting herself go like she was now. She wouldn't change it for the world though.

"Come on." Billy spoke softly. "Let's go upstairs so we can pick up from where we left off this morning."

"I like the sound of that. Just remember, we have to be careful about this." Mandy replied. The two rose from the couch hand in hand, scaling the stairs up towards their room. There they slipped in through the door, shutting themselves in afterwards. Turning to each other again Mandy put her hands up around Billy's neck as he held her around her back, both finding content in the close presence of the other.

"You know, I also liked what you were doing with your hands as well." She spoke softly as she nuzzled his face.

"Oh?" He said with a smirk, his hands slipping around to her curving sides again. "You mean…" Gently he moved his hands down, slipping them up under her dress to stroke and caress her silky flanks, "… like this?"

Mandy relaxed into his embrace as she felt his hands beginning to roam across her body again, bringing fourth another feeling of blissful content as she leant her forehead against his. _'How could I ever think I could live without you? I was so stupid to deny myself this.'_

"Yeah, just like that." Leaning in the two young lovers shared another affectionate kiss, both completely enthralled in the one they had loved for so long. After all, they had already spent enough time on being dark, foreboding and psychotic, and of denying themselves what they wanted most. They both had time to make up for.

* * *

**I'm quite surprised at just how massive this chapter has gotten by this point, and when you think about it it's really not much more than a filler. Also in case any of you thought you recognised what Harold was saying to Mandy from somewhere in the back of your heads, you did. It was adapted from Donnie Darko. I think it fits this situation nicely. Because in the end a good swift "Fuck you!" is often the only real weapon we have against all those narcissists, liars and bigots. Because in the end we don't need their approval anyway.**

**Now I know I'm probably taking this too seriously, but you might want to go back and re-read over some of the old chapters if like me you've really grown attached to the characters as they are in here now. You remember how I said that this fic still had plenty of chapters left to go? Well that was a few chapters ago. There is little more that needs to happen now. Max is dead, everything is now progressing towards their end, aside from a few remaining issues all that's left to go is to see how the fate of things and how it all ends.**

**Simply put the secong part of the fic is almost over. In the third part things are a bit different. Hope you've enjoyed part two of Mandy of the Night. From here on out it's gonna be big.**


	48. Venusian Hell

**Hello again long time readers. It's good to bring you another new chapter again.**

**After two years of putting these things up, I think it's pretty clear now that with just how large the chapters have gotten I probably should not have set myself that goal of one every fortnight. But then again man needs goals, and the harder they are the better it is when you accomplish them. It makes moments like this one all the more satisfying.**

**This chapter is effectively my crowning jewel over the main part of the story. As you've seen this all takes place a few years after the events of the series when Billy and Mandy are both twelve, in that short but important space between being children and teenagers, and except for the introductory chapters everything's happened in this time. Well everything that has happened and has been happening is going to be tied up here. Junior and Tak both take their places, Billy's family comes to terms with what's happening, we catch up on an old character, two actually, and Billy and Mandy both confront an evil that has been with them since the series. By the end of it everything will be laid to rest, except for the main event that is still to follow. **

**The main purpose of this chapter however is to actually give each of the characters a final moment in the sun. This is the final chapter in which we see Billy and Mandy as they are now that we have all come to love after nearly two years of development. After this they really won't be the same characters. Though it's not the last chapter of the fic it is the end of the story as we've been reading all this time. The next chapter comes up after a bit of a break, so that I can get everything prepared. But that's not what's important now.**

**It's been a great ride getting to this point. Thanks again for all your reviews, they are all most welcome. Now it's time to say goodbye to our two favourite twelve year old warriors Billy and Mandy. I hope you enjoy it, after all this time you deserve it.**

* * *

**Venusian Hell.**

Next morning.

Junior waltzed idly on down one of the long hallways that branched out from the centre of the cavernous underground structure. He walked with his hands dug into his pockets, his face aimed at the ground as he pondered over a number of different subjects. He'd woken early that morning after a night with little real sleep, and, unable to simply lie back in bed with his head so full of turbulence, had opted to rise and get ready for the day long before anyone else woke, spending his time lazily pacing his way around the vast network. Oddly enough, now that he was on his feet and moving, able to deal with his thoughts, he was more at rest than he had been in his bed.

There were several issues on the young demons mind. First was what he had signed on for with Billy and Mandy and how it could change his life, better or worse. If it all went as planned he, alongside his friends, would likely end up masters of the world. He would likely become a general of some kind, reigning over his own piece of their empire, or serving in some crucial function, it was difficult to project himself ahead in that scenario to see. If not however, if their little plot was uncovered, he envisioned either being blown to smithereens by the army, or worse, captured, tortured, and experimented upon.

'_I bet they'd just love to open me up to see what makes their 'demon freak' tic.'_ This was largely irrelevant though, they would pull him apart anyway regardless of wether or not he was part of this. His only hope was to either run and hide, or take back his pride and make them pay for what they had done.

Second, he had to reconcile his new path of darkness with his family.

'_Dad's already a demon, and an outcast. He'll probably be more accepting of it. After all he did say I had to do what was just, even if it meant facing things I didn't want to think about. But what about mom? She's never wanted anything to do with power or revenge or killing, she won't understand it like I do. I just hope given time she can come to accept me for who I am, and admire what I have achieved… and detach from all the people that I'll kill and terrorise.'_ He clenched his features for a moment as she paused at the entrance to another long hallway. _'I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it.'_

Continuing on he switched to the third subject; what he was going to be doing in the coming days, weeks and months. He had a substantial job to do in bringing about their age of darkness and tyranny, and he would likely be going on all kinds of invader missions across the world in order to advance towards their goal step by step.

'_There's a problem. If I'm gonna start work soon, heading out to that island base gathering information and conducting terrorist attacks, then mom and dad are gonna find out that something's up pretty quickly. I suppose I'll have to get down to it soon. I'll tell them what we're doing and why, and then I can head out there with…'_

He paused again. Here was his final and oddly most pressing topic. Looking ahead of him he saw the doorway leading in to Tak's room, the light shining out through the cracks around the door from within, indicating their guest was awake.

'_What is it about her? Why am I so captivated by her? Oh sure she's strong-willed and determined, she's smart, she's witty, she's stunningly beautiful, she's mysterious, she shares the same anger at the world as me…'_ He cut himself off upon realising he wasn't helping himself. Shaking his head he tried to think of something else. _'Okay… Her clothes. She only bought one set with her. They were washed overnight and should be dry and ironed now.'_

Turning around he quickly made his way back through the dimly lit underground passageways, entering into the deeper sections where the Nerglings lived and worked. He moved past several of the little black servant demons as they scurried to and fro, careful to not disturb their master as they went about their business. It wasn't that he was in any way arrogant or cruel to them; apparently they seemed to lean towards respecting the dark overlord persona, which he was all too willing to play. Ignoring the few gremlins out and about he made his way to the laundry, finding the young woman's clothes folded neatly atop an old bench, her buckle-up boots standing at attention beneath.

Stopping he lifted up and examined one of her boots and smiled. He liked the rogue militant look, yet they were completely functional for her lifestyle. He doubted a nine millimetre bullet could penetrate many areas. They reflected the character of the wearer.

Junior quickly picked up her clothes and hurried back out the Nerglings' quarters, backtracking his way to where he stood directly outside Tak's doorway. He paused, eyeing the door nervously, part of him wondering why in all hell he was here. It was pretty obvious he'd gotten her the clothes as a cover to talk to her, but why would he do something like that? Another part of him made him shake his head at how stupid it all was, before he went ahead and knocked on her door.

A few seconds later the door cracked open partly, Tak appearing in the gap looking upon him in wonder. For the past few minutes she had been tinkering with her pak, interested in the possibility of having it re-attached to her new human body, if only for the weapons and technologies it made available to her. She put the small metal container aside for the moment as they regarded each other. Junior's interest caught on the black and red spider silk nightie they had supplied for her, her short blue hair still damp from the shower. He found his mind going blank for a moment, his heart pausing in his chest at the sight of this… _goddess_ before him, as Tak stood silently gazing him over.

"… Uh, good morning." He spoke up, at last finding his voice.

"Morning." She replied, herself finding it somewhat awkward conversing with her young host. Averting her gaze she looked down to where her clothes and boots lay in his arms.

"I, uh, I bought your clothes for today. They've been washed and ironed, so… here." Junior held out the bundle of folded cloth and leather towards her. Looking at it she hesitantly reached out and took them in. From where she scrutinised the folded mass it appeared as if many of the colours and hues had been slightly bolstered, the violets and purples showing up slightly richer than she remembered. Her boots had also been shined, including the metal portions. "The Nerglings did it, I just thought I'd… bring them to you… is all." He stammered out awkwardly, shifting his gaze from her, to the door, to the dress she was wearing, to his feet.

"Thanks." She smiled back, not a sly satisfied smirk but an actual light-hearted smile, which her friend returned. To her it seemed an odd sort of association they held, that a simple comrade and business associate could be so welcoming and benevolent. To someone trained for decades to infiltrate and destroy it seemed almost unthinkable that Junior and she should find it difficult to simply converse for fear of saying something stupid and embarrassing. Each found the awkward silence between them equally difficult to negotiate, but rewarding in some inexplicable little way inside.

"Okay… So this afternoon, you were moving out to that island they told us about right?" He asked uncertainly. "Because there's always room for you here if you need it. Just remember you're always welcome here."

"I will, thank you. I guess we'll see what condition it's in and go from there. It's been far too long since I've gone on any real missions. I'd like to get back to the days of sewing a path of destruction and despair and ruin on this corrupt world and all those wretched little people!" She grinned a crazed grin, her left eye twitching ever so slightly at the thought of mushroom clouds, burning wreckage and people with their body parts in several different places. "Neh heh heh! Nothing quite satisfies like killing some horrible little human worm monkeys!"

Spurred on by the waves of destructive malice emanating from his new friend a quiet dignified smirk took shape on Junior's face likewise as he adjusted his green tinted spectacles. "Yeah, I know."

It was good for Tak to see he was settling into his role. He was a natural at being a demon. After seeing the family dynamic of this household she knew he was well underway to taking his father's place as his heir. It was also apparent he had the right mindset for laying waste to certain corners of the globe.

"Say, I was just thinking, are you sure it's alright if I were to join you on some of your operations?" He asked, eager to get out there again and relive the freedom and power he had experienced in days past, before the peace. "Don't worry about what Mandy says, I don't want you to have to cart me around if I'm gonna be a burden, but I've fought through my own share of battles in the four years I've been here. Billy, Mandy, Irwin, Max and I held off entire hordes of demons regularly just a few years back. I'd like to get back to that, there's nothing quite like the feeling of battling hundreds of blade toting psychopaths. It frees you from all your anger, your hatred, your fear, and all the people who want nothing more than to chain me down and watch me suffer. I am a demon Tak, just like you said. I _need_ to get that back. I _need_ to feel free again. But if I'm not gonna be able to pull my weight then I'll stick to what I can do."

At this his empowered determination gave way to the awkwardly reserved state he'd held earlier. "Also, if I'm gonna be tripping all around the world on these operations… I guess you're… sort of the kind of person I'd want to go with."

Tak's eyes widened slightly that the person known to others for being aloof and cool at all times would open up to her and leave himself in such a vulnerable position. It wasn't just what he said, how it was because of her that he wanted to work together, but the way he had said it, lowering all his defences to show her the side few had ever seen. It stirred a strange sort of warmth inside her, bringing a smile to her face.

"That sounds like a great idea. You know, you're not so bad yourself. I think I'd like sewing anarchy and destruction with you." Junior smiled happily in response. It confounded him more why he was so hung up on this indomitable young woman, but right now he couldn't care less.

"Okay then. Anyway… I'll let you get on with getting ready and… yeah." He spoke as he backed away from the doorway down the vast corridor. "I guess we'll find out about the base and everything today. I'll see you later then."

"Okay, see ya." Tak answered as he turned and continued onwards, closing the door after him. Now that she was alone in her room she had the time to think about what had just transpired. It perplexed her greatly as to the nature of the strange effects her new friend was having on her once slightly less than sane psyche.

'_What is it about him? He's like no Irken man I've ever met before, or any human for that matter. Is he always this polite and benevolent to his friends? Maybe, but he still only seems to get all flustered around me.'_ Placing the folded clothes on her bedside table she continued to furrow her brow in thought. _'But why do I care anyway? He's just someone who's going to be working with me for the next few years is all. It doesn't matter that he's… the first man to ever take a real interest in me.'_

Outside Junior continued to idly wander the empty hallways, his own thoughts replaying over and over on the same subject.

'_I'm infatuated with her. But why? What am I supposed to do? I'm going to be going on assignments from here to Russia, China and back, and all because I like…'_ He stopped dead in his tracks as it occurred to him._ 'I like her.'_

At the same time the two shook their heads in bemusement, smirking at themselves for the sheer absurdity of it all. After a lifetimes worth of insanity they should have gotten used to it by now. Alas, as life itself has proved time and again, as soon as 'normality' is established, an army of candy monsters or a hive of car park dwelling rat people come in to destroy it. Their newly discovered attraction towards each other proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

* * *

Later that morning.

It was raining again.

Billy stood watching as it came driving down on the other side of the living room window. Reaching up he put his hands around his elbows to keep out the cold on his exposed arms coming in through the glass as he watched the grey sky and wind outside. Turning away he retreated into the lounge room where it was slightly warmer, the television going softly at one end.

Had the television a mind of its own it would currently be sweating in anxiety right now under the distressing attention it was receiving from two of its owners. Mandy stood staring into the screen with the same merciless, ominous scowl she had used to coldly survey the world with from the beginning. With it she had ruthlessly enforced her iron will on those poor wretched souls around her, and it had long since come to define her darker side, the side of her that longed for power and immortality, that desired to crush and enslave the corrupt and hammer them down into their place. As if that wasn't enough beside her stood Billy, a thin, cruel sneering smirk spreading across the face of the twisted, savage young demon prince. His bright blue eyes narrowed with the satisfying thrill of wanton destruction, a fury he had developed in secret over the past four years, unleashing it fully only with the introduction of a vessel with which to do so; the monster scythe Berserker.

The reason behind the two dark angels taking interest in the morning news more so than usual was because of a live camera feed being broadcast nationwide of current happenings in the city of Philadelphia.

"_As of yet we are still uncertain as to what the cause of this rampage is, but from what we are seeing a cause or a reason for this may simply be wishful thinking."_ The news reporter spoke in a hyped-up tone from just beyond the view of the camera. Around him and the cameraman stood numerous Humvees and soldiers setting up behind a barricade of abandoned cars, a single Stryker armoured carrier taking centre stage as they looked down a devastated main road through the city. Ahead of them people ran screaming in panic amidst the burnt out wrecks of cars and buildings, fleeing en masse from some seemingly unstoppable force behind them. Plasma bolts flashed, followed by more explosions and billowing balls of flame, followed by another random blast that caused the front of an apartment building to collapse onto the burning street.

"_Ahead of us now… What? Alright. It appears as if the perpetrators have turned around and are coming back this way-"_ He barely managed to finish before a cacophony of fifty calibre machine gun fire exploded all around them, followed closely by the individual bursts from the infantry's small arms, all concentrated on a small space not quite visible to the camera. Mandy scowled on as burning cars became tossed around ahead of the group, the targets seemingly unfazed by the monumental barrage.

"Heh heh." Billy grinned as someone fired an AT4, the recoilless projectile detonating on an invisible shield over its target. No sooner had the smoke cleared that a small hail of missiles streaked towards the troops position, up-ending cars both civilian and military alike, reducing the defenders numbers slightly. A few moments later a shining golden streak arched its way like a sparkling meteor through the sky, coming down to land on the roof of the armoured Stryker, with explosive results.

Another few moments more and most of the defending troop had been almost wiped out by plasma fire, some of them seemingly going mad. The two watched on as the cameraman and reporter turned and ran, only for their path to be blocked when part of a building collapsed in front of them, sealing off their escape route. Turning to face their enemy the camera focussed on three individuals as they cleared the carnage. One was a late twenties blonde woman with a skimpy white outfit and a golden apple. Another was a chubby green elephantine demon with a large bronze gauntlet. Finally there came a small robot with glowing cyan eyes, a myriad of lasers and rocket launchers protruding from its head.

"_Chaos!"_

"_Taquitooos!"_

"_Yes!"_

Each of them shrieked with their own uniquely crazed manner, before a piercing blue light from one of the laser cannons enveloped the screen, the image turning to static an instant later.

Mandy raised the remote and turned the volume down. "Well that was mildly entertaining, in a Jerry Springer kind of way."

"I wonder when Fred got the hand again."

"Who cares?" On the screen the presenter went on about something else as if nothing had happened. They noticed the colours of the newsroom were now distinctly more fascist in nature.

Abandoning the box she led her partner out into the living room where the rest of the family awaited them. Grim stood idly with a cup of instant coffee in his hand, Saliva and Milkshakes milling around at his bony feet. Harold and Gladys sat at the table together, Gladys apparently flipping through a brochure on Asian spas and resorts. Despite her tendency towards an upbeat and happy nature, Billy could immediately pick up on the worn out look in her eyes as she gazed over them longingly. Living the hard working life of a housewife regardless of how caring and grateful her family were, was inevitably going to have the effects of running her down. Harold meanwhile had always given the impression he was lost on the wind and waves with no compass. The one thing Billy knew he was passionate about, other than his wife, son and now daughter, was his classic sports cars. The two turned to face them as they entered, ready to head out for another day of… school?

"Say Billy, Mandy, there's something I've been wondering." Gladys spoke up. They both knew what it was about. "What exactly have you been doing at school lately?"

She noticed Billy and Mandy's attention grow sharp at the subject, indicating that she was right. Billy and Mandy knew instinctively it was a cover for her real question.

"Why do you ask?" Billy spoke, taking charge of the situation like he had anticipated.

"Well I just noticed you're not wearing uniforms anymore, or tell us anything about it when we ask, and you haven't been bringing home any homework, or taking any books." She gave them a flat look. "What are you really doing?"

The two shared a concerned look, knowing it was time to tell them what they had planned. "Well, for starters how much do you know about what the place is like now?" Billy asked.

"Well you two did say that it's gone downhill. Didn't you and Mandy say before that it's run by a pack of brutes?"

"That was before we went away." Mandy took over. "It's been remodelled since then. Now it's more of a cross between a prison and an insane asylum than a school. All the windows are plated over, and it's surrounded by metal fences and razor wire. It's run by party instructors now, all they do there is drill propaganda and hate speech into the students' heads. It's a place you go to be made insane. On top of that people are still dealing drugs in the halls. On Monday one guy held us up at knifepoint and yesterday a gang attacked us with crowbars. You can go and see all this for yourself if you want."

Gladys's eyes widened and her mouth gaped in dismay at the thought, as Harold turned to look with a rare show of serious attention.

"They're doing… But if it's that bad how are you even making it through the day?"

"Uh, yes about that, we have a special kind of arrangement that protects us from all that." Billy explained as innocently as he could.

"Really, what is it?"

"We don't go there anymore." Gladys' eyes widened as he bluntly dumped it on her. "We went there in the morning on Monday, and yesterday we could meet up with Junior and so Tak could see it, and then ditching the place to go do more important things, things to do with planning for the future. I'm sorry for the deception, but please understand, there are a lot of important things that we need to take care of."

Harold and Gladys eyed the two suspiciously. Mandy already knew what was coming next, and just hoped Billy was up to the challenge as he'd said he was.

"… What plans?" Gladys asked uncertainly. Billy remained silent for a moment, debating again how to best cater to what he knew his parents would want and need.

"Alright, here's how it is. You already know how the world is overrun by the kind of people who'll step on your face and not think twice about it, those people who think they can do whatever they want, and take whatever they want, and think it's terribly unfair when anyone else gets their way." He waited as they nodded their heads in understanding. "You've seen the news, about what those kinds of people are doing to other people right here in Endsville, and across America, and the rest of the world. They lie, and cheat, and steal, and murder, and rape, and think they have the right because of some kind of group pride, and they do these things to people like you and me. Millions of people have already died because of this, and it's only getting worse. Don't you think something's wrong with this?"

It was plain to see they knew he had a point. Billy bit his lip as they looked away in thought, reminiscing about all the times some random asshole had actually gone out of their way to make their lives worse. He had to instil in his parents a portion of the same anger as Mandy had instilled in him years back, if in a somewhat watered down version, just to help them understand this was the right thing to do.

"Well that's where we come in. Mandy and I have been working on some plans on how to put an end to this. What we're working towards is a total worldwide takeover, which will transform the world in a way that will once and for all put all those corrupt individuals in their place for good. We are going to cure humanity of all the corruption and greed and selfish stupidity that is destroying it, and build a new world order based on control and discipline and respect, where decent people can live like decent people, and those people who instinctively try to make the world worse for them will live the way they deserve to live, in fear."

The two sat gazing up at them mute. "You're trying to take over?"

"Hey I'm not the smartest tool in the freezer but that doesn't sound so good." Harold interjected. "I mean really, isn't world conquest a bit above what you two kids can do?"

"I thought you'd say that. But we wouldn't be talking about it if we didn't think there was a real chance we could pull it off. Don't forget, thanks largely to our friend Grim here, we now have the capabilities necessary to work towards that new world order like no-one else ever could. Our scythes are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we can do.' He explained, keeping the details quiet so as to avoid unnecessary risks. "So we're gonna wait until we're ready, and work towards getting everything prepared. Then we'll go out, and we'll destroy all those corrupt empires and regimes, destroy the old world, and build a new one where we enforce our control on all those small-minded idiots."

As Billy was talking, Mandy overheard a few choice words coming from the television, something about President Johnson and an address. Turning her head alert she suddenly stepped away back into the lounge room. Grim watched her go with intrigue, but kept his thoughts on what was going on in front of him.

Gladys though was having trouble with what she was hearing. She shook her head.

"Billy I know that the world's full of bad people that need to be punished but what you're talking about is treason." She spoke in unease. Billy bit his lip again as it became clear that gaining their respect for what they had planned was not going as smoothly as he'd hoped. But he'd more than anticipated for that as well. "It doesn't matter that they deserve it, it's… it's still wrong." Her words lost a lot of their force as doubt began to sink in, and she began to wonder why she was opposed to it. "Besides that you'll become dictators. You'll end up terrorising innocent-"

"Hey, you guys should see this." Mandy popped her head in from the lounge room, drawing their attention. "Right now."

Billy, Gladys, Harold and Grim all filed in hurriedly after her as she sat on the couch and turned up the volume on the TV. Turning to face the box Billy sat down close by her right as their parents stood off to the right and Grim to the left watching intently.

Displayed on the screen was a scene of a wide stage, decorated in brash and brutal red and black, the blood and death of the innocent, while in the background a series of red and white curtains fell from a shining golden arch supported on imposing gold pillars, the pride and majesty of their nation. At the centre of this dominating structure was set a podium decorated in the same fashion, and behind it stood a tall man in a pristine black suit with a red overcoat, done in the same gold trim, brown hair fixed neatly back, and a hard etched look of determination on his features. His name was Robert Johnson, leader and master of the all powerful white American race.

"You wanna know why we're doing this?" Mandy spoke and pointed to the man on the screen. "Here's why."

"_For so many years now we have lived under the oppression of the Mexican. Day after day after day we slaved for them for a pittance, like dogs begging for scraps."_ He spoke to everyone watching, not in the least bit concerned that his facts were blatant lies. _"They come here like a plague of rats, and sap our economy from the inside. They sap the effort, and the toil, and the blood and the pride out of our people, just like their accomplices! This stock market crash is all the proof we need of their treachery!"_ He gestured violently with one arm back at an imaginary chart that wasn't there. _"But they will not get away with it."_

'_What is he talking about? They were the ones who destroyed everything.'_ Gladys thought as the man took a moment to reaffirm himself and continue.

"_The degenerate vermin have taken our pride, our dignity as Aryans, forged through thousands of years of struggle and battle and innovation, from the Greeks and the Roman Empire, the barbarian conquerors, the Vikings, right up to the great Nazi Reich! Now we will take it back!"_

The five watched as the sound of shouts and cheering erupted from the speakers, indication that he was speaking before a large crowd. He held his gaunt face high as he waited for them to still, and launched into his bigoted hatred again.

"_We will take our glory, and our revenge! We will let them all know who the rightful masters and owners of the world are! No one will be spared our wrath! We will crush their feeble armies, and raze their cities to ruin! We will round up and exterminate every man, and rape their wives and daughters as our sex slaves! This is our world! This is our species! We decide who is fit to live, and who is fit to die!"_

This time however the sound of mindless screaming came out of the speakers. Billy, Mandy, Harold, Gladys and Grim all watched as the screen now changed to a view of the crowd, screaming and thrashing in a fit of sheer overpowering hate, and the need to butcher and rape and cut apart everyone who was different to them. Their existence as human beings defied their perfection, and on top of that, they just loved to hurt people.

Mandy turned the television off as they turned to face her where she sat.

"Those people will bring about the extinction of the human race before they're satisfied." She told them open and frank, and could see they understood. Billy looked back and forth between them and took over again.

"Listen, I know that you're afraid of what this might mean, for us, and for everyone else. But what else is there to do?" He asked them. Neither of them had any response to give. "If we have the capability to stop this, then we also have the responsibility to follow through on it. If not then we're allowing them to do those things."

Gladys faced her boy troubled, turning her face down in conflict. She turned to Grim.

"What do you think?"

"I tink dat dey're right, and dat you're just reluctant to face de facts." He said bluntly but then continued. "But I also tink dat dey're fooling themselves to an extent. I mean dey talk about being dark and cold and terrible like tyrants, but don't believe a word of it."

This time Billy and Mandy both looked at him in surprise, to which he nodded back.

"I've been around a long time, and I seen a lot of great and terrible rulers like what you're talking about, but you're different, and de times are different too."

"What are you talking about?" Billy asked.

"In my early years I met a cave witch as she was dying. She told me three prophecies about you two. First she told me dat I would be enslaved by an evil tyrant of a girl, and an impossible idiot of a boy, and dat dey would humiliate me. But den she told me dat as de human race's time ran down dey would go on to decide de fate of de entire world, wether or not dey would save it or destroy it. I know for certain that dese two are de last best hope we have." He looked to the two facing him stunned. "I made sure to tell Max all dat. Why else do you tink I put up with yer crap so easily?"

Neither of them really knew how to deal with what they were hearing, except to simply gaze on back in silence. Grim smiled inside, before his subject changed.

"As I said I've been around a long time. I've seen the highs and lows of humanity all before. But de times have changed. Never in me life have I seen it get to dis point." He explained with a heavier presence in his voice. "Dese are de end days. Before now it was only a small percentage of people who were genuinely bad all de way through. Even in places like Nazi Germany, most people were just going along with it because somehow it was de right thing to do, cause dey were supposed to. But never before have I seen or heard of people who are willing to stab demselves to death just so dey can kill deir own reflection. De madness has overrun half of humanity already, and dose wretched individuals are rapidly devouring the remaining half, as well as each oder. It won't be long now before dey run out of people who are sufficiently different to kill and end it all, they've had de tools since de fifties. Only dose two can reasonably put a stop to it for good."

Billy and Mandy looked to their family again. From what they saw it appeared Harold was hanging in the balance, and though Gladys knew they were right, like Junior she just needed to overcome her moral hesitancy, and Harold would surely follow along with her.

"Look in this future we need to earn respect of subjects, not just have them fear us. But we need your respect for what we're doing too. We can't earn anyone else's respect if we can't earn yours first."

Gladys couldn't help but give a weary smile at that. "Oh Billy, you've grown up so much. But I just don't know if I have the strength to accept this like you do."

His dire gaze gave way to something more welcoming. He'd anticipated such a roadblock as well. "Perhaps you also need something else to help. I think you two could benefit from what we're proposing."

"Benefit? How?" Harold began like a kid at the mention of lollies.

"Well…" He smiled and bought himself up to stand by his father's side. "… for starters I know about your classic cars. I know you've had the same Shelby Cobra calendars in the shed all my life. What if you could have that black Trans Am you always wanted?" He suppressed a smirk as Harold raised an eyebrow. "Dad if this goes right we could get you whatever car you wanted, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Mustangs, anything and everything your heart could possibly desire. What about the Cobra with the aluminium Cammer? Hell we could get you all that today, some of the manufacturers would still be operating even now."

Harold had a far off look in his eyes, but Billy could see he was salivating more than usual at the prospect. _'Must be hard to have so many dreams and desires and no way of fulfilling them.'_

"And suppose you could take them to any racetrack in the world on any afternoon, and just let the beast free? And it goes beyond that. What if you wanted a boat? Mandy and I can get you a luxury yacht bigger than any billionaire, or a cigarette with the same engines as your Cobra. What if you wanted to go flying around in your own private jet?"

"Actually I tried that once." Mandy added. "It was great. You have to try it sometime."

"Yeah. But we can only get you these things if they aren't all destroyed before we can get to them. How long do you think Laguna Seca is gonna be there before they tear it up? So just think about it. You have so much to gain by this personally as well."

"… I still don't know." He spoke with a frown, looking to his wife for guidance again. Gladys bit her lip as her road block broke up and her thoughts began to swirl more easily. Turning around she made her way back into the living room to escape the pressure. She sat down in her seat at the table, watching out the window as the rain began to ease, if only for a short spell. The others watched her from the doorway as she looked away uncomfortably, ill at ease with the whole concept. Diverting his attention to the brochure on the table Billy reached out and dragged it across to where he stood, opening it to glance through it.

"Hmmm… Say this one looks nice. It's in Thailand. You know they make great food there too. And here's another one in Fiji. Just look at all that steaming hot bubbling water, and complimentary massages all day. How would that feel?"

"Billy don't try and buy me, I'm too smart for that." She answered flatly, but he shook his head.

"Mom I can see you already know this is the right thing to do. I'm just trying to help you over whatever is holding you back. This is the offer of a lifetime. Mom you could own these places. You could go there whenever you wanted, and you would be treated like royalty every time. And it doesn't end there. Imagine living in Buckingham Palace, or on a chateau in France, or in an oil sheik's mansion in Arabia. You will have a hundred servants catering to your every whim. You could sleep in every morning, have breakfast and lunch cooked by the best chefs, drink the best wine in all of Europe, and then fly to Japan for a soak in a hot spring. Mom, you've done so much for us. Time and time again you've worked your fingers to the bone for us. You deserve so much more than this. I am going to give you a life beyond that of a queen. There's no limit to the joys we can bring you." He wondered if wether or not what he was saying at this stage had any effect on her as her eyes had taken on a distant, glazed appearance. "All that I ask is that you accept the path Mandy and I have chosen. We can work out the details as they come."

As the rain outside died away Gladys turned to him with conflict still obvious in her gaze. Once more he smiled. He knew that he more or less had her already, she was just teetering on the edge. But he couldn't do this without their approval, and Harold would only follow her judgement. Just one last little push would be all he needed, and he knew just how to do it. He gave a smirk.

"Say, I almost forgot, I have a surprise for you, both of you actually." Gladys and Harold both frowned as they directed their attention on the boy. "It's nothing really, just a little something Mandy and I picked up along the way, a taste of what's to come. Now close your eyes. Mandy would you please lead her out the back."

With that he quickly disappeared from the room, heading out to the backyard as Mandy helped her now blind guardian to her feet. Ensuring that her eyes were still closed she gradually led Gladys by the hand out of the room and down towards the back door, Harold and Grim following. _'I hope he knows what he's doing, otherwise she's gonna gut us both.'_

As they approached the back door a green flash lit up the rear windows, dispersing shortly thereafter. As she led the procession out through the door it became quite obvious what Billy had in mind. Bringing Gladys to stand directly facing the new addition to the yard she stopped.

"Okay, open them." He spoke with a veiled grin.

…

"A PORSCHE!"

As pointed out by his mother's ecstatic shriek the same black supercar they had stolen on Monday now occupied a space on the freshly rained on green lawn, Billy standing with his fingertips pressed together next to it. The small smile on his face belied the satisfaction and confidence he received from her reaction, and relief that it hadn't backfired on them both. Harold was amazed too, he wasn't as dramatic as his wife. It occurred to him maybe his memory had improved. Mandy noticed he'd played with the license plates, changing them to a dark green colour with 'RESPEKT' carved out in black.

"I thought you'd like it. Mandy and I got it from a rich guy and his girlfriend after they tried to run us over. It's just a little gift to say thank you for all you've done for us."

"… Ha… Haaa… Haaaaah…" Gladys had stars in her eyes as she let her eyes rove over the sleek vehicle, fantasies of cruising around the country playing forth in her mind. Stumbling drunkenly she made her way past him over to the driver's side door, examining the fine onyx paint with her fingertips. Clearly she did not object. Billy's evil smirk extended slightly as he got his answer, Gladys opening the door to slide down into the driver's seat, her ecstatic ear to ear grin never faltering.

"Yeah, so I take it we're cool right?"

* * *

Midday.

"Well this is nice." Junior commented on their surroundings with a wide beset gaze.

After smoothing things out with their family and meeting up with Junior and Tak underground where the returning rain couldn't get them, Grim had transported the group to an uninhabited island off the coast of Florida. Currently the five stood on a long sandy beach, the wide track of pearly white silica separating the lush jungle ahead of them from the warm crystal waters and coral reefs behind them. A few hundred feet beyond the tree line rose a rocky mountain of jagged boulders and rubble, sporting a large open cave in one side. On the outside the entire island looked just like any ordinary uninhabited tropical paradise. None of the large abandoned paramilitary complex hidden within could be distinguished from the outside, with even its old heritage under Hector Con Carne lying in a collapsed ruin. From here its past owners had made their ill conceived plans and attempts to wrest control of people's lives. And it was from here that they would henceforth conduct their pre-attack side of the campaign in the years to follow, using it as a base of operations to pave the way for the coming storm of their takeover, as well as a place for the two to ride out the coming storm of the coming months as the rest of the world was slowly destroyed.

"Be thankful I got rid of the bunny shaped mountain." Mandy replied. Indeed all trace of its previous identity had been erased on her orders. The hideous rabbit shaped mountain had been blasted, levelling its outer structure to give the appearance of an ordinary hill, along with the ridiculous fake Maya temple, and the rubble cleared away. The only remaining trace now was the open cave in the eastern side, and the occasional shard of metal strewn about the jungle and the rocky reefs. Since it had fallen into disuse over the past four years the natural flora had grown to a large extent, more than twice as dense as it had been previously, closing in on all pathways through the mass of palms and bushes, and the same went for the reefs around the rocky shores.

"You got all dis for just fifty grand?" Grim asked incredulously. "I mean dere would be people who'd pay millions fer a place like dis."

"I don't know, I think Con Carne may have been in trouble with the government and had to take the first offer." Mandy shrugged absently as she began her way across the white sand towards an old overgrown path into the bush, a somewhat lighter version of her hard set scowl displayed. "I don't care. Whatever happens to incompetents doesn't matter so long as it's to our own gain. Besides, idiots like them make people like us look bad."

Tak meanwhile was stunned beyond all words. She gazed gaping up across the silky beach sand, trailing her gaze up along the mass of palm trees that seemed to actually shine a vibrant green in the sun. And above them was the mountain peak cast in light brown. Above it all was a clear blue sky studded with white clouds, not a hint of pollution or even the pouring rain from they had come from present. The sun shone bright and clear, and the gentle wind caressed her skin and hair and carried with it the smell of the ocean. Looking around behind her she was stunned by the vast deep blue expanse of water, watching the white caps of the waves coming in, turning from light blue to crystal clear close to shore. Combined it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life. It was all so far removed from Irk and Devastis, and the rest of what she had seen of this planet. It was perfect. She found herself happy here.

"Right. So where is this base?" Junior asked as he and the group followed Mandy up the beach with Tak last.

"Just follow me." She responded as she reached a barely visible dirt path leading off through the brush. "Grim."

Taking his cue he moved up ahead of Mandy, slashing away at the overhanging foliage covering the thin path, Mandy and co following behind as they trekked their way through the dense undergrowth. The going was slow and tedious as though Grim hacked and slashed with vigour the amount of foliage blocking their path was such that every step required effort spent. Gradually he methodically cut a swathe through the brush, curving gradually around towards the gaping mouth of the hole in the mountainside. Stepping around along the edge of the rock face the five entered round into the shadow of the cavern, the bright blue sky becoming replaced by bare rock. The cave was at least thirty metres in length. Along the bed lay a long flat strip, with what looked to be an aircraft catapult at the end, indicating that this would double as a hangar should the need arise. Passing the strip the group came to a halt before a large, slightly weathered steel blast door set into the far end.

"Allow me." Mandy stated as she made for the control pad, keying in the code. _"Five, six, one, four."_

Nothing responded.

"No power. Oh well. Grim."

A quick blast of green later and they made their way through the hole burned in the three feet thick steel slabs. Lighting up the blade they surveyed their surroundings. The air was musty and still but otherwise it wasn't too much different to how Mandy had left it. Overhead the steel and concrete formed a hardened dome, across which crossed a number of pipes and electrical conduits leading to and fro from other areas of the base.

"Hmm. Feels like Irk." Tak commented on the grim monotone of the entrance hall at odds with what she had seen outside. The space was largely empty of anything useful, with the perimeter sporting a number of other sliding steel doors to command and control stations, machinery levels, occupant's quarters, armouries, and everything needed for a small group to live and work comfortably for extended periods. "So how bad is the damage?"

"I think the reactor area, barracks and the armoury have partially caved in." Mandy spoke as she walked over to one of the steel doors set partially back in its recess to show the corridor leading to the partly demolished barracks. "It should be repairable but it'll take time, unless you get a small army in to do the job for you."

"I'm way ahead of you." Junior stated in his self-confident European tone as he pulled a small card from his breast pocket, tossing it to the ground, upon which a rectangular wormhole formed in the floor.

"What is it with people and poking holes in things?" Billy commented as a legion of Nerglings poured up and out. The little black creatures spread out in an enormous mass across the floor, standing and waiting for their young master's orders as the last few welled up out of the portal. A moment later it shrank back to the small red and black card design, allowing Junior to reach down and return it to his pocket.

"This place is a mess. Find the reactor and get it working again. After that clean up the rest of the base. Go."

Mandy, Billy, Grim and Tak looked on as the swarm of minions moved for the doors, wrenching and rending the metal surfaces open as they flooded every part of the base. It was a somewhat impressive sight really, that Junior had control over a small army of single-minded servants, and of the efficiency and zeal with which the hundreds of creatures obeyed his will. Following one group down towards where Mandy knew the power plant lay she and the group watched as they communicated amongst their numbers, the horde getting to work moving away rubble and fallen cables and pillars, hundreds more swarming in to assist them. It took only a minute for the debris to be cleared and the fitness ball sized cold fusion generator to be accessed. Working quickly the little creatures danced across the surface of the control computers, a whirring, vibrating hum arising from the reactor vessel as the technological marvel and workhorse groaned to life. In mere moments the first lights began to flicker on overhead, the base lighting up once more as the Nerglings carted the debris out, scurrying out to reconnect wires and remove broken components, and attend other areas of the base.

"Now this looks promising." Junior remarked as the hard, futuristic complex now presented itself to them in full. Apart from being largely empty, with the Nerglings still removing broken pieces from various places to be dumped in a pile in the entrance chamber, it was plain to see that with some work it would serve them perfectly. "With the Nerglings taking care of operating everything for us we'd be free to concentrate on the mission."

"Heh heh yeah, and leave you two more time alone together." Billy laughed as Tak and Junior glared at him awkwardly.

"Eh… Right. Whatever." Tak answered as around them the lesser demons continued their work. "Alright this is perfect for a hidden base but what if we're found out? What if this place ever comes under attack? What then?"

"Well for starters it looks like you have your own small army of tiny trigger happy monsters, they could hold off any attackers until Billy and I can come and back you guys up." Mandy explained. "Just give them a few weapons from our friend Zim and you'll hold out just fine."

Junior nodded in agreement. "The Nerglings have no real idea of self so they won't hesitate to die on my orders. If we can set up some hidden machine gun nests overlooking the beach, combined with anti-tank rockets, then we could repel any assault attempt made on the beach."

"A few hidden bunkers won't be nearly enough to defend against a real determined attack." Tak explained. "You're only thinking about an unprepared attack. What about air strikes, and artillery? What then?"

"If we install cannon turrets and missile launchers hidden in the mountain then we should be able to defend against air attack." Junior reasoned. "And if the outer defences are destroyed then we'll have more cannons waiting inside the cave. And if they get through the door then we'll have positions ready for them in here, that way we can hold them off right to the end if need be. And if we need to make an escape we'll keep a jet on standby underneath the runway in the cave."

"I think Zim can help you there as well. I can get him to give up his ship for you to use." Billy added. "It's big enough for two people to escape in, and you can use it in your work."

"That would work. Besides, if they find out and we fend them off, then we'll still have to leave here anyway before more come for us." Tak spoke. Mandy nodded in agreement.

"Okay that sounds good. We can get them all up and running over time." Sighting she scanned the high concrete dome once more, clapping her hands together. "So, will this do for the next three years? If you really need to we could tear it down and rebuild from the ground up."

"Oh no." Junior replied digging his hands in his pockets, strolling out absently with his gaze up at the ceiling as he and Tak smirked. "I think this'll do just fine."

"Okay then. We have more work to do so unless you need any help we'll leave you to it." Mandy spoke.

"Hey Mandy." Junior suddenly whirled back to face the small group with one finger raised in thought. "I was thinking earlier, while Tak and I are busy raising all kinds of hell, in between the times you two are off training and developing your skills, why don't you dedicate some time to preserving certain cultural treasures and artefacts?"

Billy and Mandy both listened interested as Tak stepped away from them to hang beside Junior a few feet opposite. "What do you mean?"

"Well just think, those group narcissists are like children who would rather destroy a toy than share it with another child. Important historical and cultural icons that have defined humanity's history, the White House, Washington Monument, the pyramids of Egypt and America, the Taj Mahal, the Kremlin, Temple of Heaven, they will all be destroyed before we can take over, and that goes the same for irreplaceable works of art, music, books, ancient relics, rare cars, and all kinds of cultural treasures." Junior explained to them as they looked to each other with intrigue.

"With your scythes you could actually take entire structures down to the underworld, and replace them with identical replicas. In fact by doing that it could be possible for them to be restored to their original state by the original creators. That way long after the replicas have been destroyed and we've taken control, we can bring all these treasures back in all their glory. It'll be like a gift to humanity after all they've suffered."

Mandy regarded the idea thoughtfully while Billy nodded to her.

"Alright, we'll do that." She agreed.

"But you'll have to begin soon, starting with the ancient American ruins, as well as the monuments from the old United States before they're destroyed, which could happen tomorrow." Junior added. They both nodded as they faced their two teammates standing opposite, a quiet moment settling between them.

"Now we'll keep in touch, but just remember with the feds keeping tabs on us we'll have to keep an eye out."

"Say can we come here during summer? It's been ages since I went to the beach cause of all the radioactive garbage that keeps washing up on the one in Endsville." Billy blurted out with a smile, reliving some of his days of random idiocy. "So can we? Can we can we can we can we huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh?"

"Sure, whatever. So, are you guys good?"

"Yeah, we'll get to work setting up 'ere straight away." Tak answered with a small smile.

Mandy nodded satisfied and turned for the hole in the door still looking back to them. "Alright. We'll see you later then."

"Hey Mandy."

Stopping she turned back to face the blue haired young woman. Tak paused, looking for the words to describe the still foreign sense of near overwhelming gratitude. It was so unusual for her to have anything let alone so much to be so grateful for, and it bought a deep smile to her face knowing what these people had given her.

"… Oh, just… Thanks again, for everything."

Regarding her quietly Mandy allowed her lips to curve upwards at her friend.

"You're alright by me Tak." She spoke as each smiled contentedly. "Take care."

Grim, Billy and Mandy bid them farewell before they turned and left out the broken blast door. Junior and Tak stood alone in the large chamber watching them leave outside in a flash of green. Looking across toward each other they each smiled widely as at once they both thought the same thing.

'_The next few years are gonna be good!'_

* * *

Gladys was humming happily as she wiped down the kitchen. It was not usual for her to be in such high spirits, especially considering the kind of people she had to deal with outside her front door. Time after time she would come home from a simple day's shopping in bad spirits because of the hordes of obnoxious idiotic little shits that called themselves people. But right now that didn't matter so much to her, due to the fact that…

'_I'M GONNA BE RICH!'_

She grinned enthusiastically. Being told about having all her fantasies of luxury and excess fulfilled by her own son had been one thing, but when she had actually gotten a taste of it, when she had driven her new Porsche around town for the first time, it bought on an irrepressible anticipation for what was to come. Since then she'd had ten times more energy than she'd had previously. Even Harold couldn't keep his mind off what he'd seen and felt this morning, and had spent the morning mowing the lawn with an ear to ear grin, despite the fact it was pouring rain.

'_Which spa should I go to first? Fiji? Thailand? Singapore? And what about resorts? I need to go to a resort!'_

Her head giddy with excitement she concentrated on wiping down the overhead shelves. Pulling down a family photo she smiled proudly at the boy standing there with them. It also prompted her that they'd need new family photos considering Mandy was now officially her adopted daughter. Both of them bought a swell of immeasurable pride to her heart as she wiped over the glass, turning it over to…

"… What the hell?"

She paused in her musings as she encountered something foreign. On the back of the picture frame sat a lump of some kind of putty, in the centre of which sat a small round black object. Scrutinising it curiously she pried the small mound off the photo, turning it over in her hand. The putty itself was nothing special, but the strange black button was different. Focussing on it she traced her fingernail across the rough wire mesh cover over its internals. Try as she might she couldn't figure it out. The closest thing it resembled to her was a _microphone._

Eyes wide in a dizzying terror she dropped the wad and stomped hard down on it, opened the bin, tossing the broken heap in and closing it after her. Breathing hard she tried to reason with herself.

'_Calm down Gladys you're just being paranoid, as usual. There's no way that was a listening bug, even though there's no other explanation for it. And I'm sure there was no way it heard… what we were talking about this morn-'_

"Gotcha!"

"DAH! Oh Harold don't…" She gasped and fumed silently as her husband grasped her around the waist, grinning ear to ear.

"Gahahuahahah! So I see Billy's got you all worked up from this morning too eh?" He smirked as he held her in his soaking wet arms. Her nerves calmed and she let out several heaving breaths. "You know I've lost five kilos just in the time they's been back."

"Actually, I can tell." She responded as she felt the change in his body from days earlier.

"Say, I know a great way to use all that extra energy."

"Oh Harold hm hm…" She smiled as she wormed out of his grip to face him. "But you're all dirty and grubby from mowing the lawn!"

"Then why don't we go take a shower?" With a grin she abandoned the previous topic, leaving the kitchen as they made their way up the stairs.

Either way it didn't matter. Nearly every word they'd said that morning while they were within hearing range had already been recorded on a computer within CIA headquarters. Though what choice parts they'd heard wouldn't be enough to motivate them to make a move, and though they'd never get the opportunity to bug their house again, it was still enough to confirm all their suspicions.

* * *

Early afternoon.

"What can I do for you my… _masters?"_ Zim asked as they stood at the front door of his freakish purple and green house, him rubbing his claw-like hands anxiously before his hunched form, eager to suck up to his new co-conspirators as they regarded their henchman quietly. Underneath it though he held no respect for them whatsoever, the two worthless humans who dared think they could give orders to him, still wholeheartedly believing himself to be a higher being in every way, a god in comparison to them. He just needed to gain their trust so they would drop their guard around him, that way he could rid himself of the disgusting creatures when they no longer benefited them.

"We've come to see the finished designs." Billy instructed. His grovelling did nothing to fool them. Though they showed nothing on the outside Zim's snivelling, wormy nature just disgusted them, wholly aware that his change in nature towards them pointed towards a plot to betray them.

"Right this way." Leading them in through the doorway he trekked across the living room, Billy and Mandy following after him. Watching him descend into the wastepaper bin they each took turns in following after him, coming out into the maroon coloured base beneath. Making his way to the computer he hurriedly bought up the files for the various armoured war machines he'd completed, acutely aware of the blonde haired girl drilling into the back of his head with her withering stare. But more than that was the predatory instinct he felt coming from her red-headed partner, something which hadn't been there the last time they had met. It felt as if he were relishing in his fear of him, like he was feeding off it, and it made him feel weak. He stamped it down to the best of his ability as he concentrated on working.

"Here they are. The finest electronics from Irk, combined with readily available materials here on Earth, all crafted by myself, the very pinnacle of the perfect and wonderful Irken race." He boasted, swelling his chest with all his pomp and superiority. Mandy gritted her teeth furiously, her insides writhing at the sight and smell of the smug little alien. How she wished she could squash him then and there, but alas they needed him if their plan was to work. Besides, he was Tak's to kill when the time came.

When Zim looked across to Billy however his proud smile vanished, seeing that while he gave a kind and gentle smile, his eyes showed the Irken's own death.

"Excellent work my friend." Billy spoke in a smooth tome as he surveyed the cybernetic demon soldier, their appearance little modified outwardly to the creations they'd seen in Mandark's lab. They had the appearance of seven foot tall athletes, their sharp, geometric armour plates giving the grey machines of malice a sleek yet deadly stance. These were, however, just an outline in blue on the black screen, along with many of the other designs. The finished product would have to wait just a little while longer. Zim closed the files, saving them all to an Irken memory disk.

"Here." He spoke, giving Billy the foreign looking component. "All the files for my… _our_ army is in there." He was quick to rectify his error as he felt the red-headed creature's eyes strafe him with instinctual fear again.

"Okay then. All we have to do now is put these into production and soon you'll be supreme overlord of the Irken Empire. Remember, we need three vials of antideath, and we expect to see proof that it actually works before we take any of it, and the government is gonna be keeping watch so don't call us. From now on we'll contact you face to face, so for now you just lay low and keep working on those designs."

"I will." Zim replied as the two turned and headed back for the elevator without fuss. As soon as they had left he heaved several deep breaths.

"How dare they think they can make me fear them. Me!" By act of years of narcissism he tossed aside the memory of what he had felt of the obvious gap between them and instead sniggered to himself.

"Eh heh heh heh… Heh heh hah hah hah hAH HAHAHA! Those stupid, pathetic, worthless, back-stabbing, pitiful, wretched humans have no idea who they're dealing with. They dare act as if they are equal to me? TO ME? HAAAHAHAHAHAAHAAAA!" He roared madly with laughter, his megalomania, paranoia and his overall manic delusions of grandeur. His grin arched all the way up to his twitching eyes as he shook and shuddered in his fit of narcissism.

"Those worthless humans are nothing. Nothing! A bug! A germ! THEY ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO ME FOR I AM A GOD! I AM THE ALL POWERFULL, ALMIGHTY ZIM!" He roared out into his laboratory, the madness taking him completely.

* * *

"I really hate that man." Mandy commented as she and Billy left Zim's house, joining up with Grim out the front as he waited impatiently for them. 'I really, _really_ hate him."

"Do you really? Heh, I can't imagine why." Replied Billy as Grim encased the three in a glowing sphere, which promptly disappeared from the upper world city, coming out in the slowly swirling blue-grey skies high over the vast flat land of Limbo. As soon as the two children caught sight of the reformed world they gaped in amazement. "Whoa. Now that's a sight to see."

The previously lifeless grey waste that lay beneath them had been transformed by Grim's dark magic. Below an almost endless stretch of immense forms of twisting coils and arms like enormous trees, the interspaced canopy of living workshops joined to the other side by the connecting rooftops of hundreds upon hundreds of stark foreboding concrete factories and smoke stacks, both of which lay spread out over the lifeless dust. There were _so many_ of them; assembly plants, component manufacturing, parts warehouses, refineries for raw materials, all split evenly between the two forms, one for the growing of the soldiers, the other for the supporting machines. An invincible war machine designed and constructed for the purpose of engineering the downfall of the diseased world. In the centre of the industrial park arose an immense pillar from which to survey everything below. Currently though each of the forms sat dormant, awaiting the order to build.

"So is dis what you two little psychopaths had in mind?" Grim asked as they descended towards the giant mass of iron and concrete. Looking out over the horizon they saw the hundreds of smoke stacks piercing up into the sky from the dark landscape below, while across the other side it looked much like a forest. Out in the distance they caught sight of one of the complex's two hearts, namely the looming black control tower overlooking all beneath it.

Continuing the little tour Grim led the bubble down through one of the ventilation shafts of one building, coming out inside the massive factory overlooking the final assembly line. Billy and Mandy could only gape at the sight of the massive robot arms and manipulators lining the long automated line. The scale of the place dwarfed them, reducing them to mere peanuts in comparison to their size and strength, being perfectly created for production of large machines such as tanks. Perhaps even an immense aerial leviathan, like what they had encountered at her fortress in the future.

Leading them swiftly from one end of the factory to another they soon exited out another ventilation shaft at the other end, rising up to where they could see out over the giant complex again. Looking in the opposite direction of the control tower they could see the see the second heart of the war machine. Below them near the centre of the massive mechanical sprawl a gaping crater lay gouged into the crust, a ring of giant digging machines lining its sides ready to dredge the mine for the raw materials they needed and send them off for refinement nearby.

"Wadaya think?"

"You've outdone yourself Grim." Mandy commented, thoroughly impressed at the fruit of his labour. Changing course Grim led the sphere of energy towards the flat top of the vast onyx tower. Descending down towards the massive structure the three came to rest on the wide platform, deactivating the bubble once their feet met the solid surface.

Taking the memory disk from her partner Mandy strode purposefully across towards the simple rectangular slab that rose at their arrival to serve as a control point, a computer materialising on top of it set into it. Stepping up to the simple boxy white monitor she looked around for a place to put the disk. From where she stood she could find no place to put any device in, with nothing more than the keyboard and monitor sitting alone. She was about to ask when the tower, sensing its master's intent, directed the altar to form a small disk drive into its plain surface just next to the keyboard. Taking a moment to figure it out Mandy sank the awkward foreign disk into the new attachment, watching as it then sank back down into the pure black surface, disappearing completely in seconds.

Standing back she watched and waited, the tower reading the disk before displaying a list of commands on the screen.

'Blueprint upload complete. Begin construction?'

She keyed in the letter Y.

At first stillness greeted their ears. As the moments passed however and the data from the giant tower became sent down throughout the enormous complex, far below them the ground started to rumble faintly. Casting their eyes out towards the vast pit in the distance Grim, Billy and Mandy watched as the giant drills and bucket-wheel excavators began to move, churning the rock up and dragging it back down into the refineries. As they watched the machines begin to dig up the raw materials, around it the sound of machinery began to resonate. From out of the closest buildings a chocking grey column of ash and smoke began to blast upwards from the smokestacks, more and more starting up as the factories groaned to life, crushing, melting, purifying and setting the materials needed for the parts that were to be created.

Across to the other side they turned to watch as the 'trees' now began to glow orange from underneath, their roots tearing up the ground below to feed the enormous furnaces. Above ground they could see as the snake-like strands began to twist and move on their own, coming to life as they began piecing together their army on a cellular level.

Crossing his arms in front of him, Grim stood over the kids as they surveyed the sight before them, watching as around them the war machine came to life. One by one each of the thousands of high smoke stacks of the walled factories, and the trunks rising from the great burning pits in the ground, began to bellow an acrid smoke. Soon the cloudy grey sky became tinged a deep red with the fires of the war industry as it breathed and flexed its muscles for the first time, its masters watching on quietly as it began to build them their army.

"Good." Mandy stated flatly, her hard glare never flinching. "It appears our plan's coming together just nicely."

An ominous low smile from the increasingly foreboding Billy answered her. "It's only a matter of time now. Those little shits won't know what hit them. Take us back Grim."

Obeying his masters' orders he made another sphere around them, disappearing from the realm to come out back outside Zim's poorly disguised base, in the city filled with and composed of filth. The smell of the air, of dust and iron oxide in the atmosphere, reminded the three just how thoroughly humans could and would screw up the world they lived in. It smelt of blood, thinner now than the last time they'd come, the drizzling rain from sometime earlier that morning having mostly evaporated away, leaving the toxic dust behind.

Mandy grimaced. The worst part about his horrible place was undoubtedly the people living in it, and that bought a number of realisations. Of the three major cities they had been to recently, Endsville, Townsville and here, with their immensely varying conditions, suburban, ghetto and technologically advanced respectively, they all had one major thing in common. Though the people of each place would also behave differently according to each other, one thing lay under it all.

It was the look in their eyes. They saw it in every person they'd encountered, the sheer inhuman madness, the sick, twisted delusions that filled their heads. Underneath it all, though the majority of people in Endsville and here behaved better than their counterparts in Townsville, the same will and desire to do horrible things, to rape and slaughter for their own amusement, it was all there in their eyes. It reminded her of something Grim had been saying earlier.

"Hey Grim, about what you were saying this morning, you said you met a cave witch who made three prophecies about us." Mandy spoke as Grim and Billy turned to her. "You said that first she predicted you'd be enslaved by us, then that later we would decide the fate of the world yeah?"

"Yes dat's what I said." He nodded.

"I was wondering…" She looked out ahead absently. "What was her third prophecy?"

Grim eyed her quietly as they both faced him on edge.

"Her third prophecy was about the end of the world." He explained with a deep presence behind his words that impressed heavily upon them both. "She told me what it would look like, at least the beginning of the end. She said it would fall on a day with both a solar and lunar eclipse. She said that de sun would turn red over the city of corruption, and dat de inhabitants below would finally reveal themselves, before the end came for dem."

"Wait what do you mean reveal themselves?" Billy asked.

"I don't know." Grim shook his head and continued. "She said as the sun set dere would be a great battle between the forces of corruption and darkness, and de moon would turn red to herald the end of the world. After dat she died."

Billy and Mandy both thought to themselves.

"If the end is going to come on a day with a solar and lunar eclipse then we can find out when it's gonna happen." Mandy suggested but again Grim shook his head.

"I've been doing dat for thousands of years. Two eclipses on de same day isn't anything special, it's happened hundreds of times, but all of them were in de wrong place." He admitted wit ha shrug. "Face it, none of us is going to find out anytime soon." The two relented at that.

"So did you get me my new killing toy?" Billy asked the robed skeleton. Grim's eye sockets widened for a moment, having forgotten about Billy's awkward request. "You didn't forget did you? That would be terrible, especially for you, heh heh!"

"… Uhhh… Well… not just-" Billy just smiled.

"Relax. I won't need it for a while yet." He answered him casually, easing the Reaper's fears. "But I was thinking. When I was fighting Dib I found that ordinary bullets won't cut it against some forms of scum. While the scythe is good, as you showed me yourself there's nothing quite like having a nice gun in your hand, especially one that could drop an elephant with one shot. I require a gun especially for killing powerful demons and monsters that could resist supernatural attacks."

Grim put a bony finger to him mouth in thought. Mandy looked at him as he hesitated.

"Go get him the guns Grim." Mandy said having tired of his often times reluctant, almost cowardly nature around them. "Talk to the guys at Level F about it. We'll see you back at the house."

With a slight smirk and a nod Grim stood back away, a billowing mass of green flames taking over him as he disappeared from their presence. Looking to where their companion had left the two regarded him silently to themselves. Billy noticed Mandy's attention to the spot he'd vanished from, her face displaying her thoughts.

"What is it?" He asked.

Mandy shook her head. "Oh nothing. Just… thinking." She trailed off as her head played their history of the almost five years they'd known each other. "You know, Grim, when he's not acting like a sissy around us, he's actually kinda… he's…he… I dunno." Billy smirked as she shrugged it off.

"Yeah, he is isn't he?" The two turned away from Zim's house to continue onwards, dismissing the matter of their unspoken respect for the spectre of death, and part time guardian during the hardest months of their life, looking for a good way to spend their free time alone together.

* * *

Mid afternoon.

Never in her life had she been so grateful to have her Game Slave Three at her side, or that it was powered via a nuclear fuel cell that could run on all kinds of garbage, and by a custom set of small solar panels. With nothing but a vast empty wasteland and rolling cloud cover all around her, it really was a sacred blessing, especially considering she was likely to be here for _eternity._

Pausing in her endless forward wandering Gaz once more looked out towards the vast flat horizon. Not a single feature anywhere for thousands of miles met her eyes. Not a single hill, or dead tree, or even a broken stick to mark her progress with so she knew she wasn't going in a circle. All that existed here was dry grey dirt, a constant bank of turbulent, thunderous grey clouds, her Game Slave, and herself.

She had awoken lying on her back somewhere in this endless wasteland a fair while ago. Initially she had wondered where she was, and thinking back could remember her execution at the hands of her superior foe, a blinding red light, falling back, followed by a gap, as if she had simply fallen asleep and awoken in this strange place. She had set out in search of something, anything, and had continued wandering aimlessly for what she figured was perhaps a day or two. She found she needed no water or food to sustain herself, with just a few hours sleep now and then to keep her sanity intact.

While Gaz had never studied religion with any apparent interest, she knew how Heaven and Hell worked, and how to judge herself. Looking back on her life it was clear now that somewhere between when she was eight and ten she went way off course, giving in to her wrath and her self-righteous pride. Many a time since she had awoken here she had shaken her head in disgust at what she had said towards the end of her life. But right at the end, as she was sent here, she had somehow worked it all out, that she had in fact gone wrong, that she wasn't as morally superior as she'd thought. That stern, merciless young woman she had encountered, so controlled and perfectly stable in her darkness, that was how she was supposed to be. In a way despite the fact that she didn't particularly like being dead, she had to feel a certain respect and admiration with her enemy, especially considering she had given her the mercy of not only not killing her, but of sending her here with her Game Slave.

'_I guess this was what she meant. Pride really does come before the fall. If I hadn't been so stuck up and stupid, I wouldn't be here now. This has all happened because I was too arrogant and hateful for my own good.'_

But where did that leave her? In her mind it wasn't enough to have one last redeeming revelation after a lifetime of misdirected cruelty to clear her of all guilt, so therefore she did not belong in Heaven. But then, it was also unwarranted that she be bound to an eternity of torture and agony after she had begun to reform herself, if only slightly, so this couldn't be Hell. This was some plain of emptiness somewhere in between the two afterlifes, and the myriad of different dimensions branching off from each. She was in Limbo, the land of the lost souls.

Still, this wasn't so bad. She had her Game Slave which could be recharged simply by the light coming through the clouds, and she had her own thoughts. She was also free of all the shit that had pervaded her life from the very beginning. Other than some minor boredom and lack of a good bed to sleep in, she was fine, which was slightly odd considering most people would have gone mad already.

'_Oh well, I'm not like most… ugh… people. I could get used to this.'_

There was her self-righteousness again, blaming all humanity for the corruption of the lowest common denominator. How was she any different from them?

Remembering the dark and cold set of eyes gazing into her ruined soul she remembered what she had realised and felt in that moment before she sent her here.

'_There's no comparison between us. She's strong-minded and strong-willed, while I was just… a hateful little psychopath. I don't believe it; I was little different to Dib, except not quite at his level of evil. All along I thought I was better than that scum. I never thought I would become just like them.'_

That was one of the good things about limbo, it gave her time to think things out clearly, to analyse everything she had felt in depth and lay it all out in front of herself, and came to understand how she had gone wrong. She took out her frustrations for not being accepted by the people around her on those who didn't deserve it, most notably Dib. As antisocial as she was, she still craved on some level to be accepted by the majority, even if they were vain and shallow. The fact that she knew she couldn't fit in with them if she tried made her angry, and it hurt her in a subtle way, and to cover up that wound she grew her hatred and her self-righteousness, viewing everyone around her with contempt and disgust, even if they too were outcasts. This ultimately led Dib to go down a similar path, with disastrous results. Now the question was how was she supposed to live with that?

She didn't know if there was anything other than wasteland, or if this was all that was. She didn't know what time it was either. With neither night nor day here to fluctuate between, and long blank spaces where she was unconscious, asleep or dead, she didn't know if it was only a day or so after her death or if it was another century. Either way, with her thoughts and her Game Slave to occupy herself, it didn't really ma-

'… _What is that?'_

Narrowing her eyes to a patch of horizon to the left of where she was walking she noticed a discrepancy in the landscape.

'_The clouds, I swear there wasn't red there a minute ago.'_ Indeed where there had once been just more grey cloud cover, on the very horizon a faint strip of barely visible red could be discerned, coming from an unseen source. _'There. There must be something over there.'_

Without any clue as to what was awaiting her she shifted course, heading off towards the left towards the distant red glow. Perhaps it was some kind of alternate Limbo. Perhaps it was the doorway to Hell, or worse. Who could say really. This was the afterlife, anything was possible. Stepping along at a slow, steady pace she moved towards the distant target.

By a strange twist of fate she wasn't the only one.

* * *

Late afternoon.

Finding themselves content to simply pass the time together before heading back home, Billy and Mandy walked along up the dirt track leading up the side of the mountains just outside of Endsville, each quietly fulfilled that they had completed everything they needed to do in preparation. Tak and Junior were ready to take over the leading role for the next three years, while they worked and trained and waited for the army to grow. Everything had fallen into place perfectly, and the stage was set for their takeover, so for the rest of the afternoon they could relax.

It was odd to think that just a few days ago they had walked up these hills amidst a landscape of desolation and ruin, so at odds with the greenery that surrounded them now that the rain had fallen and the clouds gone. Trekking through the forest in the afternoon air the two young lovers felt a vague sense of nostalgia, reminding them of their time together in the cabin hidden away in the woods. Out here, just a few short kilometres outside of the vile cesspool below, it was as if all the corruption and hateful habits of all the despicable lowlifes of the world were little more than a distant memory. The rain had washed away all the pollution, and the sky was a bright clear and blue. The trees were a vibrant green and the earth a similar brown. The air, once tainted by fumes and hatred, now smelled sweet with the rain and the bark. It bought a feeling of perfect content, holding each others hand as they walked up the hill, a red box of chocolates held under Billy's arm, and an image of light-hearted optimism on Mandy's face. Only he was truly able to see the softer side to her, not just because he was one of the only people she trusted enough, but because he was the one who truly bought it out.

"It's so beautiful out here." She spoke as she looked up at the canopy overhead and the points of sunlight shining through.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if there could be more days like this?" Billy responded in a wistful calm state. "We could come up here and just leave all of that crap down there behind us."

"Don't worry. There'll be all the time in the world for beauty after we fix this world." The sense of contentment shared between the two was so complete they finally saw fit to speak about what they were going to do without the constant shadow of darkness.

As they made their way down the lush green slope of the mountain side amidst the trees Billy and Mandy gazed out at their surroundings without a care, taking in the magnificence of this remaining unspoiled corner of the world around them.

As Mandy looked out across to her left she spotted something shining in the sunlight on the ground. Stopping in her walk she caught Billy who looked at her then followed her gaze over her left shoulder at the mysterious shining point twenty feet or so away. Frowning she cocked her head in intrigue, stepping out towards the glimmer with Billy just behind her. As she approached she saw the shining reflection take on a faint but beautiful purple hue.

"It can't be." She muttered as they stepped up to it. On the ground before them a tiny point of something purple poked up just a millimetre or two above the dead leaves and soil catching the light. Kneeling down next to it Billy watched on as Mandy reached out and with the utmost care gently removed the leaves and decaying debris around it to reveal the rest.

Growing up out of the ground was a small crop of violet crystals no taller than an inch high, their perfectly smooth sides and edges catching the sunlight and bathing them both in a gentle glow.

Billy and Mandy both gazed down mournfully at the tiny cluster of jewels, more beautiful and precious than anything else in the world, the final parting gift of a million innocent lives taken by the hand of their fellow man.

"It's just like what we saw in the future." Billy spoke as they kneeled before the little bunch of crystals standing alone on the hill, almost like they were here just for them so all those souls could say goodbye.

The end of days were well and truly here now. It wouldn't be long now before the entire hillside was studded with these sacred crystals growing to immense height as they had seen, taking the place of the life and vegetation as it was slowly stripped away to bare rock. Mandy watched the little thing with sad eyes, knowing that by the time they reach their full height and by the time they completed their takeover, there would be precious little left of humanity.

Closing her eyes as Billy placed his hands gently on her shoulders she took a deep breath, coming to terms with the tragedy that had occurred here in this wondrous crystal. Standing she took a step back from it, and bowed her head low, Billy doing the same as he held her. There they paid the tiny wonder a moment's silence in honour and respect of the people who had created it in their last and most awful moments in forgiveness for the remaining good part of humanity, an act so pure and good that it reminded them both of why they were really working towards this future. Those people needed to be respected, and protected, and they both swore that they would dedicate their eternal lives to doing just that.

Opening her eyes with a scowl she swore vengeance on the people who had made them suffer and die so horribly. They would ensure they suffered, or they would die with them. Turning around she slipped out of her lover's hands and returned to the thin dirt track leading down to the lookout point. Billy watched how her manner changed from one of mourning to being empowered with wrath and darkness, and a low dark smile formed on his lips at the thought of what that meant for a great many people as he followed her out down the hill.

Reaching the end of the forest a few minutes later they stepped out onto an empty road rarely used nowadays, on the other side of which stood a wide lookout overlooking the entire city below. Holding hands together they stepped up towards the wooden railing over the edge of the mountain, coming to a rest before the sprawling mass below. Taking a deep calming breath Mandy reminded herself that she was in a much better place than usual, and it was time for her to be content instead of full of anger and darkness. Leaning forward on the rail she let herself ease back to a relaxed state as Billy stood beside her with a light-hearted smile on his face.

"Would you look at that." Billy remarked as he opened the box for them to share. "I never would've thought. Even Endsville can look good if you wash it down first and stand back far enough." Smirking he unwrapped one of the little delicacies, popping it into his mouth. "Look, you can see the warehouses, the railway line, downtown, our suburb, even the cooling towers."

Mandy nodded quietly. "Beautiful. It looks so much larger from up here, and so complex with so many pieces. It makes you wonder how it can even function as it is now." She responded, unwrapping one for herself, pausing with the chocolate in her fingers as she gazed grimly down on her home. "I just can't wait to destroy it."

"Here's to that day then." Billy answered as she popped the chocolate into her mouth and savoured it. Leaning out over the wooden barrier they simply continued to eat their treats by themselves. As Billy looked out to where he remembered the crater was when they had looked down on the city in the future, an idea came to him. Turning around he craned his head up towards the higher mountains nearby. Noticing his distraction Mandy turned to follow his eyes. "Isn't that where the fortress was built?" He asked, pointing up towards the highest peak up above them.

"Yes, that's it all right." Spoke Mandy, turning around as they leaned back, directing their attention up towards where they would one day rule a hundred worlds with an iron fist from. Billy glanced across at her, seeing she was obviously distracted.

Lying back on the wooden guard Mandy remembered all that she, Billy and Grim had experienced in that place. For so long she had aspired to become cold and unfeeling, like Max said she was supposed to be. She sighed as she remembered all the painful lessons she had learnt in that fortress, about the nature of the path she had taken, and that Max had manipulated her by. _'All along it was a lie. Max, after going through so much together, you never felt a thing for Billy and I did you? You were always so cold and detached. To think that I almost became something like you.'_

"Hey?" She looked beside her to see Billy facing her concerned. "What's bothering you?"

She hesitated for just a moment, but soon opened up to him. If there was anyone she could trust it was him, the person who she had spent her entire life beside so far.

"You know, back before all of this, back when I was thinking of it alone, the future looked kind of… well, depressing." Billy turned to face her as she narrated her feelings. "It was as if I had to choose between having you you and living a normal life, or to choose power and have to live without you."

Billy looked quizzically at her. "You did? Why?"

"I… I don't know. It was like… I thought that wanting someone else to be there with me was a weakness, and that I should let go to stay strong." She shook her head in dismay, ashamed that she would have, at one time, chosen her own fears over the love of her life. "It kept me awake at night because I knew I would one day have to leave you. If I didn't then I would be sacrificing everything else just so I could have what I wanted. It scared me. I didn't want to not have you with me, but… it was only after that I found just how important to me you really were. After I was… tortured, when you held me, I'd never felt anything like that before. And then I found out that…"

At this point she broke off, bringing her hand up to her face in shame and remorse, rolling her head down under the weight of her own guilt. "Billy, I'm so sorry. I was so-"

"Hey, come on, it's alright." He spoke softly as he bought his hand up, pushing back her own hand to cup her face gently in her palm, urging her sad eyes up towards his. "You more than anyone knows that people make mistakes. You didn't know then what you know now. What's important is what you did after that, and I can tell you now you did just fine." He spoke with a smile.

Looking up to him with wide eyes she could scarcely believe this boy before him, the one cradling her face in his palm, was the same mindless hyperactive fool she'd known years earlier. She bought her hand up to link her fingers in with his as he held her, nuzzling her face into it affectionately.

The moment was broken however when Billy's phone rang from in his pocket to the tune of Voltaire's Brains.

"Damn, should've turned the thing off." He muttered as he let go of Mandy, turning away back towards the mountains as he opened the phone and bought it to his ear. "Hello?"

"_Billy, it's Junior."_

"Oh hey how's it going?" He asked now more positive that his friend was on the line.

"_Magnificent."_ Came Junior's enthusiastic reply. _"The base is now complete and ready to go. The Nerglings are doing a fantastic job of getting everything in order. And Tak…"_ Billy and Mandy could sense the enormous smile on the young demon's face. _"Heh heh heh heh… She's going just great."_

"That's great to hear. Is she there?"

"_Heh heh, not right now."_ He answered.

Several thousand kilometres away Junior walked a few feet around out from the lip of the cave to stand looking out towards the magnificent beach and ocean view under the orange setting sun. His black shirt was currently undone several buttons at the top and his red scarf was held in his left hand, all the while his thoughts were occupied by the stunning beauty he was currently teamed up with.

"Right now she's getting changed to go down to the beach. She just absolutely loves the place. Apparently they don't have anything like this on Irk. And now that she has a human body… she can also go in the water." He trailed off again as he thought about what swimsuit she would be wearing, a joyous and somewhat perverted chuckle escaping him.

It did not go unnoticed on the other side. Mandy pulled the phone over to her as it sat in her partner's hand. "Junior, while I know you two are both gonna be alone together for the next few months, I expect you to act like a gentleman." She spoke into the phone then smirked. "Even if Billy overdid her growth a bit in certain areas." Another light-hearted laugh was their response.

"_Tell him thanks for that one… or should I say two! Haa haa hahaha!"_ He smiled to himself as he blushed. Billy grinned and sniggered as Mandy shook her head, smirking at the hilarity of it all.

"Anyway." Junior spoke up on his end turning serious as he began pacing again. "I wanted to fill you in on some of the plans we have going over here. Tak and I have been talking about going on a few trips here and there. We're looking at Iran and Israel, possibly even a tour of the whole region. We're also tossing around some ideas for Eastern Europe, places like Hungary, Czeck Republic, Belarus, Romania and the Balkans. The Russians think they're so secure in their new territories, but we'll put that to the test. Basically we'll just be stirring up chaos, you know the usual, assassinations, terrorist bombings, and putting the blame on enemies inside their own borders just like you said. As you know places like that are just bonfires waiting for a light anyway. You know I suggested we pay North and South Korea a visit as well, but that can wait I think, the North's barely holding on as it is."

"_That all sounds great. Just remember it'd be a good idea to keep tabs on corrupt corporations and other assholes we can extort from. And remember to keep your eyes on the feds, you're gonna be our eyes and ears for the next few years until we're ready to take over."_ Billy reminded him through the speaker.

"I will, don't worry. Also, we have this big plan going for a party between China and Russia like you said." Junior added. "The plan so far is to make a trip to Russia to steal nuclear waste. We'll use that to make dirty bombs, which we'll detonate over time in Chinese cities, then release a video from a fake Russian nationalist group claiming responsibility. The Chinese will be furious, and when Russia doesn't do anything to stop them, we'll explode a small nuclear weapon over the Russian naval base in Vladivostok, which will look like a Chinese retaliatory strike. There'll be no stopping it then. It'll probably last a few months, escalate into a few limited nuclear strikes, before they agree to a ceasefire. By the time it's over they won't be invading and killing off any other nations for awhile."

"_That's awesome, but where are you gonna get a nuke?"_

"Uh, yes about that, we were hoping you could get Zim to help us there. Just tell him what you need and he'll build it for us." He explained. "Do you think he could do that?"

Billy looked to Mandy, who shrugged. "I reckon he could. With how bad things have decayed here it wouldn't be too hard to steal one. Also he's completed the army for us. It's now gone into full scale production. It's only a matter of time now. Just try and make sure there's a world left for us to take control of when this is all finished."

Junior nodded to himself. "Alright then."

"Ju-niooor…" Came a familiar toying British voice from within the cave just behind him.

Smirking as fantasies of what she might be wearing flashed through his head Junior turned around to face her as she stepped out of the mouth of the cave with her swimsuit on. She watched on with a flare of nervous excitement and satisfaction as his eyes widened dramatically, dropping his scarf to reach up and pull down his glasses to take a clear look at her, a wide smile forming as his face blushed like never before.

"Hang on a second cousin." He spoke and lowered the phone. Tak smiled shyly as she posed for him with her hands by her sides.

"So what do you think?" She asked mockingly as she turned around with her back to him, looking at him over her shoulder. Junior just nodded with immense approval, all the while he felt more gratitude than he had ever felt in his life that this was here for him to take in at leisure.

"Oh that suits you perfectly. But I have to say…" He smirked teasingly at her. "It looks much, _much_ better from the front."

Smiling and blushing madly Tak continued on towards him, Junior observing her figure eagerly as she approached.

"_Junior?"_

"Is that Billy?" She asked of the phone.

"_Yeah it's me. Junior says you've been enjoying yourself."_

"This place is so beautiful! Thanks so much for giving it to us!" She exclaimed, all the while Junior continued to take her in.

"So as you just heard, Tak's came out. Billy if you were single you'd be down here in an instant." The meaning behind that statement was obvious.

Billy and Mandy both looked to each other, Billy smirking as he held the phone to his ear as Mandy shook her head.

'_Perv, just like his dad.'_

"Oh yeah? What's she wearing?" Billy asked with a slightly warm face.

"_Right now she's wearing a purple string bikini bottom and a matching top, both a little too small already. It looks stunning on her, or maybe that's just all the 'her' that I wouldn't normally see."_

Mandy smirked and shook her head again.

'_Romantic perv, just like her.'_

Tak smiled at him and reached up to touch the side of his face.

"Relax. Come and take a swim with me later. Maybe it'll cool you off." She spoke as she traced her fingernails across the side of his face. Junior let out a deep sigh of appreciation and watched her go down towards the beach with a smile.

As she waked a sudden idea struck her, one so daring and risqué she started blushing just at the thought.

"Hey Junior." She spoke while backing up to him again.

"Yeah?" He asked. She unhooked the top strap of her bikini top from around her neck.

"Hold on to this for me."

Junior opened his mouth to gasp at her in shock as Tak reached around to her back and undid the string, taking off her top and handing it back to him behind her. Looking over her shoulder she gave him a sultry smirk as he lit up with the biggest smile, reaching out and taking it in his hand. His heart hammered and he felt dizzy, watching as she walked away with a noticeable sway. He could not take his eyes off her bare back, or his thoughts off her so far unseen breasts now naked to the wind with her arms by her sides. It was painfully obvious to Junior that she was well developed for her age, and the way she tormented him with her body now drove him crazy.

'_I can't believe I just did that!'_ Tak was caught between being utterly mortified with embarrassment, and on a dizzying high at how she could torment the youth she had taken a liking to. The thought of his smile and the way he stared at her body made her blush and feel like there was a raging storm inside her belly, and an enormous grin to form on her face. As the wind touched her sensitive breasts she raised her arms up to stretch herself out as she disappeared down the rainforest track.

"_For god sake Junior what's going on?"_ Came Billy's voice again, Junior bringing the phone up to his ear a moment later.

"You know that purple top that I was telling you about?"

"_What about it?"_ At this even thousands of miles away they could sense Junior's smile spreading across his face.

"Now there isn't one. Thanks again for giving her such a nice curvaceous figure! HEEHAHAHAHA!"

As one Billy and Mandy both gasped and burst out laughing. Grinning Mandy put her fingers to the bridge of her nose at the stupid girl, while Billy and Junior had one hand on their knees to support themselves.

"Hah hah! Junior you better watch yourself, no teenage guy your age has ever been so lucky as to be alone on an island with a sexy girl who likes to sunbathe topless and who obviously likes him! Don't screw this up!"

"_Don't worry, I don't have any expectations, and killers or not I think we're a little too young to do much of anything right now. I'm just gonna take this slow and see where we go with all this."_ Junior responded a little calmer now. He leaned back against the rock face watching her as she lay out on the sand with her head resting on her arms.

"Besides, like a good wine, you just know she's gonna get better as she matures. Heh heh heh…"

Keeping his gaze towards where Tak lay on the beach he noticed her turn over on her side looking up towards him as he stood just outside the cave, her face a mask of perfect bliss as she lay in the warm sun waiting for him to join her. A smile grew on his features once more at the thought of the girl. "Hey guys I gotta go. I think I'll go join Tak down on the beach. Someone's gotta teach her how to apply sunscreen properly."

"Heh heh, you do that." Billy replied smiling contentedly as he prepared to hang up the phone. "Take good care of her."

"_Hey Billy listen. There's something I gotta tell you."_ Junior spoke up finally, drawing their attention again. _"I want to thank you for looking out for me my friend. You too Mandy. All these years you guy's have been there beside me through everything, even when everyone else hated me for what I am. And now you've given me this, a beautiful island home, and a beautiful girl. I don't know what I would've done without you two, and I don't think I'm gonna be coming back anytime soon, so I just wanted to say thanks for everything. I love you guys."_

Billy and Mandy smiled warmly, thankful that they had him for a partner.

"Thank you Junior. Good luck, you and Tak be good to each other, and may you two spread devastation and anarchy wherever you set foot."

Grinning he heard the other end dial out, Junior dropping the bikini top and starting to take off his shirt as he headed on down towards her at a run, Billy closing his own phone after. Smiling he channelled some of the destructive force in his body into his hand, enough to completely crush the small device in his palm, enough to ensure that no one would ever hear of what they'd said, letting the broken slithers drift away through his fingers. He let out a contented sigh, turning around to lean on the wooden rail as he and Mandy looked back out towards Endsville. "Great guy."

"Great guy." Mandy replied in agreement, unwrapping and devouring another tasty chocolate as they looked out to the scene far below. "So do you think they'll get together?"

"Yep, definitely. Only question is how long will it take? I'm inclined to think that the longer they leave it the better it will be when they finally do hook up." Her partner replied, returning to the silent enjoyment they'd held earlier. Letting their quiet moment of solitude together take them they munched through the box of European treats bit by bit, watching as the sun overhead slowly inched towards the horizon. As the sky turned from a light blue to shades of orange in the distance, the light from the sun shone through the air beneath the thin clouds. Meanwhile the air over the city began to fill with pollutants once more. Watching on the two noticed a thick layer of fine dust and smog, the choking exhaust from thousands of cars and trucks and industries, now highlighted in a deep orange glow over the city. Though they had seen the grey film of pollution that blanketed the city hundreds of times earlier, it wasn't until now, seeing it from afar under just the right conditions, that they saw just how thick it had gotten.

"Just look at all that pollution, all that toxic waste those people down there pump out." Billy commented as once more they became reminded of man's vast and unforgivable inequities, smiling with the desire to destroy. "Look at them all, hundreds of thousands of people all going about their lives like they're the only ones that matter, all of them stomping on the faces of their brothers and sisters in a frenzy of showing how much better they are. I wonder if God's proud of his creations after all they've done?"

A thought occurred to Mandy at this. "Well think about it for a moment. People have been like this for a long time now. Dozens of civilisations were forged on the back of people who invaded, pillaged and more or less exterminated other peoples, and thought it was perfectly fine to do so cause they weren't like them. In fact every civilisation throughout history has proved itself to be filled with corrupt people who think only of themselves, right back to the beginning. It's almost like many humans were pre-programmed to think inwards, to think that they were more important than anyone else."

Billy turned to face her as she furrowed her brow in thought. "Now they say the gods created humans in their own image. If that's the way it is, then what does that say about God?" She turned to him, watching as his eyes widened with realisation. She nodded in agreement. "Many of the gods are as corrupt as people."

"That explains a lot. I always wondered why killers and liars got away with what they'd done while innocent people were made to suffer, and he would always just watch on and never did a thing." He smirked cruelly. "I bet he's proud as can be that they've all turned out to be shit-eating little shitters. I bet that's the real reason why the demons decided to blow the joint and go rogue." Nodding in agreement Mandy looked out to the filthy cesspool of Endsville again.

"Maybe Billy. Maybe one day we'll set it right." Stilling herself for a moment she thought quietly. "But where do we fit into all this?"

"What do you mean?" She paused for a moment.

"Well for starters what do you think about what Grim was saying this morning, about us?" She posed to him. He looked off in thought for a moment.

"I understand where he's coming from. I mean our cause is the right one as far as we know it. But I don't think he was right when he said we weren't as dark and terrible as we thought we were."

Mandy looked at him intrigued.

"Ever since I fought Dib I've been feeling different. I've gotten stronger since then." The youth laid his head down on his folded arms as he gazed out at the corrupt city. "I don't feel like some crazy punk anymore. I like war, and fighting, and let's face it, killing. I like power, and using it to create and to destroy. I like commanding my forces in battle. And I've come to love the smell of fear in my enemies, watching them grovel humiliated, and exposing them for all their lies and shit, like I did with Dib."

Watching him she saw a thin smile and a row of teeth come out on his still features at the memory. He looked like a predator at rest, the simple state of calm aggression in his face giving her the impression he could slaughter a hundred people and not even begin to come into his element. He turned his eyes towards her.

"Then what separates us from them?" She pointed down towards the city. 'How are we different to all those corrupt little lowlifes?"

Billy just gave a dark smile. "Because we prey on them, and only on them."

Mandy continued in her line of thought. "You remember that girl Gaz? Remember how she was just as angry and hateful as me, but just thought too much of herself and applied the same contempt to everyone regardless of if they deserved it?"

"How could I forget?"

"I don't think she really was all that different to me. If we were to go back a few years I think her and I would have been pretty much the same. The only thing that stopped me from becoming like her was you and Grim. All she had was that little psychopath Dib." Mandy explained. "How do we know we're not as self-righteous and deluded as they are?"

"Because we're wondering it in the first place." He answered quickly. "Don't forget you're not the same selfish power hungry tyrant you once were. Now you're more of a wise, benevolent power hungry tyrant. You're not dragging everybody else down to the lowest level anymore. That's something she never did until the end."

Mandy frowned out ahead. "It's still a pretty thin line we're walking Billy, when you mix so much power and darkness with your own judgement. Truth is though I know we're not corrupt and hypocritical like them, there's not that much that separates us." She said grimly, reflecting on many of the things she had said and done in the past, things she now would have steered clear of.

Billy shrugged. "Okay, so what? We're the bad guys, the kind that kill and terrorise the badder guys, protect the good guys and keep the heroes under control. Who cares? Would you rather be someone like Irwin was, a sleazy pig who thinks he's a god, or someone who sits back and does nothing?" Faced with that proposal she had to relent.

Again this bought her to another point of thought. "What about Max? If he was everything I used to be, could he change the same way?"

Billy thought for a moment, the memory of the monstrous backstabber stifling his predatory spirits. "Yes, but it's up to him to decide wether or not he wants to change, or if he wants to stay a pretentious freakshow in hell. Either way he's not gonna be anyone's problem anymore."

He turned to her concerned. "Where's all this coming from? It's not like you to doubt yourself so much."

"It's like you said earlier, now that we have all this power in our hands there's the responsibility to use it right. One mistake and ten thousand people could die on my orders." She lamented with a narrow gaze. "I failed my subjects once, so I know I can fail them again. It was so much easier before when I was disconnected from everyone else, but what am I supposed to do now?"

"You do what you can, you work with what you've got, and when something goes wrong you roll with it and learn from it. Otherwise you accept that shit happens, don't let it get to you, and you keep on with the job of ruling. That's why you're the one with this power, because you have the strength to control yourself as well as others. And I'm here for the same reason, not just to be your loyal executioner, but to help you stay human."

She turned to face him as he moved closer to her with a soft smile on his features.

"That was the main thing where you're different from Max. He would never allow himself to care for someone." Billy told her. "And I pity him for it. He'd never be able to know what it's like to have a family around him, to have wonderful friends like Junior and Tak, who he can count on to see him through anything…" He trailed off again as he glanced across to the two strands of Mandy's blonde hair that ran down framing each side of her face. Reaching out he gently touched one strand with his fingers, tracing down the left side of her face. Mandy closed her eyes and sighed into his touch, sensing the affection in his fingertips. "… and he'll never know what it's like to truly love someone."

Looking across to each other their eyes met once again, and instantly Mandy understood as she felt the comfort and warmth of his presence as he gazed at her and toyed with the strand down beside her face.

"You know, I've always loved your hair." He murmured softly as he caressed the side of her face lovingly. "You were always so dark and fearsome, but so beautiful for me."

For Billy, all he could think about was the strong, empowered young woman who made him feel like he could move mountains whenever she was around him. All his life she had been there with him, guiding him through the depths of hell and back, and through it all they had grown closer than they had ever thought they would. He had found his happiness with her, in knowing that he bought happiness to her. Now he never wanted to let her go. He looked to her onyx eyes with all of his soul bared to her.

"I love you Mandy. I couldn't imagine not spending the rest of my life with you. I love you so much."

No more words need be said. Mandy looked up to her partner as she reached up and gently took his hand in hers, her heart starting to tighten in her chest, unable and unwilling to hide the tears that welled up at what he had given her. Moving in together she tentatively put her hands on his shoulders as he wrapped his arms around her arms and held her, coming slowly together for Mandy to rest her forehead against his. Smiling they nuzzled each other affectionately, wanting nothing more than to share the warmth of each other's presence so close, before they came together in a soft, loving and passionate kiss.

Together they wrapped themselves into each other, Mandy moving her hands up around his neck and her fingernails up into his hair as she felt her lover's hands lower to hold her close around her waist and back. Billy parted his lips for just a moment so he could take a gasp of breath and a sigh, kissing her mouth again with ever greater need and intensity which was immediately mirrored by her. He continued his gentle touching and tasting of her mouth with an ever growing vigour as the emotional high took over, before suddenly parting from her.

Mandy looked at him perplexed as they each breathed deeply, searching his face for a reason why he had suddenly pulled back. She saw he was working with a thought.

"Billy?"

His wide eyes relaxed as he looked to her mouth again.

"Nothing, _just…"_ His intoxication for her took over again as he moved in close to her again, Mandy's eyes lowering as she waited for his kiss again. _"… tell me what you think."_

Mandy absently wondered what he meant, but soon forgot about it as she closed her eyes and shared another long open kiss with him. As this was happening Billy cracked an eye open to see her in a state of perfect bliss, reaching up to put a hand on her back as he closed his eyes, and with his moth still open made to begin probing her lips with his tongue.

Mandy's eyes opened in surprise as he felt him taste her lips with the tip, before he slid his tongue past her lips into her mouth. Her eyes felt weak and closed again as her whole body melted into him. Billy smiled slightly as he felt her almost collapse into him, returning his advance by sliding her tongue up to touch his, all the while earning a blissful groan of pleasure from Mandy.

"_Nnnnh… Ohh Billy…"_ She moaned softly as Billy continued to hold her ever closer. She wrapped her hands tightly around his shoulders and entwined one leg up with his as they each pressed their bodies into each other as they kissed again. Never in her life had she thought she would have allowed herself such affection, and never in her life had she been so grateful to have been given it still. Neither of the two wanted the moment to ever end.

Unfortunately for them one very venomous pestilence had other ideas.

"OH MY GOD!"

Instantly their eyes opened wide, their faces frozen in dismay as they turned to face the source of the shrill screech; Mindy.

"THE BITCH AND THE RETARD GOT TOGETHER! HAH, I KNEW IT!"

Mindy showed a particularly nasty grin as she made her way out of the woods towards the two. Along with her the two noticed was Sperg, following a few metres to her left, and coming out of the woods to join the two pests was a plague, a twenty strong group of junior thugs and twisted sociopaths. Though the two had faced grime like this many times before, the sheer numbers of them, combined with the exceptionally vile and wicked sense of malice they exuded so close to their own home turf put both of them on edge.

"Oh I've waited a long time for this Mandy." The crazed red-head spoke, her and her possie taking their positions before them. "Today's the day I make you pay for not bowing to my will, and for ruining my image, my pride! You made me look like a loser! Nobody does that and gets away with it!" Her sickly features contorted with fury as she spat spite at her enemy.

"So you're gonna get your goons to do it for you cause you can't take responsibility for your own selfish actions?" Mandy replied sarcastically, both turning away from each other to face the group. Mindy, unable to come up with an adequate reply, just gritted her teeth in anger.

"Hey Billy!" Sperg spoke, drawing his attention. "It's been awhile since I gave you a good beating hasn't it, what with that prick Max keeping on my back. But now that he's outta the picture I can make up for all those lost years." The ugly brute with the swastika tattoos gave a sadistic sneer as he withdrew a small knife from his pocket, the other gang of thugs behind them drawing a mass of switchblades, baseball bats, axes and crow bars. "Me and my boys are gonna make sure you feel every little bit of those years in pain. Try not to die of blood loss too quickly."

"Or maybe I should be asking you that, you and your pathetic gang of shit-eaters." Billy answered. Looking across to her partner Mandy saw the first flickers of a cruel smirk forming on his dark, low slung face, a sense of catastrophe beginning to emanate from within him. "I've seen it in you all along Sperg, you take pleasure in breaking the faces of people who can't fight back. I've seen you beat little boys and girls to a bloody pulp, I've seen you kick dogs to death, all for the thrill of feeling like a big tough man. But you never do anything like that to anyone who could stand up to you, cause deep down you're just a scared little pussy, just a little shit stain." Raising his head he scanned the group, staring into their eyes, into their twisted souls.

"I see it plain as day in all of you. You're all sick. People like you take pleasure in doing terrible things to those who don't deserve it. Bastards like you grow up to be killers and rapists, people who make families watch as they violate their wives and sisters. If you people grow up you'll only become that much worse." He paused slightly, both he and Mandy both slightly put off that Sperg and the gang were sniggering.

"Heh heh. Don't you know already? We don't have to grow up to be rapists." Sperg said with a sick grin. "Didn't you hear about what happened to that bitch Trixie? Apparently some rich girl payed a bunch of warriors to beat her up and gang rape her." He grinned as he turned back to the group. "She really was a great fuck wasn't she fellas? Ya know, it's so much more satisfying knowing that we were her first. Heh heh heh hah hah HAH HAHAHAHAHA!"

Billy and Mandy's eyes widened again as the gang laughed, shocked and sickened that these so-called people, neither of which was above age fourteen, would rape their own classmate. Mindy reached into her pocket and withdrew an iPod.

"I was there at your little conference at the mall. I recorded enough for the SS to take you away to the camps. But I think it would feel better to break you both myself, that way I can watch like I did with Trixie. Afterwards I'll give this to them, so they can deal with whatever's left over of you."

"Hey, ya know what we should do?" Sperg yelled. "We should make him watch as we each take turns in raping his little whore in front of him, over, and over, and over again! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

In their crazed laughter neither of the possie had noticed Billy's face lower to the ground, his eyes veiled in shadow as he withdrew to his own thoughts. Again it was only Mandy who noticed the feeling of an impending catastrophe growing in the air. She watched him intrigued as a faint sound like bones and muscles crunching and growing emanated from him, and the beginning of an evil smile form on his suddenly pail features, growing into a cruel smile filled with abominable shark-like teeth. The depraved gang before them didn't notice his arms and hands beginning to change into powerful, muscular claws, taking on a hunch like a barely restrained predator. However his changing didn't go unnoticed forever, and before long they began to sense the pervading, suffocating air of death, destruction and slaughter that pressed down upon them from all around, coming from the slouched figure twelve year old before them.

Looking to him as their laughing fit began to subside they caught their first glimpse of his twisted evil grin. And above their own laughter they heard something else, a deep, monstrous chuckle that dripped of blood and horror. Slowly they began to relent and fall silent, becoming steadily more and more concerned with the growing pits forming in their stomachs coming from their victim as his back began to rise and fall.

"**Heh heh heh heh heh… Eha ha ha ha ha!"**

Their anxiety turned to open dread when the newly completed demon lord Billy rose his face to stare at them all again. Their bodies froze in terror as two glowing bright orange-red orbs bored into them with all manner of killing fury, his pale features turning a very slight shade of green throughout as he grinned with malice and cruelty. Mandy watched the change with great interest, seeing how he had evolved since he first attained Berserker. And this was the result, a savage tyrant that was ready and willing to destroy their enemies and revel in their glorious blood and terror.

"**Well, what are you waiting for? I'm right here. Weren't you gonna come get me?"** He taunted them, focussing his overpowering bloodlust and sadism into them all. When no one moved or even spoke, he smirked once again. **"What's wrong? I thought you said you were warriors. Takes a real tough guy to gang rape a little girl, doesn't it? You're not scared of me, are you, warriors?"**

Spurned on by his mocking challenge, as well as the desire to appear tough and strong for Mindy for more pay, one particularly foolish young thug gave a screaming war cry, rushing forward with his switchblade to attack the demon.

"HAAAAAAH! DIE FUCKING FREA-Ga…" He was cut off as Billy clamped his powerful hand around his throat, lifting him off the ground effortlessly, grinning as the wretch kicked and struggled.

"**So, I take it you're not scared of me?"** Billy spoke in a low tone to the silently begging thug, dropping the blade in his hand to the ground. Still holding him up with his left arm Billy reached down and took hold of the tiny weapon in his right hand. Looking at the small blade he then cast his eyes up to his first victim, his evil grin growing in size and malice as he crushed the knife, summoning his tyrant scythe Berserker in its place, burning a brutal orange instead of its usual green.

"**You should be!" **

Mindy, Sperg and the gang could only watch in absolute horror as Billy bought the blade of the scythe into the thug's ribcage, tearing down and out through his abdomen, his stomach and intestines spilling out onto the ground in front of him as he fell into two pieces. Grinning like a monster as his bloodlust overcame him Billy stared up into the thug's face still in his hand, seeing him frozen in horror. With one swift move he tore his head off his shoulders, and in one move tossed it and the two pieces of his body over towards the gang assembled before them. They each stood frozen in place as they stared at the mutilated body, their faces losing all colour, turning their terrified gaze up to the monster in front of them.

Beside him Mandy just watched in detached satisfaction as she felt Billy's rage and bloodlust rise in floods as he prepared to attack.

"Stop!" She commanded. Instantly Billy stilled himself, turning to face her for orders. He smiled at the sight of her cold-hearted scowl, like a merciless dictator, inspiring him to obey her will with rejoice. She raised her hand to point in a wide arc from left to right around Mindy and Sperg's gang.

"Form a barrier around them. Don't let any of them escape." She spoke with a bark.

Turning back to the assembled mob as they cowered fearfully at both of them now he obeyed. Raising his scythe a stream of hot orange particles poured up out of the blade, descending in a wide arc around the group, sealing them off from retreating back into the forest or down the road.

"**There is no escape now. You wanted to kill me and rape my partner? You will suffer for it!"**

Another young thug turned and ran for the forest. As soon as he met the barrier he let out a scream as the energy assaulted him, burning him alive before his carotid arteries exploded, bleeding to death where he stood to everyone else's horror.

"Hey, wait a minute." Mindy spoke up with a faux smile trying to worm her way out of it. "Come on guys, you know this isn't right. Do you really wanna murder me?"

"Billy." Mandy stated, eyeing Mindy with a pitiless glower as she signed her death warrant. "Kill them."

In that moment as he stood in a predatory stance ready to butcher them all, his low guttural growl punctuated the air as he prepared to mark his place in history as a living cataclysm.

"**GrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRR _RRRAAAAH!"_**

Releasing himself he launched forward in a blur of movement, rushing straight past Mindy and Sperg towards the terrified pack of thugs. Swinging his raging scythe like it were weightless he ripped apart the front three of the group, their bodies violently disintegrating in a hail of chunks and splatter. Grinning madly he rushed for the next nearest victim, putting his fist through his chest and out the other side, relishing in the horror in his face, tearing it out through the side of his ribcage to bodily tear another thug in two. Swinging his scythe again he cleaved several sets of legs, their owners falling to the ground screaming before he crushed their bodies and brains underfoot. Another bunch trying desperately to back away tried fending him off with knives and axes.

"_**UEAAAA!"**_

Uttering an inhuman shriek he pushed a wave of the maddening energy in his scythe and body through his eyes and into the nearest one, causing his entire body to explode. With a swipe of his scythe he tore three sets of arms out of their sockets, leaving them for the moment to tear out the throat of another in a spray of blood. His victims' freakish screams of terror and agony only served to fuel his brutal frenzy for blood and carnage, like a shark in a cloud of blood, which he was all too willing to push further. Whipping around to another victim currently wetting himself he clamped his hands around his head, crushing it like a drink can, his eyes, blood and brain tissue splattering over his hands. He threw the hideously disfigured mass over towards Mindy's feet, causing her to whimper.

Locking his sights on one wielding an axe he lunged for him, only to stop a few feet away with a sickly playful look in his demonic features. The quivering rapist held the axe up ready to try and defend himself, Billy soaking up every ounce of his delicious terror. He flinched left, then flinched right, then left, toying with him as he backed away, whimpering and crying. Finally snapping the terrified brute screamed and swung his weapon, only to find his arm torn off at the elbow by Berserker's blade, Billy watching and listening to his screaming, his claw-like hand then punching up into his torso. With a gleeful grin he tore up through his body, cleaving him in two up the middle in a wonderful spray of blood. It showered down on him, coating him head to toe, front and back in its beautiful red glory. Dropping the corpse he smiled, the taste and smell of the blood of the corrupt being the sweetest thing in existence. He couldn't control it anymore. Not even the sight and sound and feel of his enemies' blood and guts and screams for mommy could satisfy him.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !"**_

Arching his back he screamed out all his twisted rage and bloodlust, the surviving handful of thugs backing away from the blood soaked ground around him as he bellowed in fury. Mindy and Sperg simply couldn't fathom what they were seeing, just how badly their sick-minded plan had turned on them. All their pride, their arrogance and their selfish conceit lay forgotten as they quaked in fear of the demon's rage, the demon they themselves had awoken with their horrible intentions towards him and his partner.

Turning back to glower savagely at the remaining five thugs he let out an evil hissing snarl, his mouth having distended to enormous size to show two sets of razor sharp jagged teeth, and turned to finish his slaughter. Gaping in terror the few survivors began backing away from the monstrous agent of carnage, his glowing eyes instilling all his fury and malice into them. Billy moved to close the distance between them, only for all involved to pause in shock as one of his victims shrieked and simply exploded in a ball of flame and ash, an impacting ruby shaft of light being the only indicator as to why. Turning to the source of the blast the group gaped in dismay at the sight of Mandy, a hard, cold, merciless scowl on her features, brandishing her own blood red scythe Judgement in her hands, her eyes glowing the same shade of orange-red.

Mandy didn't care so much for violent, bloody slaughters, they were more her partner's forte; she just wanted her enemies destroyed in a manner both efficient and ruthless. Simply incinerating them to atoms suited her perfectly. Lowering his own weapon Billy smiled and stood back, letting her take over as the remaining four turned and ran, only to be stopped on all sides by the barrier. Without changing her dark and cold demeanour Mandy levelled her staff at the fleeing rats again, Mindy and Sperg standing helpless as she enveloped them in thousand degree head one by one without any effort at all, watching on with her stern scowl as they screamed and their bodies curled up and died, charred all the way through.

That was it, Mindy's entire army of hired brutes was gone, save for one. All of her power and prestige as top of the pyramid lay strewn all over the ground around them. Neither could move or speak as Billy stepped around to join his partner again, using the power of the scythe to evaporate the blood off his skin and clothes. Still sporting his evil predatory smile he took his place by Mandy's side as they both turned their attention to their old enemies.

"… I… I-I had nothing to do with! It was all Mindy's idea! She told me… She forced me to-"

"No, d-don't listen to him! He's lying, it's all his fault! He and his… He was paying this gang to take me… and…"

"Kill her, she's the enemy! You… Billy you wouldn't hurt your old pal Sperg would ya? We used to be buddies!"

"No he... he was the one… I had nothing to do with it, I swear! I'm with you, let's kill-"

"OH SHUT UP!" Mandy spat, their pathetic grovelling and trying to blame each other making her sick. "The best thing you two parasites can do is just shut up and take it and hope we make it quick."

"**Heh, speak for yourself sweetheart."** Billy spoke, his words laced with a terrible demonic power and sadistic intent. **"Sperg and I have some unfinished business to take care of, regarding several years worth of beatings and humiliation, and today I'm gonna finish it. Just watch sweetheart, it's gonna be fucking biblical!"**

Sperg, his brutish sense of arrogance and superior self worth beaten and broken, simply could not take it anymore. Grinding his teeth together his anger and deranged fury exploded.

"… You… You! Damn you! DAMN YOU!" His frenzy of anger taking over he thrashed and grappled his head, drew his tiny blade again and charged the wide grinning demon. "DIIIIEE-Guh…"

Without so much as a sweat Billy clamped his hand around Sperg's throat, hauling him up above him. Here at last, he who was once the innocent victim to an inhuman fiend, was now the one smiling maliciously up to his helpless vile rapist of a foe. His conceited fury once again replaced by terror and cowardice, Sperg managed to open an eye to look down at his captor, seeing his monstrous orange eyes burning into him.

"**Don't worry Sperg, I understand."** He spoke suddenly. Sperg opened both eyes in surprise and wonder as he smiled benevolently at him. **"You have every right to do all the things you did, and were going to do to Mandy and I. After all, if you have the ability to beat and rape a girl, you also have the right to do so. Isn't that right?"**

Desperate to cling on to any shred of hope regardless of how veiled his mocking was, Sperg managed a slight nervous smile and nodded his head slightly. Billy smiled back, relaxing his hold on him as he set him down to his feet. Just as Sperg's hope finally solidified Billy gave a monstrous grin, reared back and bought his clawed left hand in across his belly, tearing out the front of his abdomen and spilling his organs down over the thug's feet.

Sperg gaped in horror at the sight of his insides piled in a heap in front of him, dropping to his knees as a pathetic whimper escaped the twisted creature. Reaching down again Billy clamped around his throat and hauled him up to drill into him at eye level. Sperg looked to him in terror, the demon prince's eyes fading back to their natural blue. And yet his demonic power and evil smile remained.

"Do you know what Hell is like Sperg?" He asked in a calm tone, seeing his prey's eyes widen in wonder and dread. "Burning rivers of molten iron and lead, air so hot and thick with ash and poisonous gasses that it'll burn the skin off your body in a flash, sound familiar? A horrible world of unimaginable agony and suffering made just for scum like you, one which you can never escape." Mandy listened in intently, seeing the gleam of destructive delight in Billy's eyes, proof that he had something just wonderful in store for the rapist. "You know, that this would be considered an ordinary bright sunny day, on the planet Venus? Did you know that?"

Mindy and Sperg both felt the dread inside them growing, Billy's anticipation for death and torture rising by the second.

"Now… Consider this… If our version of Hell here on Earth is just an ordinary day on Venus..." A terrible gleam took over his eyes, his face morphing into a visage of sadism and vengeance. "… Just think, what must Venus' version of Hell be like?"

With that Sperg's eyes bulged in terror. Billy just smiled as he began to grunt and squirm under his grasp, even with his innards lying beneath him. Raising his scythe again he willed it to life, the blade and shaft burning a malevolent orange-green as Billy once more became a living calamity.

"You're gonna be the first to find out. Sperg, I'm sending you, **on a one way trip,**_** TO VENUSIAN HELL!"**_

Whipping his scythe around he blasted out a ball of energy, which immediately took the shape of a pulsating great red ring surrounding a heaving black vortex. Letting go of the despicable creature in his grasp he let Sperg fall to the ground at his feet and walked quietly back away to watch.

Quivering with fear and faint with blood loss Sperg looked around behind him. He eyed the ominous black portal whimpering, watching as the surface ebbed and flowed with growing intensity, before a single giant yellow eye opened out of it looking straight at him.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Sperg immediately ran screaming away from the portal, pounding on the barrier despite the burns he suffered in trying to escape. The horrifying eye vanished, to be replaced by an enormous gnarled black arm that shot out towards his terrified form, grabbing hold of the pile of organs trailing along behind him. Sperg continued to scream as he fell forwards, the arm dragging him by his intestines back towards the waiting portal. His kicking and screaming and crying grew as he was drawn to the lip of the hole, clawing desperately at the ground as the hand and his innards disappearing into it first, followed slowly by his feet, then gradually his legs, and further.

"AAAA-HAAAAAA! HELP MEEEEE! HELP MEEEEEEE! OH PLEASE GOD HELP MEEEE! HELP ME-_HAAAAAAAAA! KIIILLLL MEEEEEE!"_

His screams turned up a notch as he was dragged in up to his waist, his eyes turning in different directions as his arms suddenly reached out into space with whatever horrific things were being done to him on the other side. Billy watched on smiling with satisfaction while Mandy gazed upon the scene with cold contempt, though inside it satisfied her desire for revenge as well. Mindy hunched with her hands up to her mouth, trying harder and harder not to throw up as the pressure in her stomach grew.

"_KIIILLLL MEEEEEEE! KILLLL MEEEEEE KIIIIILLLLL MEEEEEE! KIL M-"_

Sperg was finally silenced as he threw up a handful of blood and chunks of meat. His eyes rolled back and his body shook. A few last gurgles of horror and unfathomable agony escaped him, before he was finally dragged the rest of the way in and vanished into that nightmarish realm.

"_PPFFFFFFFTTTTTT…"_

The stillness of the moment was instantly broken, a loud wet farting sound emanating from Mindy as soon as Sperg left this world. Mandy looked to her with shock and outrage on her features, seeing the withered girl looking pail with her knees buckled beneath her, before another loud farting sound came from her. Mandy gaped at the narcissistic girl as an awful smell assaulted them both, the broiling black vortex still open and waiting for more.

"Did you just shit yourself?" Mandy asked with a dark tone, Mindy looking at her like she was going to throw up again, before another small dirty fart escaped her, the vomit going down instead of up. Mandy grimaced at the selfish girl in disgust and levelled her scythe at her. "You bitch."

"W-Wait!" She stammered, raising her hands to try and put something between herself and them. Billy sneered. He was looking forward to hearing her scream just as much as his lover was. Mandy just stared at the wretched girl with loathing as she tried to back away.

"Hang on, we can-we can work something out. Listen I know you two have always wanted to be cool like me. I'll… I-I see now that… You-You can be part of my crew, there happy? I'll even let you sit at the same table with… You can be my friend too, in fact you guys can be my best friends. I-I-I'll let you share answers with… I'll even… Actually why don't I sit with you guys, and I'll be your friend. Come on, you know you want to be with… No, wait… Don't-Yo-You can't. I'm better than you... I mean-"

"Mindy, there's something I have to tell you, something that I should have told you a long time ago…" Mandy stated while lowering her scythe, scowling down on the cowering evil girl with merciless onyx eyes.

"Fuck you."

"Wait! I'll give you money. Lots and lots of money! I can… Okay I'm not better than you. You're better, there happy? You're more important. You can-No don't. No! N-No you… Please don't! I'll do anything, just… You can't! Not to me! I'm better than you! I'm the one that matters! I'm more important than all of you! No, I mean-NO!"

"Get in there." Mandy spat with contempt, levelling her blood red blade at Mindy to fire a stream of red energy. The sound of her piercing scream as the lethal energy struck her was deeply satisfying, lifting her off the ground as it burned her skin, hair and clothes. With a simple flick she sent the depraved girl careening straight towards the vortex, disappearing down into it with one final scream as Mandy finally dealt her vengeance.

Mandy lowered her blade as the portal closed to nothing, Billy's terrible weapon vanishing with it as he turned his narrow orange eyes to face her as she looked to him. Turning back to the abhorrent scene of slaughter he had left strewn across the tarmac, Mandy lazily slung the scythe in its direction, and in a flash the entire gory mass was set aflame. Watching the ferociously hot reaction take place they saw as in mere seconds all trace of the horrific scene that had occurred that day vanished, leaving nothing more than a blackened patch of road where once a small army of vermin had met the gruesome justice they deserved. And with that finished, she dismissed her faithful weapon back to the realm it came from.

A flash of red occurred beside them, and they turned to look as the portal suddenly reappeared. Watching on with intrigue they saw as a set of arms clawed their way out of it, devoid of any skin, with several fingers cut in half down the middle like split sausages. The arms were followed by a bald head and a torso, all in the same condition. The creature's eyes had been stabbed in by blades that still stuck out of their sockets, and her entire body had been stripped down to the muscles. Opening her mouth she let out a deformed hiss, gurgling on some whitish-brown fluid that on closer inspection appeared to be a mixture of two kinds of human excretion.

Mindy clawed at the air, attempting to drag the two in with her so they may suffer a similar fate. But Mandy wasn't fazed in the slightest.

"Heh… Heh heh…" She turned to her partner as he sneered cruelly at the vile creature.

"What is it?" She asked in a stern tone. He just smirked in response.

"That's the thing about Venusian Hell, it's also Venusian Heaven. Whatever way a person treats other people in their life, that will then be turned back against them, and they either get treated with respect and live in happiness, or they literally torture themselves for all eternity. After what Mindy and Sperg did to Trixie and were about to do to us, I don't think it's going to be a very pleasant eternity for them." The demon prince Billy watched on with a cruel smile as the creature let out a final weak hiss and was dragged back in, the portal closing and vanishing again after it.

With that done the field around the pristinely clean sight dispersed, and Billy and Mandy both looked out over Endsville once more. Reaching down Billy picked up the box of chocolates where they'd dropped it on the grass, seeing there was still but one left, handing it to Mandy and put down the box.

Mandy's eyes gazed with calm authority out over the city as she ate the last treat, only now realising the significance of what they had done. Two months ago she had never even comprehended what it would be like to kill a living person. Two months ago she had barely even held a gun, let alone fired one. Now here they both stood, content in the calm of having executed their oldest and most bitter enemies in a most befittingly violent and gruesome manner. She marvelled quietly at how far they had both come in that short time, and how far they would be going in the years to come, all the while the young prince of demons to her left breathed deeply with a look of quiet joy on his features.

"You really are evil Billy. Someday you'll make a perfect tyrant." She spoke, earning a smile in response.

"I know." Billy answered, turning his still burning demonic eyes to her as she looked to him with a scowl. "After all, I learned from the master herself." Mandy looked upon him with silent satisfaction, seeing her darkness and power had now been equalled perfectly in him. "I'd be nothing without you Mandy."

Content that everything was complete, faced everything they needed to face and done everything they needed to be done, Mandy turned back to the city contented.

"Come on. Let's go home." She spoke. Turning away from the city below Billy and Mandy walked down the winding black tarmac back to town. Both were content to simply enjoy the others quiet, empowered presence as they walked in silence, the sun now hunkered low on the horizon, bathing the two twelve year olds in a brilliant orange glow. Turning to look out towards the brilliant evening sky Billy saw the individual buildings of the slowly dying city below become nothing more than black shadows against the orange glow, he and Mandy stopping to face the view again. It was a sad sort of beauty, a mournful testament to a great and wonderful world that had ultimately doomed itself due to its people's corrupt and selfish ways. Not to worry though, an infinitely greater world would rise in its place.

"Look at it all." Mandy spoke to her partner as they both looked out to the world below.

"It's only a matter of time now until it begins." Billy answered her. "All those selfish, corrupt little people. They don't stand a chance." He smiled as Mandy scowled sternly.

"The world won't know what hit it."

Turning away Billy faced her once more, the demon prince feeding his own inner fire for destruction off her won fire for control. Smiling before her he bowed his head slightly in respect for her rule.

"Mandy, my Empress of the Night, I want to be there by your side to enforce and spread your reign." He spoke with reverence, Mandy holding out her hand for him to take. "I want to destroy worlds for you."

Mandy of the Night faced him with an even gaze, bowing her head once to him in response.

"You will."

Turning Billy and Mandy returned on their way down the mountain back home, Mandy with a quiet dark scowl on her features, content in her own power, control and wisdom, while by her side was Billy, smiling evilly to himself with the thrill and satisfaction of destruction, and the prospect of crushing their enemies, a quiet dark chuckle escaping his lips. Both of the bastions of darkness walked hand in hand as they returned on their way home, from where they would continue on their path to power.

Together they were going to take control of everything. Together they would come to dominate all that was and will ever be. Together they would live forever. Together they smiled and scowled.


	49. Day of Reckoning Part One

**Hello readers! Back again! Thanks again for all the wonderful feedback, even if I struggle to return your messages.**

**This has been a very long time coming. Here we are actually beginning the climax to everything that has happened in the entire story, and where we finally start to tie up what has taken almost two years of uploads, and maybe another two years or so of preparation and development.**

**After devoting so much of my time and effort to this for so long it's really taught me a good few things about the kind of person you should aspire to be, one who respects themselves as well as the needs of others. Because you are a part of everyone else, and those people who want to thing that you're not imporant, they're the ones who are on their own. Toss those people out of your life, they'll only end up bringing you down.**

**But getting back to the story, everything that has been building up from the very first chapter, right through the 'Max' part and the 'Preparing for the takeover' part has all led to this. Those intimate but non-lemon scenes I told you about earlier are in this one, so fair warning. As we catch up on all the characters we also take a look back on the two as they were from the very beginning, as well as seeing how the world had changed around them, and most importantly, how it all ends. ****Watch out for references from A View to a Kill and Gone with the Wind.**

**By the way, anyone noticeI changed the title? It's not just Mandy in this anymore, so I think it deserves the new title.**

**I promised that it would be epic, and after going over it again and again and again, I think it's just about right.**

**Thanks again for all your support. I hope you like this as much as I did getting it to this point. now let us begin...**

* * *

**Day of Reckoning Part One.**

Two years later.

Mandy opened her eyes and drew a breath in one smooth movement, the darkness of sleep vanishing from her consciousness in an instant. In its place she found herself greeted by the orange-yellow light of the morning sun as it illuminated the ceiling above. Her ever steely onyx eyes took a moment to adjust to the light of their new environment, before her world became crystal clear. Easing herself up off her pillow she sat upright, the blankets and sheets falling to her waste as she thought in silence.

'_What is this feeling?_' She mused silently. _'What is this sense of… knowing… foreboding that I feel?'_

She recognised the feeling from times past, the ever so subtle yet pervasive sense somewhere in the back of her mind that all was not as she'd hoped it to be. It was now as it had been back then. The more she thought about it the more power it seemed to gain; the less she thought about it the less it would leave her in peace. It was this faint sense of invisible clouds just over the horizon that she'd felt just before her old life had come to an end, and again in her time in the future of all her mistakes. She knew not to take it lightly. But what else could she do?

She gave a sigh, closing her eyes again to lie back down in her warm bed as the irritating feeling of unease shrunk back into the depths of her mind. Turning to her right slightly she opened her eyes again.

There he lay, still asleep right beside her, his bare chest rising and falling slowly under the sheets. Billy held a calm, almost serene visage that she never tired of seeing. She knew she was lucky to see it at all, especially considering those not within his immediate circle of loved ones were more than not subjected to his terrifying smirks and grins of sadism and dark satisfaction. With nothing better to do with her time she simply lay by her lover's side, watching him sleep. A small smile graced her features, and she had to suppress the desire to trace her fingertips through his wildly flayed short dark red hair.

Breaking herself from her reverie she sat up again, moving her slender legs out from under the sheets as she rose to her feet, reaching for her black headband and sliding it into place above her fringe, smoothing out her hair somewhat with her fingers. Stepping her way around the foot of their king size bed she made her way lazily towards the windows, the blinds drawn across their surface, obscuring the view.

As she made her way past Billy smiled and cracked an eye open to watch her move, greatly enjoying the view of Mandy in her black underwear, with a short black night robe fastened around her waist, the sleeves coming down to her wrists, the bottom hem just above her hips, standing in the morning light. It wasn't that he hadn't seen her in this before, after all she'd slept this way every night for a year or more now, his hands always finding their way around her slender figure as soon as she slipped into bed with him. The thing was, Mandy was stunningly beautiful, inside and out, and he never let her magnificence escape his mind.

Mandy continued on to where she stood near the edge of the windowsill, looking out through the cracks in the blinds to the city beyond. It was early in the morning, the sun still rising on the horizon. The sky overhead was still a blue-grey hue, while a widening band of toxic orange arose across the edge of the earth to greet her this morning, soon to take over the entire sky, as it had done for months. Then again, with the amount of pollution clogging the skies now the city had been without clear blue skies for too long, a toxic yellow at midday being the closest it could get now. She found herself reminded of the issue pressing itself on her from within the back of her mind again as she gazed coldly out over the degraded, depraved metropolis, which would ultimately have its own demons to face. As she continued to gaze out over the dying world she heard her partner rising from the bed, coming up right beside her, propping himself up against the windowsill as he gazed at her without saying a word. From the corner of her eye she could make him out, standing there in his black shorts, with a calm smile on his face.

Billy and Mandy were now fourteen. In the time since their trials and tribulations of two years past, they had become ever closer as lovers, and ever darker and more terrible towards their enemies and subjects. Both had grown up exceptionally well for their age. Billy had grown a lithe, lean build, his exploits against the various foes he dealt with having built him up with a toned form. He was also tall for his age, and presented an imposing if still narrow and light presence. Due to his more and more demonic nature, regularly spilling the blood of countless vile scum, his hair had changed from rusty orange to a deep red, adding ever more to his ominous air. Mandy had also grown quite tall and lithe, albeit not quite as much as her partner. Her petite figure had formed into a slender hourglass, small b-cup breasts and long, slender arms and legs. Her blonde hair, though the rear half now lay down along her neck, coming down to the top of her shoulders while the front framed her face, the top was still fixed up in the two peaks that let everyone know who she was and what she did, held in place by her black headband. She held an aristocratic appearance, and would have appeared as little more than a very beautiful girl if not for her merciless iron scowl. Add them up together and the two came out as one perfect couple that should not under any circumstances be crossed.

Though they were still young by all definition, their physical growth had come to match their experiences and mental development, and so they were no longer the kids they once were, being closer to adult now than child. They often looked back on how far they had both come in astonishment, and of what they had been through.

In the time since they had begun their work towards their future, the two had made themselves busy saving precious pieces of humanity's history, training and developing their skills, and securing funds for their greater activities. In the beginning their greatest source of income came from corrupt businesses. Mandy would bluntly confront their top executives with what they knew, demanding payment for not releasing information on various activities to the party. Soon though as they'd envisaged, as it became known that everyone had some black little secret nobody really cared wether or not they released the information. So Mandy's threats changed to that of sicking her monster on the board of directors, wiping out their computers with viruses, bombings or releasing a powerful nerve agent. Eventually that evolved to extorting money off drug barons and their private armies. Usually they would refuse to pay at first, so Billy would march in and wipe out their thugs in a glorious bloodbath, after which they paid through the nose into their Swiss bank account just for the privilege of staying alive. The two regularly dealt with millions of dollars from various sources, most going to funding Junior and Tak's exploits overseas, as well as covering their tracks. In addition at any time they also had somewhere in the realm of a million or two left for leisure, and they used it well.

Their training regiment of past months with both Hoss and many of the old deities they had encountered in their travels had been productive, but their training on Hobo 13 had been an altogether more poignant experience. Sergeant Hobo 678 had made sure they both exerted every last iota of their strength and ability to make it through the first few days, more as a test of their convictions and tolerances. Through little more than an obstacle course and some very high expectations he had bought them both to the point where they were on their hands and knees gasping for breath, and shaking uncontrollably. But he had been thoroughly impressed by their resilience, particularly by how the ordeal bought them ever closer together. Since then he had trained them extensively, and through him they had sharpened their own individual combat abilities, as well as grown more competent and capable as commanders of a squad, the Sergeant teaching them the wheres and whys of different actions.

Many of the ancient historical sites they visited and saved over time were now destroyed, many of them just days after they had replaced them with replicas. The real ones were currently waiting safely in underworld for a time when it would be safe enough to bring them back, many of the ones which had fallen into ruin being restored by their original creators. The same went for works of art and literature, all stored safely in the underworld library, both of which were now hard to find now since the mass burnings, books being made illegal and the internet having been shut down.

Though the two had been working away towards their goal day by day, ultimately their time under the spotlight had passed. The baton for their 'Grim Adventures' as they'd taken to calling their past exploits had been taken over now by Tak and Junior. Though Billy and Mandy regularly made themselves busy with the destruction of their more minor enemies, even occasionally joining their friends on more important missions overseas, their time as the most important players was over now. It was their friends stationed on the island off Florida who now had the greatest role to play in preparing the world for their coming takeover. They had done a spectacular job as well. With Zim's work on immortality close to completion as of a few months ago their three year plan was coming along perfectly, aside for some continuing issues with the governmental agencies.

Though Junior had been keeping tabs as best he could on their activities relating to them through technology and bribed informants, he had soon found that they could hide it better than he could find it. Though they never got another listening bug planted into the family's home, what they'd heard in its short time in operation had been enough to investigate them, looking for a link between their prey and their suspected activities worldwide. Lately though Junior had found that the amount of information traffic on them and their activities had slowed to practically nothing. He didn't doubt that they were still talking about them; the only issue was how to find it. So far he'd come up with nothing, and had largely abandoned the cause to focus on other activities, leaving them to continue their investigation in peace.

For now though all was running smoothly, allowing the four a chance at a well deserved break.

"You look tense." Billy noted to his partner as she turned from the window to face him. She looked upon him blankly, Billy smiling back as he leant on the window sill. "Is everything alright?" He watched her as she thought it over, her deep dark eyes showing her conflict while telling nothing of any answers. She turned away, looking back to the orange skies outside.

"Nothing." She lied, even knowing he would see right through it. "It's just… just a feeling."

"What kind of feeling?"

"In the days before Max attacked us, I had this same feeling in the back of my head." Mandy narrowed her eyes in thought, back to those days which now seemed so distant. "I felt it again the night before he found us again. I guess it comes from using the scythe. It's like I know somewhere that something's wrong, that something's happening, but I don't know anything else." Billy frowned as she continued to stare out at nothing. She scanned over the outlines of the distant skyscrapers, behind them the dense plumes of pollution rising from all around. The sound of a distant helicopter as it slowly moved across her view permeated the silence. Watching the city outside the window was always a grim reminder that they weren't the only ones that had changed in the last two years.

The world had become a very strange and very inhospitable place.

Around the world a whole series of massive wars had broken out. Many established societies worldwide had collapsed, and in some areas entire countries had been carved up by warlords. Central Europe was decaying into mass civil war, every day there was a new terrorist shooting or bombing or nerve gas attack, and every month a new revolution in one city or another, mostly based on religious or class divisions. The Middle East was in ruins, the nuclear war there had wiped out half of the cities in the region, and the old religious dogmas had fallen apart. India's economy had flatlined though the country was still holding out socially. Russia and China were both broken and exhausted, left with staggering losses from what had transpired between them, and the former Myanmar and Indonesian empires were the same. Japan and unified Korea were barely standing economically, and were foolishly starting to exert dominance in the surrounding areas again. From the combined effect of famine, contamination, nuclear autumn and winter in places, as well as the slow depletion of resources which had started the fire long ago, the worldwide population had gone down from seven billion to three billion people, and was still falling.

But one place where the decay could not be seen however was in their home country America, and this was because the United States of America no longer existed, and officially never existed in the first place. In its place stood the Aryan Empire, an imperium so twisted and depraved that it overshadowed everything before it, the last and most brutal and destructive of its kind on Earth. Its symbol was a red swastika on a black banner, a symbol they alone had invented. All references to Nazi Germany and the flag they had created had been conveniently erased and forgotten. Originally it used gold in the design as well, as a symbol of their delusional pride and superiority, but at this point the population was just too stupid to understand three colours, or the concept of pride. Robert Johnson, the brutal raving despot that had taken power, had crowned himself Emperor last year, and had immediately set out to engrave his name on the world in blood and horror.

The nuclear war against Mexico was the beginning of a genocide that then extended down into South America, leaving behind it a land so totally destroyed and contaminated as per the Emperor's orders that not even his own soldiers could survive the radiation for long. Their genocidal advance was currently stopped at Brazil, now nuclear armed and not the easy target they'd been used to, and were in the midst of wiping out the Amazon rainforest by yet another nuclear carpet bombing. A similar genocide had taken place in parts of Africa, and as before no action had been taken to secure resources or do anything that would actually benefit their own nation. More nuclear attacks had been made on post war Russia and China, while Korea and Japan had been mostly defended by a missile shield, though the pulse had done further damage to their economy.

In his cannibalistic frenzy Johnson and his empire wiped out Canada, already subservient to them, and Alaska and Hawaii, his own country. In Australia, after the Indonesians had enslaved the remaining population to work mining the precious resources, when the country was invaded again by the Aryans and the Indonesians destroyed, their newfound saviours had been treated as heroes. Then the extermination followed, and the people who had been so excited about finally escaping the slave camps never even left the fence before being used as target practice for hundreds of nuclear warheads, and thousands of tons of deadly toxins. There was now no human life left in Australia, or New Zealand for that matter. Right now the regime was getting ready to attack Europe through Iceland and Ireland, but they were running out of nukes, as well as nerve agents. They were all used up almost as soon as they were being made by the few scientists and technicians left alive to manufacture them after intellectuals had been wiped out. That had been put on hold until they could get a suitable stockpile again. The same was happening with soldiers, tanks, aircraft, ships and ammunition, even spare parts and food for the front lines.

The population was now down to one third of the original from when they had taken power. The overall intelligence of the remaining population now that the madness had eaten away at their minds was so low that half could no longer read or write. Though the nation used the name Aryan for the mythic qualities it beheld, few actually knew what Aryan meant, or European for that matter. As their society continued to collapse like a dead carcass rotting away paralysing shortages of every simple necessity had taken hold, food, fuel, and hundreds of consumer essentials all becoming hard to find. As a result a series of massive riots broke out, spreading across much of the west coast. Unable to suppress the rampage and desperate to avoid losing any further power over his subjects, Johnson made the order to use nuclear warheads on the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle to stop it from spreading east, and simply blamed it on everyone else in the world. But it had been a sign of the times. Just as a corpse rots, so too there is less and less food to sustain the maggots that eat away at it. The Aryan Empire was already in its twilight.

Just as the former America had become the worst country out of all that were left, so too had their own home town of Endsville become the very heart of the diseased cesspit, the worst place in the world. Somehow in a manner that seemed to defy all logic, as bad as it had been the city had still gotten worse by the day, even now. Despite the cockroach himself making murder, rape, theft, arson, anything and everything evil now legalised, and conversely any show of goodness or intelligence punishable by death, the city's population was growing faster than its inhabitants were being killed off. People were flooding in from all over the remains of the western states, drawn like flies to an open wound. They came for the city's cruelty, its greed, its sleaze, all of which were accelerated after the destruction of the other cities. Just as their own metropolis swelled immensely, hundreds of other towns and cities as far as Tucson Arizona became deserted and empty, pillaged for supplies by scavengers and left to rot under the burning radioactive fallout that had blanketed everything downwind of the cities that had been destroyed. Even here in Endsville the crackling of a Geiger counter was now a part of daily life, a constant reminder of the deadly rays given off by the decay.

After more than doubling its original population Endsville was now the largest remaining city on the west coast, with five million people living within its extended borders. The city had become such a role model for depravity and corruption that there was now considerable talk of Johnson moving the capital to here. Indeed there were plans for a magnificent palace to be built outside the city, as well as a temple in his honour for the locals to worship him. The force of the collective insanity pressed on her through the window.

"Hm." Billy smirked. "It's always the subtle things that have the most importance isn't it." She glanced across to him again as he leant there facing her openly.

"Figures. And it's always the important things that you know nothing about." She answered. Billy just smiled again, his hand reaching out to caress her arm. She looked to his fingers tracing across her skin, but was still troubled, turning to look out the window again.

"I've been able to steer my way through a society that was collapsing like a cave even before we got together, and it almost never overwhelmed me then, but this old feeling… It makes me feel powerless again." She turned her eyes away from the city, off towards the still gleaming white home not far away, still kept in perfect condition. "It reminds me of the day my parents died. All that power I had at my disposal, and I still couldn't save them." She sensed Billy's gaze turn to worry for her, so she turned away from the house back to the city.

"Don't get me wrong, I've come to peace with what happened to them, but it still bothers me that I could be placed in such a situation again where I couldn't or didn't do anything."

"Hey, don't worry." Billy spoke as he reached for her chin with his finger, gently turning her gaze his way. "We've already faced everything the world has to throw at us, and we always came through. Plus we're both a lot smarter and better equipped now than we were back then to deal with anything that could present itself. And don't forget, now we have each other, and we have Tak and Junior, and Grim, and our family, all looking out for each other. Everything will be alright. I promise you, I will never allow you to be made to feel that way again, I swear on my life."

Mandy gazed back at him, her breath caught somewhere in her chest as a familiar burning warmth radiated out through her again, the kind only the love of her life could give her. It always warmed her deep inside whenever he spoke with such adoration and conviction to her. Billy always showed her the absolute most affection he could towards the girl he had grown up beside, never missing any chance to tell her how he felt. Not a day went by without him telling her he loved her. And she never let how blessed she was to have him escape her. Even now as he gave her a kind loving smile she felt it, happiness. She wanted to share her happiness with him.

Billy felt himself beginning to slip into that familiar warm haze, flowing into him through his fingertips still touching the side of her face. His eyes began to glaze over as he slowly traced his fingers across and down her face following the lock of shining golden hair going down in front of her ear. Mandy closed her eyes and bowed her head into his loving touch, feeling herself start to melt for him again. She reached up and linked her slender fingers with his. Taking each others hand down by their side they each faced each other hesitantly.

Moving away from the bleak view out between the blinds Mandy stepped over to face Billy between him and their bed. Facing each other they both breathed deep as their heart rate began to race again. The significance of their presence together so close pressed upon them, making their heads whirl with nervous anticipation.

Hesitantly Billy finally let go of her hand to reach up and take a gentle hold of her arms. Mandy moved forward to put her hands on the ends of his shoulders. They paused as Billy looked across to her hand on his left shoulder, he and Mandy watching as it quivered ever so slightly. But Mandy glanced down at the hand on her left arm, seeing he was quivering slightly just the same.

Locking their wide eyes on each other Mandy moved in towards her partner, Billy matching her as they bought their heads close together, lowering their eyes sensually as they felt their heavy breaths become entangled ahead of their lips. Slowly, tentatively they closed their eyes and came together, carefully testing the feel of having their warm wet mouths move into each other. As soon as Billy began to feel the softness of his lover's lips, and taste the threshold of her mouth, his tension began to waver. Mandy had to break away for but a moment so she could take a deep gasp of air, Billy doing the same as they came together and continued to gently kiss each other. Her head was in a similar whirl to him. She didn't know if she felt so nervous that she was ready to step back or if she was giddy with bliss. So for now, like two young lovers first expressing their feelings for each other, just like they had down by the river two years ago, they each tentatively tested the new sensation between them now, gradually getting used to each other's presence connected at the mouth.

Separating after a minute Billy and Mandy both drew deep hard breaths as they faced each other intensely, their faces turning increasingly warm. They had shared their kiss so many times, and every time it had been so special, but this morning something was intensely different. It felt like an instinctual sense that it was time to begin going further, and to be closer with each other than they ever had before.

Pulling each other together they began to kiss again with greater passion. Billy quickly slid his arms down to cup her waist in his hands, sampling her soft curves as Mandy replied to his touch by wrapping her arms up around his neck and shoulders. Pressing her body into his she wrapped one slender leg part of the way around his as Billy kissed her open mouth with ever growing desire. As Mandy moved in ever closer with him he could feel the soft swells of her breasts pressing up against his chest through her soft black robe, and it pushed him ever deeper into his lust. Mandy smiled slightly into their heated kiss when she felt his hands move up and down the curves of her waist in a circle, before his right hand snaked around to her lower back. She drew her hands down to the front of his shoulders and collar as she arched her back with his touch, pulling her mouth back from his.

Resting their foreheads together they opened their eyes a crack to face each other still so close. Even with his eyes lowered in loving bliss Mandy could see this time it wasn't enough, he was desperate for more. She felt it too. Letting go of his shoulders she moved back a little so Billy could watch as she took hold of the black sash tied around the front of her waist. In a few simple movements she had the strip of material undone, and withdrew the sash from her robe. Billy gasped for breath as she dropped the sash, and the front of her soft black robe parted down her front, revealing all the way from her collar down in a thin line of silky forbidden skin between her breasts, opening up to reveal much of her slim waist below.

Mandy bit her lip as she watched his eyes travel the length of her body, her knees coming together as he saw the sacred valley between her breasts, still holding the robe back from revealing herself entirely. Turning his blue eyes up to her onyx Billy moved in to her with ever greater hunger, and as soon as he had his arms around her waist again Mandy gasped as she felt his tongue slide into her mouth. She quickly met him with her own, the two overwhelmed in the soft and warm bliss of the moment together as their lips joined tightly and their tongues tasted each other in the middle. Their heated breath intensified as they mingled and twisted around each other inside their mouths. Billy was in ecstasy, he could feel every contour of his partner's body as he ran his hands over her as they kissed passionately. Keeping one hand on her side he ran his fingers up her spine, examining her back over the thin robe. Mandy bought one of her hands up to trace her fingers through his hair, applying pressure with her fingernails across the base of his skull. He clenched his eyelids tight as her touch sent a flurry of sensations into the base of his spine.

"Uhh-"

Billy kissed her mouth again, but now let go of her from behind to slip both hands in under her robe, placing them on her delicate flanks of warm skin. Mandy gave a soft moan into his mouth as she felt him run his fingers and palms up and down her hourglass. She loved how he touched her with such desire, and with such gentle tenderness and reverence, like it was a treasure not meant for a simple young man like him. Only he was welcome to this side of her, to hold her, and see her body, and put his hands on her. She pressed herself ever more into him as he traced one hand up her bare back under her robe, sampling her texture as he moved his hand up to hold her between her shoulders and press her ever closer into him, feeling the bare skin where the strap of her bra would normally be.

Drawing his arm back from around her he gently placed his hand on the front of her waist. He left his hand there as he felt the softness and warmth of her body. Tracing his hand in a figure of eight he examined the feel of every inch of the beautiful expanse. Mandy smiled into their kiss as she pressed herself into his hand, wanting to share herself with him as his fingers roamed across her navel, her flanks and the bottom of her ribs, while his other hand went around south to gently cup and squeeze her ass over her black panties. Mandy gasped in surprise at his daring, he had never put his hands there before. She rode her leg up beside him momentarily as he held her there.

And still it wasn't enough. Even having taken their love and affection and passion for each other as far as they'd ever dared so far, it still wasn't enough to fully testify to how he felt for her. He needed more of her, more to touch and hold. Overcome with love and lust Billy turned his hand upwards, and began tracing the tips of his fingers up towards one of the few parts of her body which he had still never seen or touched. Mandy's eyes flickered as she felt his fingers move up above the limit of her waistline, tracing ever so slowly upwards along the centre of her chest, the sensation of his touch magnified with each tiny step he moved upwards into territory so sacred she had never felt his touch before. But as nervous as she became, his slow advance only pushed her to deepen their kiss, until Billy traced his fingertips straight up through the valley between her breasts.

"Hah!"

She broke away suddenly with a gasp of shock and delight. Billy's eyes opened wide in that moment, Mandy opening hers to lock onto each other, his fingers still resting on the bottom of her collar where they had stopped after their journey. Mandy's heart hammered. She could still feel the tingling flare of sensations in the area up the centre of her chest where he'd toughed her. As much of a shock as it had been to feel it for the first time, she liked it. It felt right when he put his hands on her there. As Billy looked upon her face he saw how she looked to him with the same nervous and hesitant anticipation. He realised something; she was waiting for him to touch her more like that. But what they had just felt together had been just a glimpse of this wonderful new territory. What they both really wanted was still veiled protectively under her robe.

"Mandy…"

Moving with the greatest hesitation and care Billy reached up with his other hand to her collar, and as Mandy looked to him with wonder for what he was doing, gently hooked his fingertips under the edges of her robe, and waited there. Her mouth parted to gasp and her heart began to race even faster as she felt him stop there ready to strip her, but waiting for something to continue. Billy held her there, gazing into her for a sign. He could not do this without her approval at least. Mandy was scared; she was anxious and afraid because she'd never gone this far with him before. If they really took this to where he was going, soon she would be standing topless in front of him. Nobody but her had ever seen her breasts, and the thought of being striped by him made her dizzy with fear and trepidation. But as afraid as she was, deep down she wanted him to see her and touch her as much as he did.

As Billy waited anxiously for her order Mandy finally responded when she bought her hands up to the top of her chest where his sat still. As she first began to touch his hands they both suddenly looked down at where they had met, to see that both of their hands had started to quiver slightly with each other again. Looking back to each other's eyes Mandy linked her hands with his holding the edge of her robe, ready to strip her of everything from the waist up. Gasping for breath and quivering with their shared fear Mandy led Billy as they both slowly pulled back the two folds of smooth black cloth still clinging to the swells of her chest. Neither of them took their eyes off each other's gaze as the robe gradually gave way, revealing more and more of her skin. Finally they withdrew the cloth back off her chest, pulling it back off her shoulders, letting go and dropping it to the carpet behind her feet. Letting go of each other's hands Mandy set her shoulders and took a step back so he could see her body now that she was topless in front of him. Looking into each others eyes she watched as Billy's eyes finally travelled down, and he gasped and seemed to melt as he finally laid his eyes on her soft, round breasts.

"Oh Mandy! You're… you're so…" He actually cried out as he stared over her nude figure from her shoulders, down over her perfect pail skin of her breasts, down her slim waist and black panties, the only thing she had on now, before returning his eyes to hers. When he saw her face, how her mouth still gasped for breath and her eyes gazed at him wide with fright, with her arms locked by her sides rigid and quivering, his heart started to tighten. He smiled as his eyes welled up with tears for what she had given him. _"You're so beautiful."_

Mandy set her mouth closed as her lip quivered. He had told her the same thing before. To see how much reverence he had for her body, and just how deeply it had affected him, touched her in a way she hadn't felt even when they'd had their first kiss down by their little river. Though her hands still tremored and she struggled to breathe against the nervous terror in her belly, she stepped back from him further, backing up against the side of their luxurious bed. Sitting back on it she swung her slender legs up on it, positioning herself over into the middle. There she watched as Billy staggered back in shock against the wall, planting his hand against his heart as his emotions overwhelmed him, as she lay back on the bed with her hands out by her side. Laying her head back into the soft pillow Mandy gazed wide-eyed and shaking with terror up at the love of her life as he gazed over every inch of her exposed body, his eyes lingering on her vulnerable small breasts, before his eyes met hers again. She gasped, trying to form words in her mouth through her dizzying nerves, until finally she managed to get out what she wanted to tell her partner.

"Touch my body Billy."

He needed no more invitation. Billy whipped himself out of his daze and started towards the bed where she laid waiting for him, but stopped, his eyes looking off to the side. Mandy looked to him baffled as he turned away towards the wall behind the bed head, stepping over momentarily with his hand outstretched. She watched as he put his hand on the wall, his eyes flickering a vibrant orange-red for a second as he concentrated and drew a strain of his energy out. All around them the walls flashed green for an instant, before he turned back to her.

"A sound barrier, so no one can hear us." He stated, Mandy taking a nervous gulp at just what that implied.

As Billy stepped over and knelt down on the bed next to her legs Mandy pushed herself up off the pillow, sitting bolt upright facing him as one more his eyes drifted over her exposed body with adoration. He lowered his face and looked to her eyes.

"Listen… I don't want to do this unless you're ready." He spoke gently to her, seeing her still breathing hard with nerves the same as he was. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

Mandy set her features, reaching out to put her hands on the ends of his shoulders in response. Billy slipped his hands around the curves of her hourglass again, and starting over with the same nervous tension as before they came close together, nuzzling each other before connecting in a gentle kiss.

Taking their time Billy and Mandy both kissed each other slowly, each gradually working themselves back into the natural emotional high they had been sharing before. Mandy traced her fingernails gently across the back of his shoulders, as Billy drew circles on the sides and back of her waist, all the while they both remained bolt upright. Moment by moment their thoughts became muddled by the familiar warm embrace of each other's loving presence, and they began to kiss and hold each other with greater passion, Mandy cupping her hands around his jaw to kiss him deeply as she began to reach out for him with her tongue. As they began another round of fervent French kissing between each other's lips, Billy turned his right hand in to place his fingertips gently on the front of her waist, and after several long moments of hesitation, began to draw them ever so slowly up. Mandy drew a shuddering breath as her nerves flared, she knew where he was going, as his fingers began to move across to her left on their way up. Her anticipation grew further the higher his hand travelled, Billy sharing in her apprehension at what he was about to do, making him feel light-headed and dizzy for a few moments. As his fingertips reached up and crossed over onto the base of her chest he stopped just under her pert left breast, waiting for any last change of heart before he touched her. Mandy tensed, but her deeper feelings for him won out once more, and she gave her approval by wrapping her arms further around the back of his neck and kissing him deeper with ever greater passion. It was all the answer he needed.

With as much care and tenderness as he possessed for the girl he loved he moved his fingertips up the final distance, tracing up onto the curving bottom of her breast. Mandy gasped, hear features contorting as she arched her head back and moaned with pleasure.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhh… Haaahh… Ah…" She heaved deep breaths as she smiled with the overwhelming delight, her body seemingly melting and locking solid at the same time at the electric feeling of Billy's hand gently caressing across the bottom of her bare breast, feeling his fingertips move in a small circle across its soft surface.

Billy's mind stopped for a few moments. He couldn't believe how wonderfully soft and warm her small supple breast was. He wondered briefly if this could even be possible, but as he opened his eyes and saw his partner's face curved in total and perfect bliss from his touch, he knew this was real. Tracing one finger up the middle of her breast he touched her nipple, and the effect was instant. He felt her whole body collapse in his arms as she let out another moan. Catching her back with his other hand, while gently cupping his hand over her breast as she collapsed he gently lowered her body back down until she lay out with her head nestled in the pillow. He watched her as she let go of his shoulders with her arms splayed out beside her. Even without moving his hand as he touched her she was writhing in pleasure, with a look of complete happiness on her features.

Out of more force of will than anything Mandy opened her eyes, wanting to see the face of the man who was giving her this now. Even though what she was feeling made her want to shut her eyes and moan and writhe and cry out for him, she managed to set her eyes on his face, seeing how he looked upon her with wide, supremely gentle and loving eyes. Managing to keep her gaze on him even as her hands shook she watched him as he now set his other hand out beside her, propping himself up as he drew his legs up over her, and leaned his entire body down over her. Billy locked his mouth around hers again as they engaged in a passionate kiss, before he looked down to her chest again, where working gradually he began to press and massage her breast in his hand. Overcome by the pleasure of his loving manipulations she arched her head back as he leaned in and kissed her neck.

"Aaah! Ohh Billy!" She now cried out as she began writhing underneath him again, pressing her head back hard into the soft pillow. As he gave her incredibly sensitive breast a squeeze she opened her mouth to moan, which he then used to slide his tongue down to taste the inside of her mouth. At some point his left hand worked its way in to link with hers as she tremored from his touch, holding onto him tightly as he held her back. As Billy lovingly groped the left side of her chest in his hand he found he had to shift where he lay over to one side slightly, so she wouldn't notice his increasing state of intense arousal. He knew it was still too soon for that, but as he felt the way her soft flesh gave and yielded under his fingers pressure in a way he had never felt before, so soft and so warm that he could almost feel her heartbeat over her rapid breathing, he was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his mind where they were with each other now.

Mandy had to clench her thighs together as the sensations in her body began to take effect outside of where she wanted them. But through the mindless whirlwind of love and lust and the overwhelming pleasure she was feeling, it was hard trying to stop her body from reacting. As the intoxicating haze of warmth and delight on their minds grew Billy now let go of her hand, tracing his fingers down her slender arm, past her elbow and back to her chest. Mandy moaned and cried out again as she felt him now gently touching his fingertips over her right breast. Billy looked to her chest again as he explored her pail curving skin, before he quickly began to squeeze and toy with her right breast as well. The thought had occurred to him to knead and massage them both in unison while he watched how she reacted, but by this point both Mandy and he were rapidly losing control of themselves.

Mandy's constant stream of moans had grown louder, and as Billy traced his finger around her right nipple his decision to put up a sound barrier around the room had been put to good use. Billy was having trouble getting enough air into his lungs. Both Billy and Mandy were high on love and lust, their skin had flushed a deep scarlet, and their breathing came in deep heaving hot gasps. Stealing a few deep kissed through her cries of pleasure, all the while she still moaned into his mouth as he fondled her breasts with growing strength and daring, Billy was struck by a new desire, and turned his mouth over to her throat as he slid his fingers down to the base of her right breast as if to hold it there gently.

Letting himself go altogether he began working a trail of kisses down the side of her neck, moving down across her shoulder towards what he wanted. Mandy's eyes and mouth suddenly gaped in shock and disbelief as she realised where he was going, bringing her out of her haze in an instant. She looked down to him uncertainly as he began to kiss her collar.

"… Billy?" She called to him tentatively. From her pillow she watched him as he descended further, driven by lust and sexual desire, trailing hisses down from her collar, across the top of her chest, until he met the top of her right breast.

"BILLY!" Mandy cried out wide-eyed and kept going for the centre. Her shock soon reached its dizzying peak when Billy moved his mouth down to her breast, testing her texture and feeling her give under his mouth, before taking her nipple in his lips, kissing and tasting her as he continued to massage the other in his hand. Mandy arched her head back as far as it would go, pushing her chest into his mouth and hands as he lovingly fitted his lips around her areola and sucked inwards. As she continued to arch her back into his grasp her shocked features began to melt away. Her eyes drooped, and her breath started to come in gasps, before she closed her eyes to cry out in ecstasy, pressing her hand to the back of Billy's head as he tasted her breast, a small smile of happiness forming as he held her in his lips.

"Ah! Ohhh… HAAAAAHHH!"

Screaming out she thrashed her head back and forth where she lay securely in her pillow, contorted in a scene of such total pleasure and bliss that as far as she knew at that moment could not possibly get any better. She didn't care in the slightest if anyone heard her through the barrier. All she cared about now was the boy now sensually kissing and massaging her sensitive chest. She wanted to press herself into him as much as she could. For Billy the sound of her voice filled with such joy, and the feel of her vulnerable chest caught firmly between one increasingly rough hand and his mouth, knowing it was his Mandy he was touching, bought a flood of warmth to his entire being, and a familiar constriction in his chest that bought with it tears of happiness.

"OH BILLY TOUCH ME! TOUCH MY BODY!" She cried out to him with a smile on her red flushed features as she writhed, and it was the sweetest sound Billy had ever heard in his life. Nothing could spoil this moment for them, except for them.

Through the ache inside his chest Billy realised this, and knew that it was time to end it before it got out of hand, and they did something they would later regret. Mandy quickly sensed him beginning to slow down as she felt his sucking on her right nipple ease away to a sensual loving kiss again, while his squeezing of her left breast grew gentler, until he was just holding and fondling her softly. Breathing steadily as the dizzying lust spell gradually eased she looked down to him as he raised his face from her breast to look at her. Mandy saw how his eyes were still wide and gentle with love, but now showed focus in drawing this to a close, while Billy saw her face was positively glowing scarlet. Combined with her hair and arms splayed out next to her, and her still naked breasts revealed to his gaze, with one hand still fitted to her chest as she gazed vulnerably up at him, she had never looked more beautiful in his life.

"We should stop this now." He spoke with an unseen pressure behind his intense gaze. "We don't want to go too far too soon."

Mandy looked at him perplexed by the growing strain in his eyes, before she gave a slight gasp as she felt something touching her leg. Looking down together she saw what Billy had been trying to hide from her, and the reason why he had to end it.

"Billy?" She asked looking up to him as he faced her pained.

"I want you so bad." He admitted to her at last. "I don't think I could have controlled myself for much longer, unless you stopped me. I don't want to risk doing something selfish and stupid that hurts both of us later."

Mandy bit her lip timidly. Absent-mindedly she looked back down towards where her legs were still locked together tightly. Billy noticed her response and was perplexed, until she faced him again with a large blush on her features.

"You weren't the only one."

Billy gaped in shock, that he had bought on such a reaction in her that she was unconsciously getting ready to go much further together. He watched her as she reached up and placed her hands over her breasts, even as he still held her left breast in his hand, taking his hand in hers as they both blushed madly. At last Billy gave a contented smile. Leaning down to her chest he placed his mouth just under where her hand lay on her right breast, and gave her a final gentle kiss on her soft sloping underside. Mandy let out a soft sigh and tightened her legs together against her body's reaction as she lay her head over on its side. As Billy withdrew his moth and pulled his hand back from her left breast he sat up watching her, Mandy looking up at her lover from the bed with her hands cupped protectively over her sacred breasts.

Before long she too sat up and swung her legs out over the side of the bed. Billy looked away out the still closed blinds as she got up and turned towards the other end of the room. Smirking to himself Billy turned his gaze back to watch her as she walked over towards the closet, with her arms now crossed over her chest, examining her slender bare back. He stood and began to walk over towards her, steeping up slowly behind her as she opened the doors and reached for a red dress.

Mandy sensed his approach, but was surprised when instead of holding her around the waist he reached up and under from behind her, letting out a gasp of shock and delight when he firmly grabbed hold of both her breasts in his hands again. She smiled and let go of the dress, collapsing back into his arms as he lovingly groped and fondled her chest for the second time. Billy held her happily as she brought her hands up to touch over his, not doing anything to stop him, Mandy all too happy to let him continue as he vigorously massaged her sensitive breasts in circles together like he'd wanted to earlier.

"Billy… I th-thought you said… that… you'd… hah… ah… had enough… Ahhh…" She gasped and sighed, settling her head back into his warm embrace as he gave her an intense squeezing, making her face and body feel warm. Billy gave a soft chuckle.

"I said that I didn't want it to go any further. I didn't say I wasn't perfectly happy doing what where we were before." He answered before pinching her small pink nipples and giving them a gentle twist, causing Mandy to roll her head back and give a long moan. When he had touched her the first time she had been extraordinarily sensitive from never being touched there before, and carried away on an emotional high, and now that it had passed she was better able to feel the affection in his fingers sensual touch, even through the intense intoxicating pleasure she was receiving from his erotic touch. Turning her head in his grasp she pressed her cheek into him as Billy smiled at seeing her so content.

"Keep doing that." She sighed as she reached up and around to hold onto the back of his neck with her arm.

"You know, back when we were in hiding at the cabin, I used to have dreams about touching you like this." Billy spoke affectionately as Mandy smiled and nestled herself into him, blushing madly from how he touched her, pinching and rolling her nipples in his fingers, sending waves of pleasure throughout her body, before returning to gently cupping and massaging the rest of her breasts. "I have to say, it's so much better than anything I could have ever imagined, because it's really you. But then again, in my dream I was only ever touching air, and I didn't even know what your chest looked like." He admitted with a smile.

Mandy let out a few soft groans as he rolled the two soft areas where she was most sensitive and vulnerable at that moment, causing her entire body to burn up. Opening her eyes she looked to his face beside hers and smiled warmly. Ducking her head down she nuzzled her forehead with his, Billy pressing his nose into the lock of golden hair framing the side of her face. It wasn't what he was doing to her that made them both so happy, it was the fact he was the one doing it, and that she was the one letting him. This was the real essence of what they shared together. It wasn't their kisses, or their bodies, or their power and destruction, it was the deep set gentleness and affection and trust they held for each other, and their heartfelt desire to share their feelings with each other to make them happy.

"I love you." Mandy spoke with adoration as he smiled and lovingly gave her another strong squeeze upwards, making her gasp and melt into him, before returning to gently massaging her breasts. Mandy was content to remain there as he touched her, soaking up his affection, until she felt him slow and stop. Turning her face up in his grasp she looked to see his face had become serious in though, looking to her after a moment, his eyes wide and soft.

"Mandy, there's something I need to tell you." He spoke soberly to her, Mandy settling herself despite her nerves. "I've been thinking about something for awhile now, about us, and about the future, but everything was always so chaotic. I was always uncertain what it would turn out like, everything is so bad out there now, so I was afraid to decide. But now I know for sure." Billy let go of her breasts and put his hands on the sides of her arms, turning her around towards him where he stood gazing at her with such love it bought him heartache.

"When we grow up, and this is all over, I want you to be the mother of my children."

Mandy looked at her partner wide-eyed as her breath caught in her chest, her lip quivering as a familiar tightness formed inside of her that ultimately bought tears to her eyes and down her face for him. Moving in she put her arms around him as they both embraced each other in a passionate and loving kiss once more.

* * *

In the hallway outside their bedroom door, Grim slowly making his way up the staircase, his prized scythe held by his side, the blade ticking and crackling softly as it cooled since he had used it earlier during the dark hours of the morning. In the same arm as he held the scythe he also held the national newspaper, the only one left still printed in the country, and in his other he held a cup of strong instant coffee. He took a sip, and was reminded of how much he bodily loathed the world as it was nowadays. It tasted stale and burnt like cigarettes as usual, but it did the trick, and considering how scarce coffee was these days he wasn't about to complain, at least not too much.

As he ascended the stairs up to the corridor between the different bedrooms he halted with a look of surprise on his skeletal features for what he saw ahead of him. Standing in front of Billy and Mandy's bedroom door were two glowing spectral images, cast in vibrant ruby red and bright green respectively. But what truly shocked him was that they were in the shape of the young Billy and Mandy, the exact same way they had been when they had first met him more than six years ago now, Billy with a giant nose and baseball cap, Mandy with no nose and a constant heavy set scowl.

The young Billy and Mandy both looked to see him standing there, Grim regarding them both silent and agape. The glowing green Billy grinned as Mandy put her hands on her hips and gave him a hard look.

Grim raised a bony finger to point between the two. "… Billy? Mandy?"

"Almost, bonehead." The young Mandy answered with the younger's usual sass and sarcasm.

"But not quite! Teehehehehe!" Billy sniggered.

Grim frowned at them both baffled, before he realised. "Judgement and Berserker." He stated, to which they both gave a nod in reply. "What are you two doing here?"

"Nothing that concerns you or anybody else, don't worry about it." Judgement answered with the young Mandy's voice. Grim stepped up towards them, before Berserker moved in next to Judgement to block him off, forming a wall across the hallway ahead of him. Grim cocked his head curious, before his eyes wandered to the doorway they had been standing guard in front of before.

"What's going on in dere?" He tried to press them for answers, but was unsuccessful.

"Nothing you need to know about or hear." Berserker answered, sounding just like Billy as a child. "Our masters want some time alone together in private, and until they say otherwise nobody goes near this door, that goes for you too. Unfortunately it seems the sound barrier they placed around their room doesn't block everything."

Grim looked at them wide-eyed. "I just need to get to me study."

"Then you can port straight there without going past." Judgement stated, leaving no room for discussion.

Grim relented. Before he went to teleport to the room at the end of the hallway he gave the two a small smile.

"You know, it's good to see dose two faces again after all dis time." He spoke, before a portal opened under his feet and he disappeared, another flash occurring through the door at the end of the hallway as he arrived. With him gone the young Billy and Mandy returned to their places standing in front of their master's doorway. Through the walls a barely audible sound of someone moaning with delight reached them. The young boy gave a little smirk as they both glanced across at each other.

"What do you think they're doing in there?" Berserker asked ad Judgement bit her lip.

"It's not our job to contemplate their love life. Let them take care of each other." She answered flatly and looked to the ground. Berserker through pried at her face, searching for any indication she thought otherwise, and was rewarded when she glanced back to him with wide eyes.

"_I love you to Mandy."_

"_Oh Billy…"_

Their master's muffled voices came through the wall just loud enough for them to hear. Both of the youths turned away awkwardly. One after another though they each glanced back at each other, blushing heavily. Judgement finally gave a small, shy smile, as Berserker gave a wide, equally bashful smile. Moving hesitantly they both reached out for each other, and quietly linked hands, before slowly moving over to stand close together with their arms touching. Berserker's smile turned to a look of longing, and as Judgement looked to him apprehensively he raised his hand to trace across her arm. She watched his fingers move across her shoulder, slowly going up to grace her neck, finally caressing the side of her face. Closing her eyes she nuzzled his hand affectionately, opening her eyes to give him a low, longing gaze.

Together they turned to face each other. Hesitantly Berserker reached out and put his other hand around her upper arm as he cradled her face, while Judgement moved closer to him and put her arms up on top of his shoulders. Their breath began to pick up, as they both looked to each other wide-eyed. But they both wanted this to happen. Slowly they each bought themselves closer together, embracing each other as they lowered their eyes. Resting their foreheads together they tasted each other's hot breath, before finally coming together in a shy, gentle first kiss. Separating after just a moment they looked to each other through what had just occurred between them, before they each smiled and nuzzled each other lovingly.

* * *

Meanwhile.

The USS Connecticut, the second of the Seawolf class attack submarines, prowled silently, lazily in wait just beneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Connecticut, the last remaining member of its class after Seawolf was sunk and Jimmy Carter was damaged by a torpedo and left to rot after the economy collapsed, was not here on any patrol, her captain currently sitting at his station awaiting confirmation of attack orders.

"_USS Connecticut this is command. Operation Rubout is in effect. You are cleared to fire on your pre-assigned target. Report back on the weapons status after firing. Over."_

"I copy that command." He answered into the microphone. Looking to his subordinates as they awaited orders he nodded, letting them take their positions as he contemplated what they were about to do. Operating a submarine required extensive training and dedication to their duty, and a good level of intelligence and common sense, all of which were now vilified by the Aryan Empire they served. Undermanned and constantly short of supplies, the crew of Connecticut was serving the emperor only so that they wouldn't be sunk. Few of them liked what they were doing here, being a part of this mass murder, and so there was a plan amongst them to abandon their post and sail for safety in Korea. However it was clear that some of them would have to be hardline party loyalists, drugged up on white racial group narcissism, keeping an eye out for any hint of dissent or treason, but who or how many remained unknown. It was a risk they had to take. Besides, most of their families were dead already, murdered by the regime they were serving. All they had left was themselves.

Setting himself to the task at hand he flicked a switch on his control panel. "Weapons this is the captain. Are we ready to fire yet?"

"_Yes sir."_ Came the electronic voice of an officer in the torpedo room. _"Coordinates are locked in and ready. The weapon is loaded in the number one torpedo tube and is primed to fire."_

"Alright." Flicking the switch on his panel he looked to the men stationed around him at the controls. One of them flipped the plastic cover off a large red button, his thumb hovering over it awaiting his captain's orders. Said captain again bought the microphone to his mouth, speaking throughout the vessel and to his superiors on land, and to the fully loaded carrier several hundred kilometres behind them out of range of their targets radar.

"Command this is USS Connecticut. Firing in five, four, three, two…"

* * *

The waves of the enormous gulf ebbed and flowed under the glow of the orange and yellow mid morning sky. Out here the waters were left to lazily billow their way around until they reached the shores of Florida or Cuba, largely untouched by the ravages of the nuclear wars and genocides.

This state of lulling turbulence was abruptly broken as an enormous blast of white spray erupted from out of the surface, a column rising twenty feet into the air. Before it could even begin to settle though it was eclipsed by a violent blast of hot ash and gas from with in its base. Blasting up out of the spray arose a perfect white tube, a fiery tail of rocket exhaust trailing in its wake as it soared up towards its cruising altitude. Seconds later the stubby rocket fell away, a set of wings and an air intake opening out as the jet engine took over.

Watching the missile launch from afar a single Navy Seahawk hovered close to the waves. With their orders preset and the required conditions met they followed their assigned task with cruel glee for the men and women below. Pushing a button on his control yoke the pilot dropped a pair of torpedoes from the helicopter into the water below. Now that the submarine had done its duty in firing its missile there was no further use in keeping it and its traitorous crew around anymore. Ahead of them a large dome of spray erupted out of the water, as the USS Connecticut and her entire crew were no more.

Finding its bearings through the satellite network high overhead the Tomahawk cruise missile hunkered down low against the ocean's surface, beneath the gaze of its distant target's radar. Locking onto its target's position it settled itself down for its seventeen minute trip to oblivion.

* * *

Nergal the Second smiled, his green eyes veiled under a pair of stylish green-black wireframe sunglasses, as he stood at the helm of his pride and joy, gliding effortlessly across the still waters under the mid morning sky. His vessel, the aptly named Blade Runner, was a forty four foot long, twin Lamborghini v-twelve powered cigarette boat. He had named the beautiful vessel not just for the movie, or the powerboat event, but more for its low slung super sleek hull, painted a light shade of whitish-blue-grey that reflected the morning sun off its surface like a gleaming Japanese sword.

His black hair wavered in the wind as he flew along the surface of the low waves, out towards the sun overhead. The handsome young demon wore jeans and joggers for the leisurely occasion, an open white button up shirt covering his arms as the sun and wind blew down against his exposed chest. Few had ever seen the normally suit clad agent of destruction in such a relaxed state, having risen that morning and seen the flat waters and perfect weather. Here he found himself at his most calm, feeling the wind against his hair and subtly sculpted chest and arms, the two engines behind him purring away contentedly as they propelled the craft bounding over the waves at ninety miles per hour.

Grinning Junior reached for the chrome throttle lever, throttling back to bring the sleek boat to a crawl. Looking out over the lip of the windshield that kicked up from the lengthy arrow-like bow, he smiled at the sight of the thin clouds in the distance, shining a brilliant orange-yellow under the sun. Mornings always were beautiful out here, and he'd had plenty of time to enjoy them after their last and biggest mission a few months ago; their campaign of terror to turn China and Russia against each other.

As they'd expected following the destruction of the fleet at Vladivostok by their hand the two voracious superpowers had begun ferocious clashes around their borders, with incursions and full scale invasions by both sides through Mongolia and Kazakhstan. In the opening month Russia had the upper hand, their tanks and troops advancing through Tibet, getting as far as Chengdu before the Chinese responded using tactical nuclear weapons to wipe out entire armies. Disregarding the destruction and radiation already dealt they made their own move into Russia, both sides using dozens of low yield bombs and missiles to cause untold destruction to their enemy's numbers. And still the dwindling Chinese forces advanced, dividing the massive country in half up through Krasnoyarsk Krai, until such time as the Russians, in desperation, used a single long range missile to devastate Beijing. They paid a heavy price for it, the Chinese retaliating by destroying much of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. During the carnage North Korea, without any influence by Tak or Junior, decided to invade the South. It was a slaughter, the North collapsing into anarchy two days later with their cities in ruin and the majority of their rulers dead, with their 'Brilliant Comrade' Kim Jong Un murdered by a group of his own subordinates.

In the end, with both China and Russia devastated by the war and with large areas contaminated with radioactive dust, fearing further destruction Russia finally sued for peace. They gave up all their land to the west of Krasnoyarsk, though it quickly broke away from China to reform with Russia, followed shortly after by the Independent Commonwealth of Tibet, as it was clear China had no military power left to hold onto any of their territories. In the end, with tens of millions dead on both sides and their nations left crippled for decades to come, the war ended, the regimes broke apart, and the nations they had conquered and enslaved prior were set free. One of the final lasting benefits of the war for them was that both sides had destroyed most of their opponent's nuclear stockpiles to prevent them being used. Suddenly one of the biggest threats to their takeover had just evaporated in front of them.

Their work had been grim and bloody, claiming the lives of so many innocent people, but it was a necessary evil. Besides that, this something the two mad empires did to themselves, much like Indonesia and Myanmar, they just gave them a reason to do it. Now the takeover of that corner of the globe would be all the more smoother and with much fewer casualties, hastening the rebuilding. Now that their work was complete they had so much more time to spend by themselves, and he was looking forward to it.

Smiling towards the clear blue and orange skies ahead he turned to the right, towards the island paradise where he and Tak had lived for the past two years. Pulling the wheel around he guided the idling boat around towards the wooden wharf just off the beach, taking aim at his distant destination, before he shoved the throttle all the way forward.

"HAAAAHAHAAA!" He howled out with glee as the ship exploded into motion, racing towards the shore at a blistering rate, his shouts and hollers of joy largely drowned out by the two roaring v-twelves behind him.

Emerging out from the mouth of the cave Tak stood clad in her purple two piece string swimsuit with a see through skirt tied around her shapely hips, and a pair of string sandals that wound up her calves, looking out towards the bounding vessel as it raced in towards the mainland. She didn't quite know why she still hadn't told him how she thought he was the best man she'd ever known, or that he was the man of her dreams, or that she thought about him night and day, or that she considered being around him the privilege of her lifetime, but she still figured wearing something alluring and a size or five too small was good enough for now. Out ahead she watched as Junior pulled the vessel up to the wharf, a number of Nerglings racing out to moor it to the side with ropes as their master disembarked. She studied him as he ordered his minions to secure it tightly, showing them both strength and authority, and total respect at the same time. He was a born general, if not a great leader and tyrant in his own right, but that position was already filled. She watched as he made his way up the beach, eyeing up his bare chest and light tan he'd received from their surroundings. Biting her lip she smirked and gave a murmur of desire as she studied him.

Looking up to the cave he saw Tak as she stood watching him. Taking off his sunglasses he quickly made his way through the palm trees, stepping up to greet her.

"Good morning." He spoke in his rich mixed European accent.

"Morning. You look like you were enjoying yourself." Tak replied with a smirk, holding her hands on her hips as Junior smiled back.

"Yes, it's a great day for it too, just like it is every day." He turned to look out to the magnificent view before them. Neither of them ever tired of living here. "It's looking to be a good day so far. I just had a good morning run, and when I come back I have a beautiful girl here to greet me." He smiled light-heartedly as Tak blushed slightly.

"Heh. Come on." Turning she led him back into the cave. Through the corner of her eye she could see him as he occasionally glanced over her figure. She looked back to him, catching him in the act, and gave him a sensual smirk. "See something you like?"

"Oh you know, just enjoying the view." He replied coolly.

"You pervert." She cooed mockingly.

"Oh? I saw you eyeing me up before. You just can't get enough of me can you?" Junior spoke and stepped up ahead of her, putting his glasses back on and stretching his arms up behind his back like a male model. Tak stopped and stared him up and down Junior's eyes picking up as she didn't stop ogling him. "You really can't can you!"

Tak sniggered in her usual slightly crazy way and continued on around him, swaying her hips sensually as she led him back into the base.

After being more or less alone together for two years they had gotten to the point where a romantic relationship was just a matter of who spoke up first away, both largely aware that the other felt something for them beyond simple lust, but bringing it up had always been a kind of taboo. It had been easy when they were working, Junior content to build up the bond they had then in between some intense flirting and teasing, but now that their work was almost complete he found himself thinking of nothing else but the girl he had come to genuinely love. And Tak had her own issues that sometimes bothered her, first that she had never been in a relationship with someone before, the same with him, and as close as they had grown, though they were the same biological age she was over a hundred years old, while he was six. On top of that, throughout all their exploits and all the self-confidence they had built together since then, there was still a lingering feelings of personal insecurity and inadequacy that still pressed on them both, left over from their previous lives, telling them they were unworthy of each other's love.

But there were other factors as well. Each had found the other to be well in touch with their own emotional needs, and had both shown a great deal of care and consideration into the wellbeing of their partner. Several situations had arisen that put each other in conflict, but they had both been able to see from the other's point of view, and worked out a solution like they were one individual. And though the age gap was immense, psychologically Nergal was far beyond his years, both due to his experiences, and as a result of his faster mental development as a demon. He already had half of his learning complete when he hatched from his egg, and Tak was much the same. And though their own fears and hesitations still played on them every once in a while, they both knew the cure to this problem was to be found in each other's arms. They had already done immense good to each other by being together these past few years, and that was set to get much better, as soon as they bridged that last gap.

Still for now they separated once they past into the base, going into their own separate rooms to change into something more reasonable.

As Tak closed the door to her room she stilled herself, smiling at the thought of all the times he had made her feel like she was walking on planet heaven, or burning up hotter than a star. She loved it when he gazed at her body like that. She had purposely shown it off to him many times before, it always gave her a mad thrill when he stared her up and down with desire and worship in his eyes. One of the things she had encountered in having a human body was the urges she had been receiving, and considering she had never felt them until two years ago, she felt them very strong. Some of them would have shocked and revolted her previously, but now she couldn't care less. But what she felt for Junior went beyond urges.

Stepping over to the far side of her otherwise fairly drab room she smiled fondly of a wall covered in photographs of her and Junior together, enjoying each other's company, some of him alone, others with their friends Billy and Mandy. But the one she always looked on with profound content was one of the two of them sitting on a park bench in Japan near a shrine, Junior smiling contentedly while she beamed with mad enthusiasm, both resting their heads against one another facing the camera. It always warmed her inside.

Turning to her bed where a set of her regular clothes lay waiting she casually undressed from her swimsuit. Pausing she made her way over to stand in front of a mirror, and smirked at what she saw. Unlike Mandy, Tak's human form had developed in another direction. Whereas she had grown quite slim and petite, Tak was already quite well endowed in all areas, and considering the different approach she took to a potential romance, she was grateful for it. In addition her hair had grown out into a long thick main that still framed her face in jagged streaks, but the back of which now came down to her shoulder blades. She smiled with satisfaction as she ran one hand over her well developed left breast.

'_No wonder you can't stop looking at me. I bet you loved winning that bet as much as I did loosing it.'_

Returning to her bedside as she slipped on a pair of underwear and a violet short skirt that parted down her left, as well as her old buckle up boots. Walking over to the other side she looked down at the purple and violet long sleeved top still bearing the old pre-imperial Irken insignia, while to the left of it sat her c-cup bra. Picking it up she examined it for a moment, the piece of clothing she wore more for modesty's sake than anything. But then she remembered with a gleeful grin, right now she wasn't feeling modest at all. Sniggering excitedly to herself she tossed it aside, picked up her top and pulled it on over her breasts without a bra, uttering a silly little laugh at herself. She felt so naughty and dangerous with only the thin material between her sensitive areas and Junior's eyes, and if it got cold, or she felt hot, there was nothing stopping him from seeing that she was braless.

'_Let's see you take your eyes of me now!'_

A knock on her door that she recognised as Junior's rang out.

'_Oh fuck! Oh shit! Haha!'_ She whipped around to see where her bra had landed on top of her computer monitor at one end of the room, silently terrified and ecstatic at the same time.

"Tak?"

"Come in." She said while bounding over, picking it up and jamming it down between the desk and the wall, opening up her control screen as Junior opened the door and looked in. Dressed in a black long sleeve shirt, trousers, shoes and with a red tie much like Nergal Senior, he paused when he noticed the alarmed state in his partner, despite the fact she was casually standing over the computer. He could see her breathing was hard and rushed, even as she glanced over to him momentarily.

"So what's up?" He asked after a moment as Tak opened up the radar map of the area.

"Just checking the scanner." She lied trying to cover her nerves. Because of this she failed to notice the unusual hesitancy in her normally confident and toying partner as he stepped over slowly.

Looking upon the computer screen there showed a tiny blip from several minutes ago, the subject having disappeared shortly after. She raised an eyebrow, hearing Junior's footsteps as he approached her from behind.

"Anything out there?" He asked of the radar display, still tense inside.

"No, just some little thing low down. Possibly smugglers, another cigarette boat, it can barely even pick up yours just off the beach." She answered, shutting the radar screen off. Standing straight beside him she clutching her hands together in front of her in thought. Junior noticed this, a particular, almost shy expression on her face as she avoided eye contact with him, drawing his curiosity away from his own tension.

"Say Junior, what you said before… you know, about me being a beautiful girl…" Her face flushed slightly as she turner her eyes up to him again with her face still lowered. "Did you really mean that?" Junior's eyes widened slightly, finding this to be highly at odds with the lively, confident, over the top semi-British girl he had the pleasure of knowing. But he looked at her calmly with a gentle smile.

"Yes, I did. To be honest you really are… just beautiful, in every way. I've never really met anyone quite like you before." He spoke to her. "But it's more than that. You shine from the inside out. There's so much… fire, and spirit, and life inside of you, you light up everything around you. I saw it the first time I ever met you. To me, you're a goddess. You've done so much for me." Tak turned to face him heart-struck, and gave a smile in response.

"You… I bet all the girls in Endsville never thought you'd turn out like… uhh… heh." She turned back to the floor as she blushed again. Junior smirked and bit his lip.

"The guys back on Irk never knew just how good they had it to have you around. But then you're so much better than all those little fascists anyway. Irk lost something very precious when they lost you." Junior spoke affectionately.

Tak faced him again as the depth of meaning in what he was saying pressed further on her. She watched as his smile slipped, replaced by a more serious visage, looking to each other wide-eyed in silence. As Junior turned his eyes down away from her, it occurred to her that something was weighing heavily on his mind as well.

"Junior?" She asked as he looked up to her again.

"Tak… Have you ever seen how Billy and Mandy act towards each other? Have you seen how happy they make each other?" He asked. Suddenly tense she nodded. "… What if we could feel like that together?"

Tak opened her mouth to draw a sharp breath, bringing one hand up to her chest. Was he really asking her what she hoped she was? Her heart started to race as her moth went dry, but she never backed away or showed any sign of rejection. Junior knew that he'd just taken the step he'd always hesitated to take, towards what they both wanted for so long. But he wasn't finished yet.

"Tak you're the best thing that ever happened to my life." He spoke at last, overcoming himself to tell the girl of his dreams what he'd wanted her to know. "I love you."

Her eyes and ears did not deceive her. He had really said what she'd hoped he would one day say to her. He felt the same way about her as she did him. Letting out a smile at last Tak stepped in towards him, reached up and placed her slender hands gently on his shoulders, caressing the side of his face. Junior was stunned, he almost expected her to be uncomfortable with the idea, but she had matched his feelings with her own. And so he gave in to what he had wanted to do for a long time. Tak felt his hands take hold around her arms as they faced each other so close they could taste each others breath.

Removing the last few millimetres between them Junior bought his lips to hers. He kissed her softly as she returned his affection , both of them pressing into each others warm embrace as they tested their new found romance. Junior extended his arms around her back as Tak quickly deepened the kiss, desiring more of this wonderful new feeling she found in him.

When they separated seconds later, each looked into the other, both having realised their greatest wish. The bliss of the moment was unlike anything they'd felt before. A small smile tugged at the corners of Tak's lips as they once again moved in to kiss again. Junior quickly closed the distance, holding her waist tightly as she passionately kissed him with an intensity that surprised him. Tak let out a sensual moan as she pushed herself ever further into Junior, kissing and sucking on his mouth, tasting him with growing desire. Junior opened his eyes wide with surprise as he felt her press her body up against him, running her hands over his neck before she quickly started undoing the buttons of his shirt. He gave a smile as Tak now pushed him back, leading him over to prop his back up against the wall behind him as she worked on his shirt, opening it and running her hands up and down his chest.

"Oh… Uhhh…" Junior closed his eyes again and began running his hands roughly over her curves. Junior's confession and their first kiss had lifted the lid on all of Tak's built up urges, and she had lifted the lid on his. Thus things got very intense very quickly.

Tak slid her tongue deep into his mouth, Junior licking her tongue with his as she sucked on his mouth. Overcome by lust for the exotic blue-haired goddess Junior ran one hand up her back, while the other went under her top to feel and caress the warm skin of her shapely waist. As Junior began licking her tongue inside his mouth while running his hands over her body, Tak became increasingly aware of the fact she wasn't wearing a bra, and was very glad she wasn't.

Pulling back from their kiss Tak closed her eyes and moaned, licking her lips as Junior watched, her face having turned scarlet. Opening her eyes she smiled at him sensually as he gasped for breath.

"Wow. I wasn't quite expecting that." Junior spoke in a daze.

"Did you like it?" Tak asked coyly.

"It was incredible. But I guess I should have suspected that you would come onto me with such force. After all, you have been trying to seduce me one way or another for a long time now, haven't you?" He spoke with a perverted smile. Tak blushed again as she felt warm all over.

"Oh, now what makes you think I would do that?"

"Well aside from the skimpy bikinis and the teasing I just noticed when you lost that bet to me last week, you seemed to really enjoy taking your top off and writhing around that pole in front of me. It was almost like you loved loosing that bet as much as I did winning it." He sneered as she let out a giggle.

Their bet had been a simple shooting contest. Tak had taught him everything she had known, and when Junior bet that he could put a shot on a far target better than she could, on the promise of a striptease, she was all too eager. Strangely her shooting skills dropped off quite noticeably after that. Tak had loved every second of it, feeling his eyes probing her body relentlessly, stripping her of all her dignity, and days later they were both still blushing madly over it.

"Oh come on, a beautiful girl can't give the guy of her dreams an innocent little striptease? What's so seductive about that?" She posed feeling very flustered. Junior just smirked.

"Even now you're not wearing a bra." He answered. Tak gasped as her face flashed a deeper red. Looking down she could see her nipples poking out from behind the fabric, and it bought a flair of dizzying excitement. Suddenly and without warning Junior swept both hands up under the front of her top, groping her fat breasts and giving them both a good hard squeeze.

"Oooohhh Junior baby…"

Tak threw her head back and moaned as he groped her udders, squeezing them hard in his palms as they came together in a Frenching kiss. Pulling one hand out Junior pinched her nipple and gave her a hard twist while his other hand dug down into the back of her panties to grope her ass. Overcome by pleasure Tak rode one leg up next to him as she rubbed her body against him, wanting ever more perverted pleasure out of her new romantic partner.

Pulling back again she looked at him hotly as he continued to fondle her left breast under her top.

"I have a confession to make." She spoke with lust, earning his interest. "I've been having fantasies about us. I've had fantasies about doing wonderful, _disgusting_ things to you, things that make your eyes roll back, and make you moan, and cry out my name. And now that we have all this free time, we can spend all day every day learning just what you love best. Of course it's alright if you're not ready for some things yet but..."

But at this point the perverse grin on Junior's face said it all. He gave a chuckle as he bowed his head to her.

"You really are a beautiful pervert." He spoke adoringly. Tak smiled.

"Would you love me any other way?"

"Yeah!" He answered immediately.

"And that's why I'm your pervert."

Holding each other close while Junior reached up and lovingly fondled her breasts the two newfound lovers bought their mouths close for another steamy kiss, until some invisible force brutally shoved hers lips into his. They both only just managed to register their surprise, before that same massive force picked them off their feet, tossing them over the bed to slam into the opposite corner of Tak's room, wherein they fell into a dishevelled heap together as the blast wave dispersed around them, followed immediately by the sound of the Tomahawk's detonation.

"_BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!"_

* * *

Mandy leaned back in her seat at the living room table, absent-mindedly staring out the window again as she munched on a freshly made toasted sandwich. She made sure she enjoyed it, finding enough food was a challenge in itself nowadays, and their parents had done an excellent job.

Hearing the sound of boot steps coming down the staircase she turned to see Billy enter the room. He was clad in a blue and white striped tee shirt, a set of thick black Kevlar jeans fastened by a large red belt with a skull print in the thick steel buckle, and a pair of heavy black boots. A simple, tried and tested formula really, nothing too extreme or flashy for while he was around the house, but extremely effective when it was complete, and combined with its wearer's bloodthirsty and terrible nature.

She handed him another sandwich from the plate in front of her, which he graciously took and devoured in mere moments. She continued to munch away steadily, careful not to get anything on her red dress. Nowadays her outfit consisted of a deep red dress with the same contours as her earlier pink ones. Besides that she wore the same black bike shorts and boots from years before, with her black headband perched between her fringe and the twin peaks of her hair. In the middle of her red dress where the flower had originally sat, there was now the symbol of a rose done in red and black, with a black stem and thorns, surrounded by the blood of the corrupt. It was as beautiful and gentle as it was dark and cold and deadly, just like she was. It was, she had decided, to be the defining symbol of her reign and her new society in years to come.

"Slow down Billy, these things aren't cheap anymore." She spoke as she finished hers while he quickly polished off another one, taking a seat opposite. He smirked at her as she folded her arms across her chest, looking out the window and then at him flatly.

"You need to lighten up a little. Stop thinking so much about all the shit out there and think about the here and now, unless you intend to wipe out a few hundred mindless little people sometime soon. You should try laughing more." Billy spoke half jokingly.

"You laugh." She answered with a smirk. "Go on, laugh on my behalf."

"Okay… **Ahahahahah…"** With his features turning a feral demonic he let out a grating sound like some creature choking on one of its prey's bones. **"Ahahahahah… Ahahahahah.** Feel better now?"

Mandy cocked her head and nodded. "Surprisingly yeah." The two youths faced each other quietly, a little smile breaking out between them as they each thought about what had transpired earlier.

Again they became distracted by the appearance of a gout of neon green flame coming out of thin air, dispersing to reveal their faithful, if reluctant and begrudging companion Grim, the newspaper held open in his hand. He grimaced as they turned to greet him.

"Okay you two, I don't know what it was you were doing earlier dis morning, but at least get yer soundproofing for your room right. It's awkward enough when your two scythes make a roadblock outside your room and won't talk about it, but I don't wanna have to wake up every morning to de sound of whatever you two are doing up dere." He grumbled, his irritation soon turning to anxiety as Mandy bored a hole in his skull with a withering death stare.

"Grim, if you don't choose your words more carefully from now on, you'll never wake up again." She stated as Billy smiled evilly. It made his bones run cold.

"What's wrong death? Did you have another near-Mandy experience? Ehheheheh!"

Thankfully he was saved when Harold and Gladys entered the room from the staircase behind him, both giddy and sniggering to each other. It made the three look at them with curiosity.

"Good morning you three." Gladys chirped happily. "Say what were you two doing earlier? I thought I heard noises."

"What were you?" Billy retorted with a weird look as the two elders laughed almost drunkenly with their arms linked around each others backs. Neither of them continued with their line of inquiry.

Harold and Gladys had gone through something of a metamorphosis in the time since the world had imploded around them. Harold was no longer an overweight walrus. As the heat had been turned up on them he had taken a far greater interest in living life while they could, and had started with extensive exercise. Though still bulky in build, he was now in better shape physically than he had been in his teen years. His brain had begun coming online slightly as well, and his nose had decreased in size slightly. Even as his hair started to turn grey, his level of energy and dedication to himself and the people around him had increased tenfold. Gladys was the same. As the prospect of death and madness slowly closed in around them she decided she'd had enough of many of her life long habits and neurosis. She had become inspired and supercharged by the efforts of their very own children, thus even as her own age gradually began to press upon her, like her husband in realistic terms they had never been younger or more in their prime. All up the two had gone back to the lifestyle and romance they'd shared years earlier before Billy was born, before they were even married, meditation every morning, and making love every night.

But it hadn't all been easy going. Harold had lost his job when the economy flatlined, and though he'd been unemployed ever since, their kids' activities bought in more money every week than they'd ever dreamed of, but it was almost worthless. Gladys had found that at some point her usual grocery run had started to involve beating away crazed shoppers intent on stealing the bread in her trolley, and she now carried a revolver at all times outside. Harold had turned much of the garden into a vegetable farm, simply to get what was no longer available on any shelves. In fact the only industry that hadn't almost entirely collapsed was anything to do with the changing hands of large amounts of cash or property without actually doing much. Bookkeepers and accountants, solicitors, anyone who could draw invisible figures out of nowhere and still keep the mountains of dept at bay were now in vogue. Most of the money that flowed through the country didn't actually exist, as counterfeiting didn't even require the manufacture of notes anymore.

The prospect of being watched by State Security was always prevalent, and it was a problem they each had to come to terms with in their own way. But despite these challenges and hardships, life was good for them. Billy and Mandy had already followed through on several of their promises. Gladys had already been around the world with her family, at least the places that remained, and Harold enjoyed going for a cruise with his wife in their big block Shelby Cobra, or their Porsche Targa, though fuel was an issue.

"Alright you two what are your plans for the day?" Gladys spoke to her kids, prompting them to share a look. "You know you can't always just go lying about the house playing video games… or going off terrorising corrupt businessmen."

"We know Mom but what's the alternative?" Mandy spoke up. "In case you haven't noticed schooling in this country isn't really possible anymore, and because of that god damn Mayor we can't go to the library anymore!" She grimaced in hate for the corrupt miniature despot and his many pompous cronies.

They had loved that utopian pad of wisdom and integrity, as had all of the point zero one percent of the city's population who went there every day, as a sanctuary away from the frenzy of intolerance and murderous cruelty in their neighbours. Never in her life had she been more filled with such complete deep burning hate than when she and Billy stood by and watched from across the street as they tore it down in front of them all on the mayor's orders. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if they had just built another skyscraper or apartment on top of it, but no, they had to desecrate it. They tore down their library so they could build a strip club and whore house exclusively for the mayor and his dozen or so cronies.

She swore on that day that this time around, when the day came for them to take over, there would be no ruins left of this city and the vermin living within. She would not give them the dignity of leaving any evidence to say they had ever been here in the first place. Today though, of the fifty or so people mostly their age who had watched on mournfully as their sacred gathering place was destroyed, they were the only two left. With the exception of this one house, every last decent human being in the city of Endsville had been killed.

"Besides, we've already taken care of the funding issue, and Junior and Tak have already completed everything they set out to do to prepare." Billy spoke up as his lover bowed her head in immense brooding darkness. "Basically all we really have to do now is wait that last little bit until our forces are ready, so until then we have a lot of time to spare."

"That as it may be, bumming around the house is not such a good thing." Harold spoke up. "Don't get me wrong, TV and video games are great but you shouldn't waste your life on them. I mean don't you still have your own personal library at the mall?"

Mandy calmed somewhat at that. "Yeah it's still good. But we've read almost everything in there already."

"Well you should read them, go do some training, save some refugees, find some way of spending that time productively. I don't want you two just lounging about in all these weird places and becoming fat lazy slobs like Harold." Gladys replied as her husband nodded dumbly.

"Yeah! Heh heh!" Harold chimed in, the two parents watching as they looked out the window again. Gladys waited for him to figure out he'd been insulted. "Wait a minute… Oh, now I get it! Gah haah hah ah haha ha!" She smiled flatly. For all his vast improvements, unless he wanted to be otherwise, he was still an idiot.

Sparing it a glance Billy saw the helicopter from before as it hovered in place amidst the orange morning sky. He didn't give it a second thought as he finished off his sandwich. Off to the side Grim opened the newspaper and began reading again, skimming past the various articled that were little more than hate speech and propaganda in search of something more interesting, like what the genocidal maniacs were going to do next.

Gladys and Harold watched as their adopted daughter rose from the table and turning to head back upstairs with her partner in tow. Grim quickly stepped in to take a seat as he turned to an article about an upcoming astronomical event. As their charge scaled the stairs to their rooms Harold gave his wife a kiss, and they each quietly retreated back from the grizzled and uncomfortable reaper into the nearby kitchen.

As Grim briefly read the article in front of him he saw that Endsville was going to be host to a solar eclipse. He cocked his head in interest, but otherwise thought little of it. Continuing on however he was perplexed to note that there was also a prediction of a lunar eclipse. Both were occurring in and around Endsville, and both were happening today.

Moment by moment his undead heart seemed to stop, as he raised his head with the weight of what this meant. The last words of the dying cave mystic came and went through his mind, and looking back to the paper he saw when the solar eclipse was scheduled to begin… _in less than an hour's time._

"_It's happening."_ He spoke in little more than a whisper. _"It's really happening… right now."_

* * *

Upstairs Billy was caught up in thought as he followed Mandy back into their room again, closing the door behind them.

"Mandy, it's time we started thinking about letting Grim go." He stated to her. She looked back to him with intrigue.

"What makes you think so? I mean he's been a great friend-slave, why give all that up?" She asked him curiously.

"I know having him around has been good. He's done so much for us, and we wouldn't even have the powers we have now if not for him. But we're past all that now. I don't wanna keep him on just so he can clean the toilet and wait on us hand and foot, and we have someone to pick on; that's just not us anymore. And besides, with both of us living under one roof he's been left hanging around here all these years, and it's not his house. It's getting awkward for him and for everyone else. And after everything you know he deserves better from us." Billy spoke knowingly. Mandy considered it, lowering her head in thought.

"What do you think?" She looked to him after a moment.

"Not just yet. I agree he deserves better than being our property, but there's just one more thing that I wanted him to do before I'm ready to release him." Mandy answered.

"Well what is it?" Billy asked her. She looked to him silent, and simply turned away.

"That's not important now."

With that settled for the moment Billy leaned back against the door absently as Mandy looked away.

"Anyway Mom's right. We do need to do something better than video games and just hanging out in these ghost cities. We need to get away from all this degenerate scum for a little while." Mandy turned back to him as he spoke and looked off in thought. "Get away… Huh. What about us going away somewhere? All of us can come, mom, dad, Grim, Tak and Junior, even his parents if they want."

"Well we have the money, even if it is almost worthless, and those two have done a lot for us." Mandy nodded in agreement. "And it would be good to get away from this nightmarish hellhole for a few days at least. What did you have in mind? Bearing in mind of course that Tak and Junior already live on an island paradise."

"Oh. Uhh…" He trailed off after his first and only real idea was squashed. "Okay, well what about somewhere in Europe where the shit isn't as bad? Somewhere up in the Alps. How about Switzerland?"

"Yeah, there's a lot of really good scenery over there, and it's been too long since we went to the snow." Mandy replied as she pondered over the idea, stepping over to the window as she put a finger to her lip in thought. Looking outside she saw the sky turning a blue-yellow hue as the sun rose higher, the police JetRanger from before still hovering in place. "They also have great chocolate, and I could use a new watch, and the people there can't be that bad, I mean it's still a tourist destination."

"We could even hire out a little cabin like the one we stayed in a few years back. It'd be good to go back to something like that, away from everyone." A thought occurred to the young demon lord, earning a smile. Coming up behind Mandy he gently slid his hands down around the front of her waist to hold her affectionately. She smiled warmly in response, melting into his gentle embrace. "You know, we could set ourselves up somewhere away from everyone else, that way we could have some time alone together. After all, it's been far too long since we just got some time to ourselves in a place like that, without having parents or hordes of thugs or overconfident demons to worry about. What do you say?"

Tentatively she bought her hands up to gently clasp over his as he held her, smiling as their fingers intertwined together. "Switzerland and time alone with you sounds great."

Turning her face around to her side she came face to face with Billy as he leaned over, closing her eyes to give him a gentle kiss on the lips. Looking back Mandy didn't doubt that if her eight year old self could see them both now she'd think they were two completely different people. Her eight year old self would never have even considered being in love, let alone in love with her best friend. She would never have considered that she would ever kiss a boy the way she kissed Billy, or allowed him to put his hands around her the way he did. But here she was none the less, still just as powerful and menacing as she was then, if not more after what she'd seen and done, and still kissing the boy she loved. For Billy though, at age eight he wouldn't have been able to think at all so looking back was a moot point.

Billy and Mandy quickly lost themselves to the warm bliss of their moment together. As Mandy pressed her slim figure up close to him, winding her arms down around his waist she reached up and caressed the side of his face. Billy gave a small groan of contentment as he placed one hand on her back between her shoulders to pull her into his embrace as the other cradled her waist. Smiling Mandy nestled herself into his arms as he caressed her back, parting to face each other adoringly.

"Come on. Haven't you had enough for one day?" She toyed.

"Enough? Of you? There's no such thing, especially after this morning." He responded. Bringing his hand up from her waist he gently toyed with the hair running down from her black headband framing each side of her soft pail white features. Mandy closed her eyes and smiled in perfect happiness as she felt his fingertips trace across the sides of her face, opening her eyes to see the look of affection in her partner's blue eyes.

"I love you so much." Billy spoke lovingly as he nuzzled her affectionately.

"I love you too Billy." She replied turning around in his arms, moving in close to his face. "I love you. I always have loved you. And I always will." For the two young lovers time seemed to slow to a standstill as moment by moment they bought their lips closer, coming together to share the gentle warmth and softness that was reserved only for each other.

They continued to gently kiss each others lips, both completely enthralled in the other's close presence, until Billy's mind caught on something. As Mandy continued to kiss his mouth she noticed him suddenly seem to loose interest, his lips not moving themselves into hers as they had been a moment ago. Opening her eyes uncertainly she looked at her partner's face, seeing him staring out at the window across the room with what looked like grave suspicion.

"Mandy." He spoke doubtfully. "Is it just me, or is that police helicopter watching us?"

Turning away from him she followed his gaze, looking up out through the blinds of the window as he continued to hold her. There it was, the venerable Bell helicopter decked out in the abhorrently corrupt Endsville Police Department's colours of white and blue, still hovering in place facing them on an angle so as to get the best view from cockpit and cabin. Stepping out of his arms the two made their way over to the window to look closer. The more they narrowed their eyes warily at it, the more the pilot and crew within seemed to stare back on them from above. As they continued to gaze up at the mysterious vehicle, with the distant sound of its rotors echoing constantly in the background, a new sound permeated their minds.

Sirens. Police sirens. Heading this way.

Thinking as one their eyes widened with dread, their gaze trailing down away from the helicopter to the road out front as all the while the whirring sound of tens, possibly hundreds of police sirens drew close. Watching on in something similar to horror they gaped as below them in the space immediately out the front of their house, arrived one, then two, then five, then ten, then more police cars. The disorganised fray was built up further by the arrival of several SWAT vans, in addition to a few discreet black sedans of the SS, while they could see more going around the street to block them off from behind. The flashing lights of the fifty or so vehicles illuminated the neighbourhood in their chaotic display of authority. Billy and Mandy just gaped openly at the sight of the army that had come for them out of the blue, Billy putting his hands around her again for calm. When she'd awoken this morning, other than the feeling in the back of her mind that something was amiss, nothing could have given away that in just a few minutes time their entire world would just completely go to hell in a flurry of red and blue lights. Below them now the first of the entire police force were beginning to exit their vehicles, taking aim on the house with their assorted weapons.

"Oh god they found out." Mandy droned out in a daze of dismay, before she flung herself around in his arms towards the door behind them. "GRIIIM! GET MOM AND DAD DOWN IN THE BASEMENT NOW!" She screamed as Billy pulled her away from the view of the window.

Downstairs Grim was already in motion. Racing to where Harold and Gladys stood staring out in dismay at the army in front of them he grasped them by the back of their collars, dragging them roughly along with him as they raced down into the underground room where the reaper stored whatever he needed, quickly herding Saliva and Milkshakes in with them. The two parents made their way away from the door as Grim stood guard awaiting his charge. "Kids hurry up! Dey'll be barging in here any moment now!"

He needn't have said a word as the two made themselves busy, Billy opening the closet, going down to a set of shelves tucked away at the bottom. Opening it up Mandy and he made sure its contents were still ready to go. In it sat one Heckler and Koch P7M13 pistol with a nickel finish, a MAC-10 chambered for nine millimetre armour piercing rounds, and a special large sixty calibre chrome revolver custom made in the underworld, with magazines and ammunition for each, sitting in a black padded nest cut for each weapon. For now though they abandoned the small armoury, Mandy stepping over beside the window to check the police gathered below, meanwhile Billy reached into the back of the closet and withdrew a heavy black overcoat of underworld construction. Composed of a series of segmented strips coming together diagonally in a 'V' pattern down the front, it was highly resistant to small arms fire and attack by blades, yet healed with him when it was damaged. Putting his arms through it he pulled it on around him, leaving it open across his blue and white shirt, before they hurriedly left the room to join Grim downstairs.

"Jeez what took you?" Grim grizzled as the two joined him around the door to the cellar.

"Shut it bones. Billy secure the perimeter." Mandy ordered sternly, considerably less panicked than their parents. Billy and her had prepared for this, and immediately set their plan into action. Complying with her demands Billy flicked his wrist, the savage green weapon emerging in an instant as its master grinned evilly. Pointing it at the front door it spat out a wave of green power that instantly dispersed into the walls of the house. No sooner had it vanished that they saw under the door a team of what they assumed to be a heavily armed response unit taking position around the frame ready to batter it down. Readying the heavy metal ram the team swung it against the door. Around the yard the others of the great force watched as the team of five all burst into flames, their screams dying a moment later along with their charred bodies.

"Good. That gives us a few minutes." Mandy spoke.

"Until dey shoot out the windows dat is." Thankfully Grim's words weren't immediately responded with gunfire and shattering glass. "Get in dere."

Joining their parents inside the sanctuary of the basement the two harbingers of disaster urged their parents for calm, sensing their tension and fear. Harold and Gladys knew as well as they did that there would be no arrests made today. Even Saliva and Milkshakes somehow knew instinctively they had come to slaughter everyone inside the house.

"Oh what are we going to do? Oh no! Th-They'll come storming in here and they'll just mowe us down like flies!" Gladys stammered in panic.

"Calm down Mom. That doesn't even make sense." Billy stated in a relaxed, slightly confident tone. "Just remember who it is they're dealing with." He smiled, his desire to destroy and kill already beginning to take effect.

"Billy's right, we've taken on worse than this garbage lots of times. You just stay down here and we'll take care of it, alright?" Mandy rationalised.

"What do we do after?" Harold asked worriedly. "We can't just stay here now that-"

"We'll figure that out in a minute." Mandy cut him off. Scowling sternly she willed her scythe to her hand, the sharp blade and ruby shaft filling the air inside the basement with its merciless iron resolve to crush and destroy their enemies. It calmed the fearful parents and pets now that it was clear someone of true power was in control of the situation. "Stay here. Grim, Billy, you two go round the back. I'll go up and take care of the guys out front."

Moving carefully the three split up, guarding themselves so as to avoid an ambush. Mandy slowly scaled the stairs as Billy headed for the rear glass doors with Grim in tow. Beyond the glass peens he could see another three police cars who had come barging in through the fence to guard the rear, the ten strong group of inattentive officers stationed behind. Furthermore a line of SWAT troops were seen carefully making their way towards the doors, oblivious to their presence. He grinned, his teeth turning to serrated blades, his eyes taking on a malevolent red glow.

'_**First slaughter of the day.'**_

Moving steadily step by step the team made their way towards the rear doors, intent on sneaking up from behind so they could shoot out the glass and take them by surprise. Before they could advance any further they jumped as the rear glass door flew open, out stepping the monster that preyed on tainted souls such as theirs. Turning to face them, tyrannical scythe at hand beside him, he smiled at them murderously, dipping his head to the side as he stared at them with eyes that showed only infinite bloodlust. Without even raising a finger the team simply flew to pieces in front of him, a bloody shower of inhuman splatter being the only signature of his blades of telekinesis. Turning his head to the side he flashed a grin at the terrified officers standing guard behind their cruisers, a mouthful of monstrous knife-like teeth greeting them in addition to a pulse of bloodlust and battle rage.

Swearing, screaming and taking aim with their pistols they fired wildly, some striking home in his flesh whilst others missed by a mile. Billy didn't even grimace from the impacts caused him no pain, the gaping wounds in flesh, bone and cloth healing before the bullets even passed all the way through, some of which never even made it through his cloak. Uttering an evil snigger he lowered himself into a killer's gate, a set of metal latches reaching across the gap of his cloak to close it tight ready for war, but it was only a distraction. As the few officers continued barraging him with ineffective fire they turned to see their accomplice arrive, Grim levelling his black scythe at the row of cars. A beam lanced out, slicing a wide arc through the line of enemy troops, cutting vehicle and person alike in half, followed by their utter destruction in a fountain of fire and blood.

"**Stay and guard here. Kill everyone you see."** Billy ordered, his predatory voice sending a shiver up Grim's spine. Nodding he stayed put before the door, his master turning to step around the left side of the house towards the group Mandy was about to destroy.

* * *

Hovering in place high above the small army of police collected out the front of the target's house the pilot and crew of the helicopter kept the entire scene within the sights of their camera. Each of the crew of four tensely kept watch after the blasts occurring from where the rear guard had stood, their companions on the ground gripping their weapons as a pyre of glowing smoke rose from behind the house. Taking aim at the house with their wild assortment of arms the rabble of poorly trained thugs kept watch over every window and opening an attack may come from. Moments later their attention focussed on the upper floor window as through the blinds their primary target came into view.

Mandy stalked through their room towards the window, tensing and building her scythe up ready to destroy their enemies gathered below. Reaching the window she looked down on the huge collection of vehicles and flashing lights out on the road before her. Watching the corrupt thugs with despise as they rushed for cover behind their vehicles she formed a discreet force field ahead of her as they took aim.

"That's the bitch!" One of the party agents called out pointing up to the girl. "KILL HER!"

The police opened fire in a mad hail of bullets. Mandy's field of view exploded in a blinding flash with the impacts of dozens of metal slugs. She shut her eyes and staggered back, quickly moving away from the window out of their range of fire. Escaping the barrage she recovered from the impact, the shield having been unprepared for dealing with such a heavy hammering. Grimacing she propped herself against the wall as what was left of the glass became blown in and the blinds shredded by her enemy's bullets, her attempt to deal one massive blow to the collection below currently thwarted by the hail of fire. She couldn't even poke her head out to take a look wit the volume of metal flying through the window, imbedding itself in the wall of their bedroom.

"You've got her pinned down." The co-pilot aboard the helicopter spoke into the microphone to the agents below.

"Okay." The suited man answered. "SWAT team move in while we provide cover… fire…"

Out of the continuous cacophony of small arms fire the men and women suddenly stopped shooting, distracted by the appearance of a swirling orange-green mass of energy coming up from the side of the house beyond the garage. Turning to face it they watched as the billowing cloud morphed into a piercing beam of power than shot up past the roof of the house towards their helicopter overhead. Watching in horror the beam changed form again, taking the shape of a snarling snapping dog's head, which instantly lunged for its vulnerable prey. The crew screamed in terror, trying to steer the light aircraft away in vain as the fiery snarling demonic dog raced up for it. Its massive jaws snapped shut on the machine, detonating in an explosion that blew the entire craft to slithers, leaving little more than the twisted and burning shards to come raining down on the army and the neighbour's houses. Billy's demonic features displayed all the delight he took in his devastation, loving the terrified faces of the cops nearby.

Seizing her chance Mandy moved to the window again, taking aim at the centre of the stunned group. Gripping her weapon tightly she gritted her teeth, expelling a blinding ruby blast that tore through the air, plunging straight through one of the cars into the ground. As soon as it impacted in the earth it detonated. She watched on coldly as the massive blast sent the cars and vans and people tumbling and flying in every direction, their flaming hulks leaving their mark of destruction on the landscape in front of her as they crashed to earth.

"**YAHAHAHAHAHA!"** Laughing hysterically Billy charged forward into the scene of devastation. In front of him their enemy lay injured, burnt and in shambles, staggering to try and regroup further back.

"Keep firing!" doubt

"Fall back!"

"Stay were you are!"

Not even the commanders of the disorganised and terrified rabble could pull themselves together to direct a response, their lazy, cruel and poorly trained troopers staggering about in a daze of fear and disarray. The closest few still trying to get over the blast were the first to come to their senses upon seeing their enemy advancing on them with his scythe. They opened fire on him with their MP5s.

Moving faster than their eyes could track Billy raced to the right to avoid their line of fire, tearing back around to bring his scythe to bear on their bodies.

"**DIE GARBAGE!"** He slew them all, the first six who had spotted him hacked and slashed apart before more caught on to what was happening. Grinning murderously he formed a protective bubble against the barrage of fire from their pistols and shotguns, lashing out with a searing blast of cosmic flame, a miniature solar flare to blow them and their cruisers away in a wave of hundred thousand degree heat. Their charred corpses landed amidst the terrified living, the flaming cars tossed into the crowd killing ever more. Moving quickly he took cover behind an overturned car as ten or so SWAT opened fire on him.

"**HA!"** One swing of his scythe later and they too had been blown away in a river of blistering heat and radiation. **"AAAHAHAHAHA! You worthless corrupt vermin think you can take on **_**ME?"**_ His desire to kill and maim and destroy overflowing he reached out with his arms, scythe in hand, a broiling wave of malevolent power consuming him. The troops before him quaked under the suffocating weight of his rage and cruelty as he glared at them with inhuman eyes, opening his shark-like jaws to roar fourth a mighty bellow._**"I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"**_

Before he could race forward and slay them his field of view became encompassed by ruby-white light, his ears subject to an awe inspiring roar. In an instant a massive blast wave hit him followed by a searing wind and a cloud of dirt and hot ash, almost knocking the terrorist and demon lord over from the force. As he recovered his senses and the dust slowly began to rise he saw the boiling black miniature mushroom cloud overhead, his eyes piercing the haze of dust and smoke enough to make out the twisted and burnt wrecks of the police cruisers, the smoking bodies of the officers lying draped across them or on the burnt ground.

Mandy watched on from her vantage point above as the few who had survived the far larger blast desperately tried to flee the scene of destruction. Scowling with merciless cruelty she fired another blast into their ranks, blowing twenty or so more to ash along with their machines. Below her Billy smiled darkly, contentedly strolling through the devastation as overhead more streaks of red light lanced out in a vengeful retaliation, unconcerned by the blasts and heat that battered him. He smelled the air, inhaling the smoke and ash of the dead. He loved it, the power, the rage, the unrestrained cold-hearted destruction free of forgiveness or compassion or remorse. Finding a survivor still clinging to life as he lay propped up against his burning vehicle Billy walked over, his coat opening down the front again. Upon seeing the demonic entity approach the scrawny man shook and trembled with terror, such sweet, delicious terror. He grinned.

"**Aaaaaahhhhh… I love my job."** Reaching down he clamped his hand around the snide little creature's throat, hauling him up to eye level with him. **"Talk worm. What do you know?"**

"I… I-I don't know noth-AAAAAHHHHH!" The scrawny man screamed as Billy crushed his right arm in his hand.

"**Why did you come here little rat? And give me a good answer because I will not be happy if you lie to me."** He continued to grasp the man by the throat as behind him Mandy emerged through the bullet ridden front door, approaching with her P7 in hand.

"Uh-We found out about your operations, the terrorist attacks worldwide, the war with China and Russia, you want to take over the world." He gasped out as Mandy came to stand by her partner's side, looking at the man with contempt.

"What are your plans?" She ordered. "Were you just supposed to come get us here in a big raid or is there more?"

"…" He hesitated for a moment. "N-No more, just-"

"You're lying." The rat's eyes widened as they easily blew away his defence. "Billy."

On command he tore the crushed portion of his arm away, the man screaming as he then removed his hand from his throat, clamping down around his face as he gaped in agony. **"You're holding out on us. Tell us everything or I'll put my fingers through your eyes."**

"AAHHH! A-Alright! The island, we know that fucking freak and that little whore operate from there. The Marines are gonna be storming the place any minute now." His ugly terrified expression turned to an even uglier visage of snide arrogance and bigotry. "Heh. Even if we don't get you and you're little bitch we're still gonna get rid of that fucking little mutant that spoiled the planet just by existing. That slimy little freak should have been on his hands and knees thanking us for letting him live after he soiled the world by being born, but the Marines will take care of that. And I bet those boys are gonna have a whole lotta fun raping that little whore you call a friend! I wish I could be there."

Mandy grimaced with disgust, raising her pistol to his skull as Billy held him. His conceited smirk soon turned to cowardly terror again, eyes bulging as she positioned the muzzle over his forehead. "Aaah! No! Wait! I-"

"_BANG!"_

A percentage of his brains exited out the back of the vile man's skull, the gun ramming back in Mandy's hand before she lowered it to her side again. Turning back to the house she quickly made for the front door again, Billy staying behind. Looking to the deceased corpse he grimaced in disgust, as if he had stepped in a pile of shit. Acting on that thought he threw the man's skull to the ground, wherein he bought his booted foot down to rest on its side. In one swift movement he crushed his head into a chunky paste of bone, blood and brain, continuing on back inside as the remainder fled. This part of the battle had been won easily, but what next?

"Grim get in here." Mandy ordered of the reaper still guarding out back. Retreating back inside the three rejoined their family still inside the basement safe from the bullets that had perforated much of their house.

"What h-happened out there? Is it over?" Gladys hurriedly stammered out. They'd never been thrown into a warzone before, and whilst their kids were at their best in such situations they were hopelessly out of their depth. "Uhhh Billy… why is your boot covered in… red stuff?"

"Try not to think about it." He replied having returned to human though his eyes still glowed orange. "Alright listen. They've found out all about our operations, and decided they couldn't let us live anymore. They sent those guys after us, though judging by how unprepared they were there may be more on the way. The Marines are going after Tak and Junior on the island. What do we do?"

"Gimme a moment." Mandy spoke, pausing for a short time in thought. Though they had planned on how to defend the house if attacked, they hadn't made any plans for what came next. "Now that the government knows the kind of threat we pose they're gonna come after us with everything they have. They wouldn't want to trigger a war they weren't sure they could win, so the fact they're finally coming after us means they know enough and are desperate enough to try and stop us while they can."

"So do we run and hide again?" Grim spoke up.

"No, they're gonna circulate the news about us so everyone will know. Everyone will be after us, even the empire's enemies now that we've undermined regimes everywhere. We won't have anywhere to hide." She sighed, the gravity of the situation pressing down on her now. "We have no choice. We have to make our takeover today." Her companions stopped dead at this, the news that today would be the most important, do-or-die day of their lives.

"Today? Now?" Billy asked in disbelief. "Mandy the army's only half what it was supposed to be. Right now it's nowhere near ready for a world war."

"I know Billy but what other choice do we have? They're gonna hunt us down if we try and hold off any longer." Mandy replied frustrated. "Besides, the main reason for the army is to enforce our control in captured territories and destroy the enemies that attack when we're not there. Other than that it's going to be us that does most of the actual work. I don't like it when a plan goes to hell but we just have to make do with what we have. I guess we'll just have to make up for the lack of numbers by getting more involved ourselves."

"Hmm, I like the sound of that." Billy added, his desire for war still fresh in his mind. "So what do we do now?"

"Alright. We can't stay here any longer, this house is an easy target, and I don't know how long Tak and Junior are gonna be able to hold out against the Marines. You remember that base outside the city in the desert? They probably won't be moving on it just yet while ever we're not there, so we need to get everyone there. Grim, you take Mom and Dad down to the underground chamber with Nergal and Aunt Sis, collect them and take them on to the base, and wait for us there. Billy, you go back up Tak and Junior, and make sure they get away safely. Take care of any resistance, leave no survivors. I'll go get Zim. Hopefully he'll have the immortality serum ready. Everyone aim to be at the base ready at five, alright?"

All around her nodded in understanding. "Don't worry Mandy. We'll make sure everything's ready for when you and dat little fool Zim arrive."

"Once I'm done with the Marines I'll send the Nerglings away to guard against any attack, in case they anticipate it and come after us there." Billy spoke as Grim readied his scythe, casting a portal into mid air in front of the parents. They turned to each other, Gladys' heart aching as she beheld her children about to be separated from her. "Mom-"

"Oh Billy!" She cried, tears running down her face as she put her arms around her son, Harold moving in to embrace him as well. "Please, _please_ be safe." Reaching out she quickly pulled Mandy into her hug, her adopted daughter embracing her back. "You too Mandy. I couldn't live without you two. Please come back alright."

"We will Mom, don't worry." She answered.

"We love you guys, now go on." Billy spoke. Releasing their children Harold and Gladys followed Grim's guidance, tearfully looking back as they stepped through the portal, followed by Saliva and Milkshakes. Grim lingered behind for another moment.

"So today's de day." He said with a slight smirk. "You know it's funny. I read in de paper dat dere's gonna be a solar and a lunar eclipse over Endsville today, and de first one starts in less dan an hour's time now. Never would'a thought it'd all happen dis quickly." His masters replied only with silence. "Good luck you two. See you soon."

Turning he disappeared into the swirling green vortex, the event horizon vanishing after him., leaving the two alone in their deserted house. Sighing they stepped out of the basement, taking one last look around, knowing that soon they'd leave this house and would almost certainly never return, just like it was two years ago.

"Well that's it isn't it." Billy spoke turning to her. "So what now?"

Immediately Mandy's feature's darkened as she looked to the door. An overpowering sense of imminent calamity began to manifest around her as her eyes turned orange, and she bought Judgement up to grasp and examine in both hands, looking out again.

"I think it's time we took a little trip downtown." Mandy answered scowling hard. He smiled darkly, understanding perfectly.

"You go to the garage and get the bike ready. I have to get some stuff first." He told her, turning to head upstairs as she went her own way.

Opening the door to their room for the last time he disregarded the damage done by the barrage earlier, his boots crunching on bits of debris. Turning to the open closet he knelt down before the open draw again, Mandy's pistol already gone. Taking the machine pistol and his heavy calibre revolver out of its nest, plus the magazines and bullets he tucked them away in his heavy black coat. Returning his gaze to the seemingly empty black foam recess he paused. Gently he lifted the square block of foam out of the draw he turned it over. Selecting a vacant part of the upper right corner he used his fingers to tear a chunk of it away.

There inside the foam block sat a small red velvet box. Gently he plucked it out. Looking the little chest over he smiled, putting it away inside his coat as well, before he closed the drawer and turned to join Mandy below.

* * *

Giving the bike a shake left and right she sloshed around the pre-mix inside the tank, ensuring that it hadn't settled. Mandy could understand his love of the two stroke dirt bike, they were loud and powerful and aggressive and made a lot of smoke, just like he did, but still didn't quite share his fondness for the machine, a green KX250 Kawasaki he had stolen awhile back. She could understand him being fond of the blue and white Cobra or the black Targa sitting in the garage next to them, but the bike was better for getting in and out of tight places. Positioning it on its side stand she turned to see him enter the garage, withdrawing his submachine gun to place it in a small mount on the right side of the tank, on the other side of which sat a sawn-off shotgun meant for someone very special.

"Where to?" He asked as he threw a leg over the seat, mounting the bike as Mandy pulled herself up behind him, placing her feet on the foot pegs.

"Head for the Endsville Finance Tower. It's the highest building in the city. It'll be a perfect vantage point." She instructed, holding out the remote for the garage door, clicking it to come up before tossing it away. Billy bought his foot down on the kick start, the bike roaring to life with a loud buzz. As soon as the garage door was up high enough he pulled away out the driveway, revving the bike hard as they took off down the road. Mandy wrapped her arms around his waist to hold on as he powered on down the street, leaving a trail of blue smoke in their wake.

Halfway down the street their attention caught on the sound of another helicopter coming in fast and low. Pulling the bike to a halt quickly they looked up in time to see a pair of black MH-6 Little Birds swoop across the sky above, armed with rocket packs. A moment later both of their houses vanished, the two helicopters firing an immense volley of rockets at both their and Mandy's old house, both consumed in a massive explosion. The two shielded their faces as debris rained down on the neighbourhood. Turning back they gaped in shock as they came to see the immense smoking holes left in the ground where their homes used to be.

Above them the two helicopters circled the burning wreckage heaps, each opening fire with machine guns from their side door mounts on the chance they may have survived the blasts. Watching them they realised they hadn't been spotted. Drawing on her scythe again Mandy lanced out with a pouring stream of hot particles that disintegrated the tail rotor of the one that had destroyed their home. As it fell and burst into flames amid the wreckage from before the second one now turned to them. She fired again, and the entire creature exploded from within.

It took a few seconds for it to all sink in. It was all gone, their home, their possessions… Actually there now was a positive to the situation. They had opted to move certain precious items, including the photo of Mandy with her original parents, to a vault in the underworld where it could never be destroyed. With that in hindsight they found it easier, but they had been their childhood homes. The white house across the street was where she had grown up, and where her beloved parents had lived, and died. She had been taking care of it, preserving it. Now they were both gone forever.

"I guess we don't have to worry about what we're gonna do with them anymore." Mandy stated as Billy and her watched them burn away, before finally accepting they were gone and turned back to continue.

Before he gunned the engine again Billy stopped. Looking back to where his house had stood he gaped in quiet dismay, before he sniggered to himself, Mandy watching him perplexed.

"It looks like Grim got the last laugh." He remarked with a smirk. Mandy looked back as it came to her.

"We forgot Mr. Snuggles. He was still up in the roof when we all left." She realised, before her features flattened. The antisocial near brain-dead hamster had been sixteen years old and had never been reaped, mostly forgotten in the attic except for the occasional feeding and biting. "Grim finally got what he came for after all."

Gunning the engine again they tore off down the street, towards the city centre, both baffled as the sound of a distant thunderclap reached their ears.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, as the moon first began to penetrate the shining disk of the sun, moving into place ready for the judgement that was now imminent, the dark forces brewing underneath the town from all the honest, vengeful souls who had been murdered there, finally sensed the time was right. Drifting up from under the ground they began to coalesce in the air around the city.

In various places scattered about Endsville people were drawn from their festering thoughts of self-righteous hate by the sound of deep thunder, something that struck a kind of dread deep down inside their rotted souls. Looking up they saw as a thin strand of inky black cloud formed in a wide arc high above them, forming an ominous black ring around the outskirts of the entire city, twisting and moving with turbulence within itself, but never moving in its place.

On the highways in and out of the city a sparse few people were driving, when suddenly their cars died and rolled to a halt just within the city limits. Trying to start their engines they found no response to the key turns and violent swears. Several people got out and started to walk, before a bolt of lightning came down on the ground in front of them, driving them back towards their vehicles as more turned back towards the city.

On the railway line a train was on its way out of Endsville, when for no apparent reason all electronic activity stopped, and the train slowed to a halt before it exited the urban area. The drivers and technicians and conductors fought and placed blame like madmen, but none of them could get the train to start, leaving it stranded inside Endsville's borders.

At Endsville's small regional airport, a twin-engined light aircraft hauling cargo had just taken off. Its pilots were shocked and horrified when their electronics died, and the plane began to fall, before they came back online just in time for them to pull the nose up. Not knowing what had caused the power failure they grudgingly turned back and landed, without ever leaving Endsville at all.

Unknown to Billy, Mandy, or any of the city's millions of depraved citizens, Endsville was now sealed off.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later.

The two tore through the almost empty streets of downtown Endsville, Billy grinning evilly at the sight of their home city now reduced to almost ruin, the footpaths still clogged with so very many arrogant, selfish little worms, Mandy just scowling with derision for the corrupt men and women. As society had all but collapsed one thing they had found was that though there were no longer any traffic jams, save for when two or more vehicles collided and the drivers murdered each other, there were almost no parking spots left to be found. Almost all of the city's cars, wether they be hatchbacks or the latest and most expensive sports cars, were all left parked and abandoned, their owners unable to fill them anymore.

Looking at the people walking the street, people in business suits and coats, and the common men and women who did the simple jobs that needed to be done, Mandy glared at them as they passed. Each and every one of them walked erratically, with wide bloodshot eyes, most looing like they hadn't slept in months. Several people they passed could be overheard muttering an endless stream of swears to themselves as they walked. The sense of their cannibalistic egos filled Mandy with rage and contempt, while Billy just found his delight at what was about to happen only building, along with his desire to kill everyone he saw.

Up above them in the contaminated yellow sky they saw as the shadow of the moon now crept one third of the way across the sun. The time for the city to meet its fate was finally closing in.

Racing up through the centre of the despicable city they locked their eyes on one particularly tall skyscraper. Its gleaming glass peens reflected the morning sun, lighting up its surface like a shining beacon of effort and triumph, of working hard and smart for the benefit of the next generation. The people inside were the embodiment of the exact opposite, white collar criminals who openly indulged in every sort of vile and immoral behaviour imaginable. The building was the sight of several different soliciting, development and insurance firms on the lower floors, whilst the upper floors were dominated by the city's central bureaucracy and the mayor's office.

Pulling off the street they rode the bike up the flight of concrete steps, right into the mouth of the building. Continuing on past the lobby despite the looks of those inside they rode down a small white corridor, entering into the bottom floor office space. Billy shut off the bike, leaning it over for Mandy and him to disembark. Around them a number of office spaces housed various job positions ranging from marketing drones working in cubicles, to lawyers and barristers with their own enclosed offices. This was where the gears of Endsville's corrupt society did their jobs to scrounge as much as they could from everybody else around them, like parasites on an even bigger parasite. A number of people approached them with shouts of indignation, their anger at having been disturbed serving to fuel their ire.

Billy grinned. Turning back to his bike he took hold of his MAC-10, holding the forward part of the frame in his hand as he chambered the first round. The people in front of him gaped and fled in terror at the sight of the malicious boy and his weapon, none managing to escape before Billy let loose a long spray of automatic fire. Smiling madly, yet light-heartedly, he mowed down the first ten, twelve, fifteen men and women in front of him, turning to fire away a long spray in the direction of another group as they tried to flee.

Mandy stood back and watched the massacre with satisfaction, the sound of people's screams of terror and the loud blasts from the submachine gun feeding an air of destruction and fear. She loved it. Somewhere deep inside it satisfied a part of her that for as long as she could remember had prayed for this, to massacre the depraved people around her who had lived to drag her down.

Billy loaded his second magazine, beginning on his way out into the maze of office spaces as he fired another short burst at one cowering employee, then two more trying to flee. He was actually having fun. It was just like when they went on rampages in the video games they played, only now he was finally able to vent all that built up anger and viciousness at these horrible people for the things they'd done. And so as he turned the weapon on a dozen or more people trying to flee through the elevator his smile widened into a look of pure sick joy as he massacred them

"Hahahahaha!" Laughing light-heartedly Billy wandered through the office space, firing long blasts of fire in a terrible spray of metal, cutting down one corrupt businessman after another. They fell in their tens as he churned through another magazine, reloading from his immense black coat. Spying a smartly dressed plump man in a designer suit he aimed from the hip, mowing him down along with several of his sordid and dishonest co-workers, crying out as their bodies were blasted through in several places. He clapped his hands together. "Hahahaha!"

Stepping past piles of bodies strewn across the floor Mandy patrolled in the wake of her partner's slaughter, scanning her surroundings in search for any survivors. Behind her she heard hurried footsteps. Turning she pulled her pistol, lining up the sights on three suited men and women. She fired with pinpoint accuracy, felling all three of them without mercy or guilt.

"HEY YOU!" Called a security guard down the hallway as he went for his gun. Pivoting around she shot him through the head, dropping him, turning to kill another corrupt solicitor like the deadweight he was. She was killing people, horrible people, people she'd never met and never wanted to meet again, and she felt nothing but fulfilment.

Billy blasted away one last burst, wiping out the last two survivors on this level, before everything was silent and still around them, with the rest having already escaped. Reloading another magazine he kept it at the ready to gun down someone else, waiting for someone to make themselves known. Again only silence greeted him. Lowering his weapon he walked back to Mandy and the bike across the body strewn office as she awaited him. "Good. Shall we?"

Mounting the bike again they took off through the scene of the massacre, heading towards the elevator at the end of the room, listening to the engine sputtering away as they waiting for it to arrive. When the doors opened a few seconds later they were surprised and delighted to come face to face with one particular very portly man with three chins, surrounded by five equally greasy figures ranging in shape from pig-like to long and spindly, all wearing grey designer suits. This was the Mayor Dick Roachspam, along with his closest cronies and co-conspirators, the ones who had ordered the library demolished so they could have a place for them alone to leer at naked ladies, and had ordered the construction of the drug laboratory, and who had run the foulest campaign of corruption and cruelty in the world. Right now the ugly man in the middle was surrounded by three scantily clad whores running their hand over him. He leered at them as he groped the breast of the one on his right, speaking in a low and disgusting voice.

"Ooh yeah. Yeah you wanna suck my dick don't ya bitch, yeah. Heh heh… WHAT THE FUU-"

Immediately their buffoonish laughter ceased, turning got horror at the sight of the two on their bike, the corpses of somewhere around eighty to one hundred people lying behind them. Mandy's cold black eyes bored straight into their festering souls, revenge for their unforgivable crimes at the forefront of her mind as she reached for Billy's MAC-10 down on the tank and fired a long burst.

The portly pompous lowlife screetched in terror as Mandy fired the gun in an arc around him, splattering his whores and his cronies while making sure not to hit him. "Ah… Ooh m-my Jesus!"

"Jesus doesn't save corrupt souls like yours anymore." She spat and returned the gun. Taking hold of the double barrel sawn-off shotgun she held it facing him. This was who she had been saving it for.

"W-Wait! Wait! Ooh, I-I give you money, lot's and lots of money! Ooh! Ooh!" Dick snivelled and snorted as he held his hand up, cowering away from the gun in the vengeful girl's hands. She just scoffed.

"Someone horrible like you tried to buy their way out of judgement before, and I'll say the same thing that I said to her." Mandy levelled both barrels at his ugly fat head. "Fuck you."

"Ooh! Oo-hooh! _WRRRRIIIIIIIIIII…"_ Screwing his face up Dick let out an ugly squeal exactly like a big fat pig, before Mandy pulled both triggers, discharging both barrels into his face at the same time

"_BOOOOM!"_

But that wasn't the end of it. As the top of the Mayor's head exploded and his brain was plastered all over the inside of the elevator car, instead of dropping he suddenly stood up. Watching with morbid fascination Billy and Mandy observed as the man shook violently, reaching up to claw at where his brain had been a moment before. Reaching out again with both hands they each moved out of the way as the brainless pig-man gave another violent squeal, and took off out of the elevator, running out into the office in search of a new brain. Stumbling and flailing about now that it had no eyes the thing tripped over one body, and finding his way to its head it bit down on its skull peeling off and eating some skin and flesh from his face. As another security officer entered the office space with a look of horror the creature stopped and listened, hearing the man nearby. Getting up it squealed and took off toward the screaming man, unconcerned as he shot him half a dozen times in his brainless head, before tackling him and getting down to devouring him alive, grunting and snorting violently as it tried to get at and eat his brain.

Having tired of the disgusting display Mandy raised her pistol and fired a single shot through his fat belly, dropping and silencing the creature instantly.

Pulling into the blood splattered elevator they positioned the bike amidst the bodies. Shutting off the engine Billy reached out and selected the button for the rooftop floor, from where Mandy would wreak such an epic vengeance the world would never forget, the punishment for a human race which had turned against those who showed genuine humanity. The doors closed behind them, the car beginning its slow ascent to where they would put an end to the malignant tumour on the world known as Endsville.

* * *

The doors opened out onto the roof, Billy wheeling the bike the few feet out of the car as it closed and descended back down into the madness and slaughter they'd left in their wake. Dismounting again they looked out over the flat concrete slab high over the city centre. The grey surface was covered in grime and wads of black chewing gum, with a small forest of antenna and satellite dishes protruding from the small building set into the elevator shaft. Around the perimeter of the roof was a thin concrete lip a foot high, the closest thing to a guard fence. Leaving the bike they stepped up towards the edge of the building, looking out over everything they had come to hate so much.

Mandy folded her arms as she glared out at the vile cesspool, Billy grinning with anticipation as they remembered everything they had seen done here.

"Fourteen years." She mused quietly. "Fourteen years I've lived and waited for this moment. I never thought it would arrive so suddenly, everything just exploding in my face one morning out of the blue." The foreboding girl narrowed her eyes in determination, clutching her hands into fists with the years of anger and darkness she'd held back, watching everything these people had done, patiently waiting, controlling it, all for this one day. Looking up at the sky she saw as the moon had now drifted three quarters of the way across the surface of the sun. Far out in front of them they could see the strange ring of inky black malevolent clouds that had gathered around the city, knowing this was the time they had been waiting so long for. Another rumble of foreboding thunder permeated them from the distance, and the world started to go dark as the sunlight was slowly blocked out.

"And yet it's still just as satisfying as I dreamed it would be. In fact… no, it's even better." She turned to her partner, his sadistic smile reflecting a similar hatred and desire for vengeance. "After all, in my dreams you weren't here with me."

Still grinning like the psychopathic demon he was he moved over to put his hands on Mandy's shoulders, leaning into her ear from behind as she scowled down at the city of the corrupt.

"Mankind will remember this day until the end of time. It will be permanently burned into their memories as their punishment for what they've allowed themselves to become. Remember what we saw in Townsville. Those same people are down there right now, killing, raping, and feeding on each other like they're the only one that matters." He spoke with barely restrained excitement. "Today is the day of reckoning. Today they're gonna pay for what they've done. Draw on your hatred deep down in that dark and cold heart of yours. Release it. Unleash it. Give in to the anger you've held back for so long. This is your day Mandy, the day you've lived your whole life for. Show no mercy." His eyes flashed orange as his cruel grin extended over his demonic features. **"Kill them all."**

Mandy scowled, her shoulders straight and back as the wind blew over them, her red dress fluttering as if in knowing. She scowled out at them all, her downcast face a visage of merciless darkness that would keep the world living in fear for the rest of time. She closed her eyes.

"No. There's one more thing I have to see." She spoke suddenly. Billy looked at her perplexed as he relaxed to semi-human, Mandy opening her eyes as she gazed down in thought. "Do you remember what Junior told us that time, about how he went into that ice cream shop we used to go to? Remember how he said the man behind the counted had been so selfish and hateful that he had started to eat his own worker, before killing himself just to kill his reflection? Remember what we saw down at the train station, how quickly they had turned on each other?"

"I remember, but what is this about?" Billy asked her puzzled. Mandy bit her lip and frowned.

"I want to give them one last chance. I want to strip them down of everything they hide behind and let them finally reveal to the world the kind of people they really are, for better or worse. If there's a single person left in the city who cares about others, or if there's a single glimmer of good left in this entire place, we'll know it, and I'll spare it. But if not… then I have a hunch we'll see something else instead."

Billy looked at her with surprise as he returned to full human. Here she was, starved for revenge her entire life, and at the last minute when revenge was finally hers for the taking she was actually willing to be merciful on this city, if it just gave her a sign that she should. For all her darkness and evil, he was once again astounded by her strength of nature, of her underlying virtues and values, of just the kind of person she was, and once more he was supremely grateful he was blessed to have her in his life.

"Wait…" He spoke suddenly. Mandy looked to him as he turned around and took a step back, drawing his hands in behind his cloak out of her sight.

Standing beside the love of his life with his back turned Billy casting his eyes down to his black trench coat. He reached in with his hand, taking hold of the little velvet box that he had kept hidden from her for some time. A few months back he had enlisted the help of Tak, Junior and Grim in forging a tiny little trinket for him, embodying the same mix of absolute darkness and unconditional love that made up the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

"Mandy… Before we go any further, I want to tell you now that there is never a day in my life that I don't feel blessed for having you with me." He spoke back to her as he toyed with the little box, Mandy looking at him in heartfelt silence for his words. "I still think of everything that we went through over all those years, and no matter how hard or how bad it got, I'm grateful for it, because I could go through it all with you." Closing his hand around the box he looked back to her with tears in his eyes and began back towards her.

"I love you Mandy. I want you to know now that I always will love you, from the bottom of my heart. I want to make you happy. And I want to be there for you. But like I said before, I didn't know what the future was gonna hold."

"Billy…" Mandy looked at him with her eyes open wide and with a soft gaze as he stepped up to her and took one hand in hers. He smiled at her tearfully, barely able to control himself through what he felt for her now.

"I had planned for something when this day finally came, but I hadn't planned for it to arrive so quickly, and for us to still be so young when the time came. But that doesn't matter to me anymore. There's no guarantee we'll survive this day, so I wanna tell you now. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Her breath became lost to her. Her once dark and cold onyx eyes now filled with tears once more as Billy now turned his gaze towards his hand, drawing up and revealed the little velvet box to her. Opening the top in his fingers as Mandy looked to it he kept his eyes on her as he presented a golden ring with a diamond imbedded in its surface.

"_Billy!"_ She cried out with her hand on her chest, dropping her scythe as tears overflowed down the side of her face at a joy that completely overcame her.

"Will you marry me?"

"_Yes!"_

Crying tears of happiness as they faced each other Billy and Mandy embraced one another again, the two sharing a passionate kiss as they wound their arms around each other. Separating after a moment Billy pulled the ring from its velvet case, taking her hand in his as he gently slid the ring on her finger, Mandy smiling and trying to see through the tears that kept coming. Turning to each other they came together again, wrapping their hands together as they shared the happiest moment of their lives. They held their kiss for an eternity, forgetting about the cancerous city below them, until out of the heavens a deep, evil bellow of thunder now pressed upon the two lovers, and all of those below. Turning their eyes skyward in each others arms they looked to the sun, as in its last few moments the moon finally moved into place and eclipsed it, and night fell on Endsville.

"_**It's time."**_

The now monstrous Billy gave an ominous smile as Mandy's eyes burned orange-red with wrath, picking up Judgement once more to stand facing out over the city of corruption.

Without uttering another word she extended her hands, her ruby scythe glowing with its master's power. It surged through the girl, the red aura taking over her body as behind her Billy grinned their eyes shining the same demonic red as each other. She was Mandy of the Night, and her age of darkness began now.

Extending the scythe out in her arms she focussed all her concentration and will into the weapon, its cosmic power welling up from within to coalesce in the blade. The bulge of energy grew, the blade shining brighter and brighter with each second. A ball began to form over the blade, expanding outwards gradually in a perfect sphere of brilliant red and white light. The tremoring mad inhabitants out in the streets far below stopped to look up in wonder, the brilliant ball of light growing outwards more and more with every second, permeating the ominous blackness and sending a deep rumbling vibration throughout the earth, reaching out beyond the suburbs a hundred miles away. Already they each had no doubt that something was wrong, but what it was she was doing eluded them. The two youths atop the tower narrowed their eyes against the blinding white light from the now massive sphere that had formed at the end of the scythe, before billowing outwards immensely, reaching one hundred metres across and still growing, and the people below now began to worry and panic, pushing and knocking each other down to try and get away.

At last, gritting her teeth against the power that threatened to destroy them and everything within fifty miles only a metre or so from her face, Mandy gave one final push into the scythe. The awe inspiring orb of destructive power detached from her scythe, floating away higher and higher above the city yet still growing larger by the second, as below the terror now spread throughout all of Endsville in a mass panic. As the enormous orb high above them now bathed the city in its brilliant and malevolent red light, and the wind attacked them at every angle, each person below automatically turned their thoughts towards their own survival, even if it meant sacrificing everyone else to do it. But the light of Judgement shone down on them everywhere. Where could they go? What could they do? Frankly Billy and Mandy didn't give a damn.

The immense shining red ball of destruction stopped growing, rising higher and higher, until at last it stopped and shone overhead like the sun. In fact, as Billy and Mandy watched, the light of the star now totally drowned out the remaining light of the eclipse, making the sun completely disappear, because now it was the sun, the red sun, just as the cave mystic had prophesised.

The five million people of Endsville, all the way out for ten miles, either set themselves to looting and arson in order to do as much mindless damage as possible under the distant ball now hanging far over the city centre, or fled for cover in mindless terror for what they feared was about to happen. Billy smiled, his demonic eyes staring up at the ball waiting to see what was to come next, while Mandy just stared on ever calm and controlled, her scythe at her side. Content that it was in position perfectly above the corrupt city she paused, listening to the sounds below.

Madness. Sheer madness, and chaos, and unfathomable terror greeted her ears. For a moment she held it off, their screams satisfying her rage enough to postpone their destruction, all the while she watched, and listened, and waited for any sign of any remaining goodness. As the seconds passed and the people's terror increased into a fit of mindless screaming they eventually realised that there were no longer any places where the red light didn't see them. And so their mindset automatically changed to their default, to shift the blame and have someone else suffer the consequences for them, someone who was different.

But as they thrashed around in search of people who were different to themselves and their own selfish in-group, gradually they realised that something horrible had happened. Previously they had fuelled their selfish narcissism by aligning themselves with people who were like them, and turned on everyone who was different, with the majority whipping out the minorities. But as they had wiped out one minority group after another they found they had to divide down again and find someone else to turn on, the old, the sick, intellectuals, people with different coloured eyes or stutters or any conceivable difference, newborn babies. But now to their horror they realised they had already killed everyone who was sufficiently different enough to be distinguishable from themselves. And as their desperation and hatred reached their peak, the final remains of their superficial sanity were blown away.

As the red sun shone down on Endsville the sounds coming from the streets changed.

Billy and Mandy listened and watched as the terrified screams now turned to an appalling, inhuman howl. Throughout the entire city the inhabitants thrashed and clawed about in a frenzy. With nobody left who was different to themselves the corruption of their minds and souls became complete, and with all their humanity gone the entire population turned on each other in the only way they knew how.

_**They ate each other.**_

Throughout ever street, and every corner, ever room in every building, every house and every car, people attacked and murdered each other, sank their teeth in and tore off chunks of bloody meat and flaps of skin. They chewed only as much as they had to before swallowing, growling and snarling like a pack of horrible diseased creatures as they bit down and tore out strands of muscle and organs. Abandoning the body they were eating they took of after another screaming mindless creature, many of them attacking each other and beginning to devour them before they were even finished fighting. In places such as homes or cars entire families turned on each other this way. A sick little girl screamed as she choked her little brother to death before tearing into his throat arteries, all the while her father killed her mother, abandoning her to then kill her, before getting out to run after someone else. People with guns fired them at anything that moved, while people with blades hacked away at others so violently they themselves died from the injuries they accidentally inflicted on themselves. Many people upon seeing their reflection in windows and mirrors, immediately set to the task of killing or eating themselves.

As the population of Endsville dropped from five million back down to the original two Mandy closed her eyes and silently revelled in the sound. For all her life she had been bombarded on all sides by liars and hypocrites, narcissists, sadists, people who thought only of themselves, who cared nothing for right or wrong, or truth and lie, and thought they had the right to crush everybody else down below them simply because they were the only one that mattered. She hated how they had always carried themselves with such pride even after all they had done, all their shameful and disgraceful actions towards others. But now they had been exposed, and all they had left to show was their evil. The people of Endsville had been judged and found guilty. Now it was time for their execution.

With a vengeful scowl she dipped her scythe towards the ball overhead as if to give the command. All across the bloodstained city they turned to watch as a deafening roar rang out from high above, the brilliant orb now shaking and shuddering, burning ever brighter with its wrath, flattening out into a wide oval, before finally a million tiny balls of red power burst out from its surface, streaking across the sky all across the city like starts. As the red sun returned to its stable state, continuing to pour out the tiny points of light, as one each of them sensed the rotten souls of those below, and turned to plummet down towards the people below.

In the city's last moment of peace Mandy took a deep breath, and steadily let it out as all across Endsville thousands of titanic explosions took place, each ball of demonic power holding the might of a hundred tones of explosives. They watched in silence as they rained down throughout the city, descending upon the suburbs, flattening entire blocks in a glorious miasma of utter destruction. Houses were shattered like delicate glass, cars crushed and blown away like toys. They tore down on the city centre, homing in on the corrupt people below, hundreds of them detonating against buildings, more exploding down in the streets filled with screaming people. Throughout the city the corrupt met their end in a ball of impossible heat and a devastating blast wave that crushed them like ants. Five homed in on Mindy's parent s' house, twelve impacting on the skool, others punching through concrete to detonate inside underground car parks and blood-soaked basements, with tens of thousands carpeting the entire city in ground bursts, reducing entire neighbourhoods to a myriad of craters.

Billy watched below as the towering buildings became blasted from the outside and in, their many great monoliths to their egotistical arrogance and grandeur in the face of their unforgivable transgressions falling in a cloud of concrete dust and billowing flames. Mandy's eyes never flickered as Endsville came to a glorious and merciless end, hammered down in a vengeance never before seen by the world. The tiny glowing orbs continued to fall from the skies overhead in their thousands, their panorama of the city now covered over with the flood of red flashes of explosions as far as the eye could see. The once infected yellow sky above had turned a dark red now with the masses of ash and smoke rising from the flames below, the light of the detonations and the great orb overhead lighting the sky in an ambience of darkness and death, as if the blood of those murdered by them now rained down upon them to return the favour, bringing with them destruction and revenge.

Here was the destruction of Endsville, a moment they had both waited so long for.

Mandy held her face low as she watched the city burn, releasing her scythe as the destruction continued to rain down unabated around them. Far below the people she had come to loathe met the justice they deserved, the last few survivors in the entire city centred inside the building they now stood upon, which would soon be the centrepiece for the final crescendo. The age of corruption was at an end. Humanity had used and utterly abused their time in the sun, the innocent few the victims to the guilty many, and now they were paying for it in full. Night had fallen upon humanity. She closed her eyes, listening to the sounds of the Judgement she had lived for, the destruction and punishment of the corrupt reverberating in a deep booming rumble around her, all the while her fiancé stood watch beside her grinning monstrously.

It was perfect. This moment couldn't get any better.

At last as the small glowing orbs stopped raining down and the last few exploded in the distance, they pulled apart from each other, the seriousness of their situation coming in to put a halt on their perfect moment together.

"Mandy we have to get going. I have to go get Tak and Junior before they're overwhelmed, and you have to get Zim finished." Billy spoke in a grave tone. Mandy nodded, returning to the task at hand again.

"Alright. Remember, be at the desert base by five. Hopefully the serum will be ready by then." She answered. Taking one last look at their city, the rain of destruction now having ceased as the red sun overhead lay dormant, she extended her scythe, forming a portal to Zim's base. "I'll see you soon." Moving in she gave him one last loving kiss on the lips, before turning and disappearing into the vortex.

Nodding to himself Billy turned away to look around at the scene surrounding him. He smiled. Destruction was a wonderful thing really.

"Hmmm…Grim really does have a good job… before he met us at least." He mused softly to himself, enjoying the sound of his relaxed voice in amidst the carnage. Opening his hand he willed a large glowing green camera to form in his grip. Casually taking his time he photographed the immense burning ruins of the city around him, wanting to capture the moment for their future as best he could, before its fate was to be finished, all the while his mind wandered back to what they had done earlier that morning, smiling and blushing as he remembered how perfectly soft and warm and supple her breasts had felt under his touch. Once he was done he dispelled his Berserker-camera for it to be called on again soon. Turning his burning demonic gaze skyward he focussed of the glowing red-white orb of energy as it hung high over the cratered ruins. His smirk grew, a destructive gleam taking over his eyes.

"Time to end this. Goodbye Endsville."

Staring up at the ball of power his features turned fully demonic again, commanding the massive sphere to do its new master's bidding, and finish off the debase hellhole once and for all, along with the last few people alive within this very building. He watched it as for a moment nothing appeared to happen. Then, moment by moment, the round shape began to grow larger, gradually, then rapidly taking up more and more of the dark red sky as it began its descent down towards him. He smiled a mouth full of horrific shark's teeth. **"Heh heh heh heh heh heh…"**

Turning he made his way back to his green bike, mounting it at a leisurely pace as his overcoat closed around the front again, all the while the atmosphere grew brighter and brighter with the orb now taking up most of the dark morning sky. Kicking the engine to life he opened up the throttle, the bike screaming its wild two-stroke buzz as it reared up on its hind wheel, launching itself towards the concrete lip at the edge of the building. Grinning madly Billy fired his bike through it and up over the edge, angling it straight down as they plummeted towards the ground. Touching the wheels down to the glass he pulled the throttle all the way open, riding the screaming machine straight down as above them the top of the building disintegrated on contact with the massive ball of power and destruction. Billy extended his left hand, summoning his now flaming orange scythe once more as he raced the ball down, grinning with glee at the destruction following only metres behind his back.

"_**RRRAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA A!"**_

Aiming at the ground he fired, a swirling vortex forming on the debris strewn ground directly below. Dispelling his scythe he took hold of the handle bars again, leaning his head down on the tank as he closed in on his target, the tower coming apart just feet behind him. At last, beating the immense orb by mere microseconds he disappeared into the portal, closing immediately after him.

The vast orb hit the ground, and the Endsville Finance Tower and the last of the city's inhabitants were destroyed. At first it slowed down, crushing and burning a massive crater through the concrete and into the bedrock below. It dug itself in for several seconds, until it found it could dig no further. Its inertia however could not be stopped. The ball flattened out over the surface, taking the shape of an enormous blinding red oval, reforming back partly after a moment to sag down again, until finally its integral structure failed, and the world went white.

* * *

Hundreds of miles away, out in the desert far beyond the mountains of eastern California, an eerie white light lit up the dark morning sky. It lasted for over a minute, before it finally gave way to the heavy dark blue of the eclipse again as the moon now began on its way moved back to reveal the sun again. Over the next few minutes as the moon receded across the surface of the sun and the eclipse dispersed to reveal a toxic yellow-blue sky, a stout grey mushroom cloud could be seen inching its way above the mountains, clawing its way ever upwards high into the stratosphere, blocking out the sun in a second eclipse over an immense area to the west. A faint, low rumble could be heard coming from within the earth, barely noticeable above the sound of the gentle wind as it slowly began to drift away. The explosion totalled one thousand megatons. The dust would stay circulating in the stratosphere for centuries.

Below the broiling cloud there was no city.

At nine o'clock that morning Endsville did not exist.


	50. Day of Reckoning Part Two

**Hello again readers.**

**It seems to me that after four going on five years that I've been working on this it's about time for me to pay my respects to someone very important to my life, and in fact very influential on this story. For decency's sake I won't go into detail, but I know of someone who suffers under narcissism. She is in fact the narcissist herself. She was very good to me in the past, she's done so much for me, and I wouldn't be who I am today without her help. But tragically she had inner demons which she couldn't control. This person I knew then changed quite dramatically. As her ego went out of control she told a lot of lies, became very manipulative, would blame me for her own actions, and would bully and guilt me into silence. A lot of what she did inspired me to work on this story, and a lot of what I discovered working on this story made me realise just what was going on inside her head. But for all the shit she's done she's the real victim here, because I saw just how much damage she has done to herself inside by digging this hole for herself. All she has left inside now is lies and bitterness and shame. It's such a sad way for things to turn out. And so I wanted to pay my respects to that person who I lost.**

**Anyway getting back to things. This is the second chapter of the three chapter climax, and this is once again largely focussed on Tak and Junior, though Billy makes a bloodbath again, and we see Mandy put the fear of god into Zim. I recently watched the Thing part 2 and part 1, and that helped me to understand a little more about Junior's physiology and what he's really like underneath, like how in the series he was a shapeless mass of tentacles and ooze.**

**Also if you can remember all the way back to the start of this fic you may recall the Ben 10 cameo where they get scared off by the evil queen of darkness and pink dresses. Well they're back, but not how you might think!**

**I was also talking to one of the readers about how difficult it is to write the Tak and Junior love scenes in a way that doesn't go over the standards of what I wanted this fic to be and turning it into smut. How do you write about two perverts in a way that isn't perverted? Perhaps I should stop drawing attention to it.**

**So anyway, here's chapter two if the climax. I hope you get a kick out of it.**

* * *

**Day of Reckoning Part Two.**

Mid morning.

Tak lay flat on her stomach amidst the thick palm trees in her Irken form. The small figure, though physically weaker than her larger human body, had the benefit of making her a smaller target, and gave her the ability to hide away in tight spaces where her foes would not think to look. In addition her pak was calibrated for an Irken, and whilst it still worked well for a human after some tinkering, certain aspects didn't work as well or were completely incompatible when having to accommodate for a creature twice as large. Right now she had a long range vision enhancer wrapped around her face, extending out of the case on her back, giving her the ability to see straight through the brush in front of her out onto the beach and the surf beyond.

Displayed on the screens in front of her eyes a small detachment of Marines could be seen riding in towards the beach. She could make out their rifles in their hands as they approached, accompanied by armoured support. She touched the roof of her mouth as she thought. _'Nothing we can't handle. These guys aren't so tough. But they won't be the only ones.'_ Reaching for her radio just next to her she bought it to her lips, depressing the speak button on the side.

"Okay listen, I've got my eyes on fifteen, maybe twenty troops coming in towards the beach. They're riding in on boats. They've got two armoured personnel carriers with them in the centre." The troops in the Zodiacs would be no great problem, but the two LAV-25s could potentially be a different matter. They would require them to reveal their heavy weapons stations to their enemy. They'd be able to wipe out this group easily enough with the firepower they had, at least she imagined they could, but the next attack wouldn't be so easy, more likely an all out invasion complete with air support. Even now she realised they probably had surveillance satellites watching. "We need to make this quick so they don't find our positions."

_"We see them."_ Came Junior's voice over the radio.

Currently he stood in a concrete room set into the base of the mountain overlooking the beach, now wearing a complete suit with a stylish black jacket for the occasion. From the outside the only thing visible was the grey-brown rock face. From inside he could see all, and that went for the other eight ringing the island, and the hidden nests in amongst the trees. He folded his arms as he surveyed the small force, accompanied by two Nerglings currently manning a small plasma cannon, one of Mandark's designs improved by Zim, like a miniature field gun protecting the beach. They, along with other cannon installations kept their sights trained on the two armoured carriers, knowing that with their auto cannons they could pose a significant threat if not destroyed quickly.

_"We'll wait until you give the order to fire. Remember if they land a few hits near our positions the next wave may see where our bunkers are."_ He responded in her ear. Focussing the lenses of her target finder on the carrier to the right she looked over its armoured surface, tossing around an idea in her head.

"Alright listen, here's the plan. Junior you and your Nerglings keep your aim on the LAV on your left. When I give the order you fire, and stop once it's down, but only your bunker fire. Nobody else do anything to give yourselves away, and nobody shoot the one on the right, I'll take care of that."

Reaching to her side she took hold of her weapon, an MP7 submachine carbine, perfect for her current small stature, equal to any ballistics weapon the Irken Empire had. Switching the safety off she held it whilst speaking into the compact radio in her hand. "I'll take care of the infantry. Just take out the one on the left and I'll take care of everything else."

"Understood, no one else reveal their positions." Junior spoke back into his radio, stepping up to the slotted view out through the concrete while the two Nerglings next to him manned the gun ready. "Take aim and hold your fire." He spoke to them as they settled beside the aiming and trigger mechanism.

Returning the radio to her hip she raised her weapon, taking a crouching position from behind the cover of the palms. On a mental whim the headset retracted back into her pak, leaving her large purple eyes to scan the beachfront, narrowing on the strike force now closing in on the beach. _'Show time.'_

Activating her pak's camouflage cloak her green figure flickered and vanished. Rising to her feet she sprinted through the trees down onto the exposed beach, careful not to disturb her surroundings for fear of giving herself away. Lowering herself to the damp sand near the waterline she lay out flat directly in the path of her target. Staying absolutely stationary she watched as the group of inflatable boats reached the shore, the Marines taking positions kneeling along the shoreline, taking aim at the trees in the distance, only metres away from Tak's prone form. These were not the Marines of past years. Though the title and job was the same, these men were just another batch of mindless animals given little more than the most basic training. She was confident in her ability to massacre them.

Refusing to move she waited as the carriers landed, moving up onto the sand in line with the troops as they moved to flank the machines. Waiting and watching as the machines steadily approached ever closer she stayed still as the soldiers passed her, none ever noticing anything, before she rolled out of the way of the right machine's large tyres.

Watching as it passed her she steadily rose to her feet, running quickly to its sloping armoured rear and the doors to the crew compartment. Grasping the handle of the right door she wrenched it open. Looking inside she saw the soldiers turn their heads to the open door in confusion, not seeing anybody there as the machine continued to drive along. Taking aim she fired her weapon, felling them all in a matter of seconds before any could react. Taking aim again she fired at the gunner in the turret, then killing the driver, causing the machine to lumber to a halt.

Outside the troops turned to look in the direction of the armoured carrier in shock as to try and investigate who was firing and why it had suddenly come to a complete stop. Tak jumped inside, deactivating the shroud as she pushed the largely intact body out of the turret seat, climbing up to take the controls. Grabbing her radio again she bought it to her lips. "Junior, the one on your left, fire now!"

Nodding as he received the command he turned to the Nerglings. Taking one last aim at the turret of the machine they fired away, the wide baseball of condensed blue lightning kicking back on all three as it tore across the distance in an instant. The bolt exploded against the armoured turret in a brilliant flash of blue-white light, rocking the machine to its core as inside the crew recoiled in shock. Raising a pair of binoculars to his face he looked down upon the crippled machine, and became concerned. The blast had exploded against the frontal armour of the turret, burning a considerable dent into its surface, but not breaking through. Plasma bolts, as powerful and destructive as they were, when these ones impacted and exploded they dispersed in every direction, making them inefficient as armour piercing weapons.

"Where'd it come from?" One of the Marines shouted as the detachment scanned the beachfront warily.

"It came from the mountain! They've got a fire bunker in the mountain!" Another called, pointing vaguely in the direction it had come from. The left of the two LAVs took aim at the base of the rock face, blasting away with its cannon. Strafing the base of the rock with a wide string of twenty five millimetre fire it probed for any installation.

"Gr!" Junior grunted as several blasts landed close to their station. "Damn!" Recovering he looked out to the group below, the armoured war machine ceasing its random fire to search for targets. It hadn't hit any of the gun bunkers, but had come close.

"Hit it again." He commanded his minions, followed by another blast of plasma sent towards their enemy. The ball of energy exploded against the relatively thin glacis, most of the explosion being deflected upwards, leaving only another shallow crater in its armoured surface.

"Again!" The third blast again struck the turret, bursting against the armour in a hail of sparks, digging in further where the previous two had struck but still doing little damage. Junior murmured in discontent and reached his hand up.

"Tak it's not penetrating." He called out through the radio as the enemies armour began firing in their direction again. He and his minions took cover behind the concrete shield as the shells exploded on the rock nearby. "They're putting the spotlight on us, they know where one of our bunkers are."

Receiving her partner's message Tak grasped the controls for the turret in her small gloved hand, swinging the gun around to where she could see the enemy in the sights. She fired, blasting the side of the machine with high explosive rounds. Shocked by the new assault the crew shielded themselves against the impacts on the armour, hammering a multitude of dents throughout its surface. Gritting her teeth against the massive shockwaves she kept up the blasting barrage from the cannon as the side armour gave way, the LAVs occupants exploding inside their machine in a shower of red paste. Another second and the entire machine erupted in a ball of billowing flames as the fuel tanks blew out, the ammunition fuelling the explosive blaze.

Outside the occupants watched in shock as their own support turned on them. Some raised their rifles and fired, their bullets deflecting harmlessly off its surface, serving to remind Tak that she had other targets to take care of. Rising from their cover Junior and the Nerglings watched as the cannon swivelled around to the front, blowing away the Marines one by one in a grizzly display. He turned to the two Nerglings beside him.

"Fire on the infantry on the other side, prevent them from getting to the back door." He spoke as they aimed and fired. This time the unfocussed explosion did great effect, killing five soldiers in one blast, and another three with the next.

The survivors scattered, some running up the beach to the cover of the trees, only to be mercilessly blown to pieces by Tak as they ran. Another two from behind still escaped the artillery fire and rounded on the machine towards the open rear door, their rifles at the ready.

"Hey! What the hell!" One of them roared as he saw the massacre inside. Tak stopped to whip around at the noise, the Irken outcast and the Marines seeing each other for the first time. Each raised their weapons to fire. "KILL IT-AUGH!"

Alas Tak was quicker to the draw, her four mechanical appendages bursting out of the case on her back and stabbing them both through the body, before she turned her gun and finished the two off in a blast of armour piercing fire, smirking at their demise. Forgetting about them she withdrew her spider legs and returned to her position, scanning her surroundings for survivors. She saw another three or more running for cover behind the body of their armoured support, shielding themselves from their enemy's cannon.

"Grrr!" Taking her radio again she called out her commands. "Junior, there are survivors hidden behind the wreckage. Get rid of them."

"No problem." He called back from his spot. "Good job. Stay here and guard." He ordered his loyal minions as they nodded, quickly turned and striding out the door to the rear, taking his current weapon of choice, a Springfield National Match M1A with a walnut stock and stainless barrel, equipped with a scope, out of the gun rack where he'd left it on his way out. He emerged into a long corridor carved out of the earth and rock, curving around on each side to link each of the gun emplacements around the island. Following it around to the right he ran down the long hall lit by bulbs, passing another doorway into another bunker, and another, before turning right to access a ladder leading straight up into a shaft. With his prized rifle slung over his shoulders he hurriedly mounted the cold metal bars. Climbing it all the way up he reached for the round metal door, turning the handle to open it up outwards into the mid morning air.

Emerging from the shaft out onto the rock face high up the mountain he looked down below onto the beach. From his vantage point high above in his little rocky platform he could see the bodies of those killed, or what was left of them at least, including the men currently taking cover behind the wreck of the armoured vehicle. Crouching down he took his rifle in his hands, disengaged the safety and raising it to look out through the scope. Lining them up he counted a total of five Marines still alive behind the burning hulk, oblivious to his presence. Judging their range at approximately four hundred metres he stilled his body as Tak had taught him, taking aim through the crosshairs, tensing his finger on the trigger. Pulling the trigger he fired a shot, the lengthy weapon kicking back in his shoulder hard while the muzzle let out an awesome blast from the big thirty calibre shell. But the Nergal heir withheld the shock well, the crosshairs still staying on target ready for the next shot while the first shell flew for his target's chest.

Still crouched down behind the hulk of their armoured support the Marines remained still, if out of panic rather than any actual plan, one getting on the radio to call their commanders on the carrier.

"They've got gun emplacements ringing the island, though we don't know how many. We're pinned down under fire from one of our own LAVs. We need an air strike and backup n-Guh!" He was cut off as a thirty calibre bullet blew straight through his heart, killing him instantly. His thuggish comrades turned around and screamed in shock, before the one beside him dropped dead from a similar fate.

"Sniper! Up there!" One pointed to where the sound of the shot came from.

"It's that demon freak! KILL IT!" Another screamed. Taking a hurried and shaking 'aim' the remaining three fired madly, their long hails of bullets striking the rock near Junior's position. Junior pulled back away from the edge to wait it out. Otherwise he didn't even flinch; these were poorly trained thugs and wannabe rapists who joined the force anticipated an easy victory, and were already delirious with terror now that they were the ones being preyed upon. Their remaining frantic fire mostly flew overhead as their magazines ran empty, and he moved up and took aim through the sights at another unfortunate brute, eyeing him coldly as only an assassin could. A clean shot through the brain dropped him like a stone. Following up quickly he fired another shell and sent it through an armoured vest, through the wearer's heart.

The last living member of the strike force abandoned his position, running out past the cover of the broken wreckage, straight into the other LAVs line of fire. As soon as he saw it he froze, noticing that not only was its gun still aimed at the broken hulk, but the gunner had exited her vehicle, the small green alien staring him down as she pointed her MP7 in his direction. Dropping his weapon he faced her, shaking putting his hands in the air in surrender. Tak frowned as she willed her form to change, her green body shimmering and vanishing, replaced by a teenage girl wearing the tight outfit from before, all the while she judged his cowering and fearful features.

"Junior he's trying to surrender." She spoke into the walkie talkie.

_"What should we do?"_

"Well you're the one they hate for being different. You choose." She answered, the thug's eyes widening in alarm. "Just ask yourself, would he spare you?"

A moment later the soldier lay face down in the sand with a hole through his heart.

"Good choice."

Turning around she returned to the rear door of her transport. Reaching around to the belt around her skirt she unclipped a small device with the appearance of a hand grenade, pulled out the safety pin, pressing down on a button and tossing it inside. Leaving it she walked back up the beach, the LAV catching fire in a storm of sparks and heat behind her, ignoring it as she passed the remains of the human's bodies on her way back to the mouth of the cave.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later.

"Well that didn't go quite as planned." Junior commented as he, Tak and several hundred Nerglings gathered in the entrance to the base. "What happened back there? That first hit from the cannon should have knocked that transport out."

"Plasma doesn't have much mass. When it's properly focussed it can rip through steel like cheese, but unrefined it isn't so good at punching holes through armour." Tak explained. "The field guns we have fire balls of the stuff, they just splash when they impact. Those cannons Zim designed are in a setup more for area effect than anything, they would only be good for taking out soft targets at long range. That's why they wiped out those soldiers so easily but couldn't break through the armour plate. I guess Zim didn't improve them as much as he thought he did. Stupid dookie eating…" Tak grizzled as she turned around and rubbed her forehead irritated.

"We have bigger problems now." Junior spoke drawing her back. "Before I could get off a shot I saw one of them get on a radio. He would have probably been calling for backup, and telling the others about our defences. Either way they're going to find out we're better prepared than they thought we were." The Nergal set his features in his calm mask, not showing his partner or his minions how this troubled him. "More will be on their way soon, and I can assure you it'll be a lot more than a handful of thugs. We won't be able to hold this island forever against a determined invasion. We have to get the defences ready so we can evacuate to the mainland somewhere." Tak shook her head.

"They got the early warning scanner with that cruise missile. The air defences won't work for anything beyond a few hundred metres. We're easy prey for air strikes to wipe out our air defence completely. After that we'll be open to troop landings by air and by sea. We can hold them at the beach, but all our defences can be destroyed one by one. By midday this place will be overrun, and they'll have air supremacy so we won't be able to fly out even before they start landing troops. Forget about preparing a defence, we have to get everyone out of here as soon… as…"

Tak trailed off. She, Junior and their many loyal companions inside the base's steel walls turned their gaze to the roof as the sound of thunder rumbled in. Not the thunder of a storm, but of fighter-bombers roaring in overhead.

"… Too late."

* * *

The first pair, two pre-Empire Strike Eagles riding in wingtip to wingtip, cut across the north side of the island on a Wild Weasel mission, intent on getting the degraded but still formidable air defences to reveal themselves. They took the bait, half a dozen missile batteries rising out of their hidden silos to engage the targets. Four missiles found themselves hurtling out in an attempt to catch their enemy; four missiles wasted, their targets having already passed out of range. The two banked around to sweep past the south side, another two pairs of Strike Eagles watching and waiting overhead for their targets to reveal themselves. As the wingmen cut across close to the island's south side the launchers swivelled to engage them, firing two more rockets at the escaping targets.

_"Incoming. Break off and evade."_ One pilot spoke. The two aircraft split formation, tearing out a long winding path to the left and right. The missiles followed to the right, prompting the pilot to eject flares. Once again they took the bait, the two rockets sent spiralling off into the distance.

_"Alright that's all of them. Go for it."_ He spoke to his friends.

Taking their cue the other four aircraft banked in towards the island to join with the attack, selecting their targets as the automated batteries turned to attempt a defence.

_"Come on let's kill em! Kill every god damn one of these Jew lovers! These Jew lovers wanna… wanna… Jew lovers!"_ Came the racist ramblings of another pilot, despite not having anything to hate them for.

The bombs dropped, finding their targets dead and true, four of the six launchers destroyed before they could even see their enemies. Looking back the pilots counted the remaining defences, and received a rude shock. Along with the two remaining launchers, three futuristic anti-aircraft cannons began to rise from their own silos. Rising out of their protective tubes the plasma cannon quad batteries guarded the horizon around their island as the fighters circled around to strike again. This time it was not a turkey shoot, the missile launchers firing at the incoming group as they approached, forcing two to abandon the attack and evade. As the remaining four closed in another three turrets began to rise from their silos.

They met their new targets with a hail of artillery shells, the high velocity rounds striking one, a bomb getting another, both destroyed in their silos. Upon their escape they were met with hell, the energy cannons firing up at the four as another four missiles began to close in on them. They broke off, striving for distance and altitude away from their foes, one being unsuccessful in his attempt to escape his pursuer. He met his end with a short scream as the missile detonated on his fighter's hind quarters, blowing the entire machine apart cockpit and all.

The three survivors of the attack run dived down towards the island, the two who broke off earlier swooping in low as their three comrades were met with a blistering hail of light. The blue streaks probed the air relentlessly for their attackers, turning the sky into a mismatched scene from Shock and Awe and Star Wars. The bombs fell on the remaining two launchers, smashing them to oblivion. As the three tried to break off across the ocean one found its wing torn off at the root by a blast of plasma, the crippled fighter impaled through the fuel tank a moment later, the pilot joining his friend in hell as it exploded.

With the turrets distracted by the fleeing aircraft the two attackers found their path clear for a devastating attack run. Rising up over the island they selected their targets, the remaining three cannons. Moving around the island in a tight circle they bombed them all, saving the last for a combined bombing and strafing with cannon fire. As they fled there was no return fire to chase them out. Looking back upon the mount they counted the shattered ruins, twelve in total.

_"Fighter group to command, mission accomplished. All air defences have been neutralised. The target island is clear for invasion."_

_"KILL THE JEW LOVERS! KILL EM ALL! AAHAHAHAHA!"_

* * *

Meanwhile.

In one particularly nasty corner of the vast north-eastern megalopolis, a busy two lane road leading dozens of half decrepit cars and trucks through a densely populated urban sprawl was interrupted by a flash of green in the middle of the two lanes. Mandy received a rude surprise when she was dropped at a crouch straight into oncoming traffic, looking wide-eyed as two cars swerved violently around her either side missing her by a hand span each. Ahead of her an old grey ice cream truck locked its wheels and screeched to a halt sideways in front of her, blocking off both lanes with its body. Gritting her teeth with Judgement clutched tightly in both hands the young woman relaxed and stood upright, watching with a flat expression as the uniformed driver of the truck screamed profanities at her and waved his fist furiously behind the glass.

_"_Fuckin' li'l shit! YOU CRASH ME YOU FUCKING CU-"

_"KABOOOM!"_

Without changing her expression Mandy pointed her scythe at it and let loose a concentrated blast of heat that blew the doors off and disintegrated the box in a magnificent explosion. She was at war with these people, so right now she wasn't particularly in the mood for dealing with any shit they had to give her. As the large van was destroyed she turned her scythe on the cars backed up behind it and blasted out a long stream of liquid fire like a hose, spreading terror among the people inside their cars.

Watching contentedly as they bailed out and ran away she glanced skyward at the debris from the ice cream truck, as all around her nearly a ton of ice cream rained down from the van. A single cone fell upon her face and plastered itself over her nose. Lowering her face she pulled it off, examining it with a flat stare despite still having some on her face. Bringing it to her lips she took a lick.

_'Strawberry… Acceptable.'_

Wiping her face clean she turned and walked off down the now clear road, hearing a number of cars starting to explode with the flames, as ice cream continued to fall from the sky, and the sound of many children's voices shouting with glee came to her. Looking back with curiosity she saw as perhaps a dozen children under ten rushed in to eat up the frozen treats. Gazing at the sight dumbfounded she allowed herself a smirk. If Billy had taught her one thing it was that there was no excuse to not enjoy the little things in life, war or no war.

Curious she looked down to her scythe. It wasn't the first time her scythe had bought her to a place outside of where she'd asked to go, and each of the three or four times prior it had dropped her somewhere that immediately bought about the prospect of violent destruction and carnage just like this, ever since she and Berserker had been upgraded by each other. Bringing the blade up she looked at her with a pout.

_'You've been spending too much time with Berserker again haven't you?'_

_'Or maybe you haven't been spending enough time with Billy.'_ Came her reply like someone else's thought in her head.

Mandy gave a smirk. _'Yeah that's it.'_

She tossed aside the ice cream in her hand and turned back down the road, shutting out the carnage around her. First she needed to know where about she was. Looking about amongst the slab-sided apartments and offices she could tell straight away from the use of purples and violets, and the oddly technological shapes of various things around her, that this was the right city. But she was surprised to note the number of trucks and general traffic going to and fro nearby, meaning that the economy was still alive here, even if the city was not far from being a giant garbage dump. It smelled of garbage, it was piled up in heaps on the side of the road, like society was about to collapse and soon garbage would be all that was left of the city.

Looking up she saw no less than four large television screens in her vicinity flashing bright colours of advertising, enough to give people seizures, while in other places the face of the Emperor in black and red looked down with an ominous scowl, like an immense iron god of tyranny. Though the face in the pictures was gaunt and hard, with a military officer's cap and collar, Mandy instinctively knew he did not look like that in reality. Overhead the sky was orange, and she heard helicopters in the distance, as well as what she recognised as an immense shining grey zeppelin. Elsewhere she heard propaganda speakers, she listened.

_"Every one of those depraved differents that exists does so in direct opposition to our right to reign over our world."_ It spoke with a cold tone, though the fact the voice was trying to justify the insane hatred meant that the state of mental decay wasn't as bad yet as it had been in Endsville, but the use of the word 'differents' meant it wouldn't be long.

_'Wait a minute, how could all this be here?'_ She thought suddenly. It occurred to her that the last time they were here the entire area she was standing on had been imploded into one giant burning pile of rubble. To rebuild was one thing, but building a city on top of a crater buried under a million tons of ruin, in a society which was in terminal decline, was more than a little different.

Turning the scythe down in her hands she mounted it like a witch on a broomstick, and on her will it whisked her straight up, leaving the burning wreckage below in her wake. Going up above the drab building blocks she soared high over the city. Looking out over the area she quickly saw what had occurred in the time since they had last been here. Though the street she had been on had been a densely populated urban sprawl, just a block or two away the buildings gave way to the same enormous pile of rubble they had seen before, still unmoved from when Dib had destroyed the city. Looking down on it with wonder she saw that thin clouds of smoke were still rising in places, and the entire urban area below had been built up around the destroyed area like an irregular bubble, thicker in areas than in others. There were a number of cranes hanging over the mass, and she noticed the inhabitants had taken to using it as a garbage dump, as well as a vast scavenging ground, important in these bad days.

Looking off in the other direction she saw what remained of the suburbs now partly eaten up by the rebuilt urban sprawl. Setting her gaze on the spot she remembered as being where her acquaintance resided she took off towards it at speed, ducking down to whoosh past the tops of the brutalist structures, scaring one helicopter pilot as she passed. Crossing the urban ring she quickly reached the neighbourhood she wanted to come out at in the first place, and descended to set her feet down to the street.

With her boots firmly set on the ground Mandy craned her head skywards as she looked to the tainted orange sky above. She grimaced slightly, her stomach twisting in disgust at the sight of all that pollution, enough to turn the blue sky orange. It reminded her of the fat and grease that ran off the pizza they ordered from the Bloaty's Pizza Hog here, prompting them to never go near the place ever again. No surprise that the whole god damn chain originated from here.

Though it hadn't been long ago that she had destroyed Endsville, killing the five million or so vermin that dared call themselves people living within, she'd found herself reminded of the place as soon as she arrived here. It reminded her of how it was in days prior, back before the inhabitants lost their minds completely. Regardless of its many quirks and oddities the entire stinking mass of urban blight and neo-noir architecture was populated by a people who were just as mindlessly self-centred and twisted in their beliefs as those of her now crushed and destroyed home town.

Still, looking up at the polluted sky overhead she shrugged an eyebrow at the irony of her hatred. Though on one level she hated what they'd done to their own environment through their selfish stupidity, on another level she kind of admired it. This wasn't just a fowled sky; it was the product of their cancerous strive for money, dominance and pride. To her it was a masterpiece the artist had never really intended to make, and now that they were stuck with it still didn't stop contributing ever more to.

_'Eh. If these grubs wanna live in their own filth, let them. I'll make them wallow in it.'_ Narrowing her eyes slightly she remembered what she'd seen of the future she'd forged without Billy. Aside from how it had been left to completely collapse, what she'd seen had been very close to what she had desired. If these idiots wanted to ravage and pollute the planet she wouldn't stop them. She'd force feed it to them until they screamed in horror at what they'd done. She wasn't content with an orange sky though; she wouldn't stop until it was dark with dust and smog, and permanently drizzled acid rain down on their neon lit faces. _'Yes, they will forever live in the darkness they bought upon themselves. The good ones will get the respect they deserve, but nothing will save those rotten souls from my hell.'_

Breaking herself from her little muse she returned her eyes to the urban street she currently stood in, lined on either side by flats and cars and quaint little mounds of garbage. At the end of the street though stood the particular green and purple house she was here for. Taking a moment before advancing any further she scanned her surroundings. It was possible that they had found out about Zim as well, despite them not contacting him that often, and the fact his work down in his base attracted no attention. So far there didn't appear to be any police, but that wasn't to say there weren't snipers waiting for her to show up. Taking the time she carefully scrutinised every building and tree in the area, before she deemed herself safe, walking on down the deserted street towards her conniving collaborator.

Marching purposefully up to Zim's door she rang the doorbell. When no response came in the next few seconds she gripped the doorknob herself, finding that the door opened inwards easily without any locks engaged to stop her. _'Pathetic. Why did we recruit this lowlife again?'_ As she stepped across the living room carpet she saw in the bathroom ahead of her a small figure rising out of the garbage can, fumbling about in alarm at the sudden intrusion.

"Who is that? Who dares intrude on Zim's-Uaaah Off!" He grunted as he tipped over out of the lift, falling flat on his face. Mandy gave him a deadpan stare and a quiet groan of disgust as she walked up to him. Gritting his teeth furiously Zim pushed himself up on all fours as he heard the intruder's footsteps approach him. "I swear to whoever has entered my base their smeets will suffer a fate so horrible they will… will…" He broke away as he saw the familiar pair of boots standing in front of his face. Craning his head up he gawked up at Mandy's ominous scowl.

"Oh please, do continue." She spoke to him with anger, Zim shaking slightly under the weight of her angry stare. "You were saying what you were going to do to my children. Please almighty Zim do tell me."

"… Mandy… What an unexpected…" He didn't continue his trivialities, knowing that she did not enjoy people who wasted her time. "What brings you here?"

"They found out about our plan to topple the corrupt world. They came after Billy and I earlier this morning, and our associates elsewhere. Relax, they haven't come after you yet." Mandy answered quickly as Zim began to fret. "We have no choice but to begin our takeover today. Is the serum ready?"

Breathing deep through a pursed mouth Zim stood to his feet, still very small beneath the tyrannical young woman in the red dress. His nerves still burned inside of him in a kind of background panic stored down inside his belly. The prospect that this was the day he began moving towards taking his lofty position as lord over all other beings both excited and unnerved him. It had caught him by surprise, and he rarely considered things not going his way. He wasn't too good at handling things he didn't expect.

"Follow me." He answered, leading her back to the miniscule elevator. Mandy raised an eyebrow as he stood on the lid before she followed suit anyway, Zim pressed up next to her awkwardly. Squeezing together they managed to fit, riding the platform down into the labyrinth of his underground base towards his research and development chambers.

Though little of him had changed outwardly, Zim had grown ever more arrogant and selfish in his world view in the two years since they had recruited him. If the mere prospect of power could corrupt an average mind, then the prospect of total power over everything and everyone had to be able to further corrupt a mind that was already deranged to the point of insanity. Like the mind of any narcissist he avoided any and all thoughts that could potentially undermine his overwhelming and unjustified conceit along with his wholly self-centred lifestyle. So while he became ever more eager to take what he wanted and do away with his partners, it also made him very predictable, and also very easy to keep under control. Otherwise he was still the short, green little wannabe despot they had found two years ago.

Mandy folded her arms coolly as she and Zim exited out into a large auditorium filled with exotic equipment and architecture.

"This way, right over here." He called as he trundled along hurriedly. Following the deranged green alien down the hallway Mandy found what they were heading for at the end.

"These are variable time stasis fields, my own designs of course. Anything held inside is currently aging at several million times the rate we are." He explained as she gazed up at the two green pods of light. The one on the right contained a middle aged man who looked to be quite sickly and weak, like he hadn't gotten any exercise for a long time, likely having never been let out of the tube. He stared out with a look as if no one was home inside his head. In the one to the left of it was a skeleton.

"I found these stinking human thug creatures forcing themselves on a little girl smeet late at night in an alley. Typical humans. I took them both back here for experimentation, after I disposed of the smeet of course." He gave a cruel smirk while Mandy resisted the urge to cut him open. "One of them I gave a serum which the computer showed would bond with them on a genetic level to shut off all aging. I then put them in these fields to simulate a lifetime going by. So far they've both gone through two hundred and twenty years in those tubes, and the one on the right still shows no signs of stopping."

Mandy's eyes widened now. It was clear that the thug on the right, though he hadn't gotten out of that tube for several lifetimes, he was still frozen at the same age he'd been when captured. Zim smiled as he clasped his hands together proudly.

"The serum was a perfect success. But then again, I was the one who made it so of course it was. It bonded permanently with the creature's genetic goo, and it will work on any human it is administered to. If you were to take it now you would age normally until you were in your prime, which in humans is somewhere in your early twenties I believe, and then you'll never age a day more unless you will it to be so."

Mandy's mouth hung open as she gazed over the specimen suspended in the green glow. "How did you do it?"

Zim smirked haughtily. It had been a while since he actually had something to gloat over. "It was a complex process. I had to go through and map the human genome, and figure out exactly what it was that caused the planned degeneration as the cells copied themselves. But even when I did, I found that it was impossible to cut out or neutralise those segments without the patients dying in seconds. So I went back and analysed that third rate scientist Mandark's work on the subject, and I came up with the idea that by combining the supernatural energies of the gods with these particular strands I could solve the problem. And as you can clearly see, my genius has payed off once again."

Mandy rubbed her mouth and chin with her hand, disregarding her subordinate's buttering himself up, as well as trying to set aside the grim thought of how may people had died to get to this point who genuinely didn't deserve it. She would have to come to terms with that hard fact in her own time. For now she analysed what this meant, and what came next.

"So this will guaranteed make us immortal?" She pressed.

"By combining this serum with your scythes regenerative and shielding abilities, nothing will ever be able to destroy you." He responded confident of himself. Mandy didn't particularly intend to put that to the test though, she would rather no bombs were dropped on her head, but it was welcome news.

"So is it ready to be administered?" She asked turning to face him.

"Not just yet. Though the research is complete each dose of the serum takes a little time to make."

Mandy's spirits dulled somewhat. They had a tight schedule to work within, and delays were not something they could accommodate for anymore. If she didn't make it back to the rendezvous in time to make their stand she may arrive to a scene of death and loss like when she came home late one night before.

"How long to make three vials?"

"About five hours. Do we have that much time?" Zim asked uncertainly. "I mean if the authorities found out about you, then there's still a chance they know about me. They could be on their way here right now, and I cannot tolerate them getting in the way of my taking of the power and greatness that is rightfully mine."

In response to this the young tyrant set her features in a hard scowl that seemed to crush him where he stood before her. Zim shrank back in fear slightly as his arrogance fed her dark furnace.

"Five hours is fine. Now do your job, well be leaving for our main base at five so be ready." Pivoting on he heels she strode back to the elevator shaft, retrieving her pistol from the band of her shorts with her left hand, clutching her scythe with a strong grip in her right. "I'll guard upstairs until you're finished, then we'll leave to join up with the others."

"Mandy." Zim called still clearly nervous. She looked back to him where he stood across the laboratory. "Don't forget who we're doing all of this for. I still expect to get all the power and glory and the empire that rightfully belongs to me."

Mandy stared at him straight and unflinching, even as his confidence wavered and his eyes flickered. "You will get everything you rightfully deserve, I give you my word, all powerful Zim."

As she walked away she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, as if detecting the waves of malevolent desire coming from the small man standing behind her. Closing her eyes she focussed her mind, directing all her attention through her scythe towards Zim. It was never too difficult to gain access to his thoughts since he was extremely arrogant and a chauvinist, but it still took great control to be able to feel what another was thinking.

_'She thinks she's so great… Hasn't won… Only worthless hyuman, inferior to me in every blab la bla… Can't kill her, but I can imprison… Torture… Experiment.'_

Not needing to hear anything else she released the connection, disappearing up the shaft, leaving Zim alone behind her.

"Heh heh heh! HAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!" Howling and shuddering with ecstasy at his own greatness he rushed over to his console, taking hold of the sleek maroon pistol lying on its metal surface. Whipping around he took aim at the specimen in the tube and fired, the flash of green light blowing through the glass, scoring a hit directly through the middle of his forehead. Frenzied with his own greatness he fired away, blasting him all across his body with the high energy plasma.

"Pathetic hyuman different thinks she can give orders to Zim?" He threw himself into a fit of incessant high pitched mindless laughter, as if the mere notion of a living deity of perfection like himself working with those two were the ramblings of a madman.

"HAHA… Okay." Bringing himself under control he moved to the computer terminal, dumping the pistol back where he'd got it to begin creating the vials.

_'I still need those worms for taking over this planet, before I can get rid of them. They still have the army on their side and the scythes. Until I get full control of the planet I still need them.'_ Though a deranged narcissist he was, he still knew when to use common sense, to a vague extent. _'After they have done their job, I will dispose of them, just because I can! Hah!'_

Upstairs Mandy lazily waltzed over to the couch facing the television, heaving a sigh as she lounged back into it. She settled her gun down next to her, along with the two spare magazines from her back pocket, laying her scythe out across her lap.

_'If he hadn't led us to Tak, I'd say we should've gone with that monkey from Townsville.'_

* * *

Midday.

The situation for Junior and Tak was rapidly going from bad to worse. What's more at the rate at which troops and armour were landing by sea, plus the helicopter transports now waiting to ferry them in from the mainland, combined with their now total air superiority, it looked to be about to get worse still.

The only place for troop landings either by air or sea was via the wide strip of previously pristine beach covering one third of the islands shore, with the rest too rocky and steep to land. This gave the defending Nerglings an advantage as they were able to concentrate their defences in the strip of trees separating the sand from the mouth of the cave. This was being outweighed by the superior might of their enemies, especially regarding their armour support now ferrying troops up from the waves. Currently the defenders were struggling to hack down on their enemy's numbers from the tree line. The small creatures scampered through the trees, firing and chopping away at the heavily armed Marines on the beach with Kalashnikovs, Uzis, kukris and other cheap weapons. Behind them their brothers and sisters raked the shore with machine gun fire and blasted away at the beach with the energy cannons.

The swarm of defending creatures put up a formidable fight, and proved a serious problem to the untrained Marines who fell one by one on the increasingly bloody sand. Unfortunately they were the ones with the upper hand. Another four tracked troop carriers joined the six already there as they drove up onto the beach, their droops disembarking to take cover behind them as they blasted away at the trees with heavy cannon. In the surf behind them many more were on their way, and hovering behind them a mass of Stallions and Black Hawks hovered in wait.

The attacker's objectives; cut through the enemy resistance and take the beach as a landing platform for the helicopters. The defender's objectives; hold them off every step of the way. So far the defenders weren't having such a great time, their numbers continuously thinning out as one by one the were shot or blown away, the machine gun nests blown to pieces along with their crews.

Tak watched this from the mouth of the cave, furrowing her brow as she contemplated the situation.

"You guys, reinforce the front line." She ordered to a group of twenty or so as they guarded the entrance. "Spread out along the middle of the trees, that way they won't see you as easily." She knew they were most likely going to their deaths, as did they, but they obeyed with loyalty few humans showed anymore. She also knew that by stationing them further back they were going to loose ground to the enemy, putting them ever closer to getting their helicopter landing strip. Hopefully Junior could help there.

Watching on closely she narrowed her gaze on one of the ten AAVs, ugly hulking giants with an open roof, as it blasted away at one of the bunkers on the rim of the mountain. Though the bolts of plasma fell in a heavy rain on them, so far they'd only manage to destroy one. The cannon fire from them however was more potent, punching deep craters into the rock and concrete shields. From behind it a soldier wielding an AT4 fired upon one bunker. From the huge blast nearby that made her grimace it had destroyed the entire thing, ammunition and all.

"Come on Junior. Where are y-"

She was answered when the transport she'd been watching rose up on its side, pushed up off its right track by a number of powerful green coils spearing out of the sand below. The machine tipped and fell over on its side, the men taking cover behind it jumping back for fear of being crushed, only to be gunned down by the defenders in the trees. Turning their attention to the tentacles the remaining troops behind the beast of a machine opened fire on the sand, before being silenced as those same coils whipped around and separated their heads from their bodies.

Launching himself up out of the sand Junior propped himself up on the coils extruding from his back, using a half dozen more to slash and stab at those Marines within five metres of him. Ducking down behind the overturned transport he took his own weapon in his hands, a G36C fresh from Germany, and took aim to his left just in time to gun down two soldiers trying to get around his rear. Retracting his tentacles back inside he cautiously scanned his surroundings. He was on the left side of the beach, with all his foes to the right on the other side of the tipped over carrier. Turning to the surf though he saw another problem, more transports were approaching, and they had him in their line of fire.

_'I can't stay here. But where else do I go to get away from their cannons?'_ His answer came when up the beach another carrier met its flaming demise to the plasma cannon fire from the remaining bunkers.

Seizing the opportunity he turned to move up the beach, putting the tipped over machine in the way of him and the ones now coming up behind him. Now he faced the entire small army gathered on the beach. Taking aim he fired quickly, felling several before they even knew he was there.

Another couple all along the beach turned to fire on him. Ducking down he bought his hand up, his fingers forming vines that stabbed into the sand, rising up again in a thick barrier, enough to shield himself from their attacks for a few seconds at least.

Behind his barrier he fired again, blowing through one's head and forcing more to take cover. With his enemy's heads down he launched himself to his feet, bounding towards the wrecked machine ahead. He could feel the bullets as they streaked by, the air zipping past like a tiny tornado. He fired back in their direction as he kept running, his magazine running out a moment later. Try as he might he couldn't avoid all of it, and just as he reached for the cover just metres away, he felt metal tear through him.

"Gah!" He gasped, the feeling like being hit by several sledge hammers in the side one after another. Stumbling her fell to the sand in front of the burning wreck, the sound of more bullets striking the steel armour resonating as he heaved in and out. "Urgh…"

Gritting his teeth against the ache he let his body do the work, the wound closing up in mere seconds inside and out, including the holes in his suit. Gradually he moved himself to a standing position, breathing hard at the exertion of being wounded. Already he felt weaker, his weapon feeling slightly heavier in his hand. Replacing the spent magazine with a fresh one he listened to the sounds of the battle behind and around him. Ahead he could see his forces in the trees dwindling, the survivors moving back into the deeper layers as the troops slowly advanced up the beach. _'Not good, we can't let them have a beachhead.'_

Tak shared his sentiments from her vantage point. Her attention caught on three transports breaking off from the main line to drive up the beach to the right, attempting to get as close as possible to the mouth of the cave separated by the trees from which to unload their troops.

"Oh no you don't!" Reaching down behind the damp rock wall of the cave she hefted up one of Zim's more formidable weapons. Positioning the rocket launcher over her small shoulder she grasped the trigger, lining up the nearest machine in the sights. It quickly achieved a lock, the clear tone giving her authority to pull the trigger. The missile blasted out the tube, sprinting out towards its target to deliver its warhead. She grinned viciously as the troop carrier exploded, enough incentive to stop the other two from going any further. "KAAHAHA-Oh sh…"

Diving away she barely escaped the cannon fire that impacted on the rock wall of the cave, the remaining two opening up on her position in an attempt to destroy their greatest threat. Cursing her predicament she attempted to get near the mouth of the cave to see their enemy. Barely peeking out the side she made out the two now as they moved around their burning comrade, before a near blast showered her face with hot rock shards, forcing her behind cover once more.

"Junior we have a problem here." She called into her radio. "Two transporters are closing in on the cave. They're gonna disembark practically straight into the mouth."

"I'm having my own problems here." Junior responded as he pressed his back to the metal hulk. Behind him the sound of the enemy's rifles drew ever closer, the bunkers responsible for defending against the enemy armour one by one being blown to smithereens. He grimaced.

_'Alright, I have to move fast so I can minimise how much I get hit, and I have to aim for the transports.'_ Formulating a relatively simple plan he took a deep breath, trying to prepare himself as a dozen long coils grew out from his back once more. _'Okay.'_

In one powerful swoop he raised himself high over the battlefield on his lengthy supports, where he found himself looking down on the nearby carriers. Before they could shoot him down he thrust out, two of his coils stabbing down through the armour of the two nearest enemy machines, bursting into energy to fry the interior. They both erupted in flames. Using them as anchors he swung himself around in a wide arc, avoiding the fire of his enemies as he thrust out at them one by one. Another machine blew apart from the inside, leaving some of its occupants to run around the battlefield in flames, screaming as their vehicles fuel burnt against their skin and clothes. Firing his weapon at the troops below he slew them without mercy, swooping across the waves as they broke close to the shore, thrusting down at two more AAVs swimming up towards the beach. They blew up in flames whist still in the water, sinking soon after to sit on the bottom a few metres below as he roared on past.

Finally he detached his tentacles from the burning hulks, coming down to land in the open cabin of his prized cigarette boat. Turning to face the enemy again he started as they turned their cannons on him. Jumping away from the boat he looked just in time to see the sleek machine explode from their shells to lie on the bottom beside the jetty. Gritting his teeth he blocked out the loss, catapulting himself forward on his tentacles towards the two machines still harassing Tak near the mouth of the cave. Before their crews could even register it the machines had both been incinerated inside out by the glowing halo around the ends of his coils.

Dropping to the sand again Junior breathed hard. He was quickly finding the ferocious battle to be straining him more than he'd experienced previously on any of Tak and his expeditions. Then it had been a case of avoiding a head on confrontation where possible, attacking the weak spots where and when it suited them, now he was fighting an all out war on the enemy's terms. Reforming his jagged and deformed back into its normal human shape he used the burning wreckage for cover as he breathed in and out, pausing upon hearing the sound of fighters roaring in again. Craning his head towards the sky he watched with a sinking despair as two Strike Eagles raced in across the tree line, their bombs falling on the helpless combatants below.

Tak covered her face with her arms as the combined blast hit her, flinging her and the other Nerglings stationed at the cave entrance far back, dust and sand pelting them as they fell along with an immense deafening roar.

_'An_ air _strike? They bombed so close to their own troops. But what about ours?'_

Groaning she rose to a sitting position on the flat rock bed, stepping, looking out in despair to where the plumes of smoke and dust rose over what was once their primary and most important defensive line, their comrades fighting amongst the trees blown to smithereens by the hammer blow of the airstrike. Rising to her feet she sprinted to the entrance with the Nerglings as she saw where one of the huge bombs had impacted, just a few metres from where Junior had been moments ago.

_'Oh no, Junior!'_

* * *

_'… Where am I?'_

Junior's vision faded in and out of blackness as he returned to consciousness in a muddled haze of blaring light and sound. As the seconds ticked by his vision slowly cleared enough for him to see his surroundings, and remember that he was in the middle of a warzone.

_'The bombs hit nearby. Was I thrown by them?'_ Gradually turning his head to the side he could dimly make out the smoking carnage left after the airstrike not far away, along with the burning wreckage of the machines nearby. The blast hadn't thrown him far, him being so close as for the pressure to crush him into the sand rather than toss him out to sea. His second favourite and trusted weapon on the other hand was nowhere to be seen. _'How bad am I hurt?_

This he found didn't have a good answer. Looking himself over he noticed that his right arm was missing from the shoulder, the sand stained with a small patch of green blood. On top of that his human body was likely torn apart inside and out. He had no idea how many bones he had broken. In his state he didn't even have the strength to grimace, let alone heal it and go on fighting. _'Damn.'_

His situation got even worse though. Turning his head towards the enemies now advancing up the beach he saw an AAV heading his way, ready to crush him under its treads. Barely able to hold his head up he struggled to point in its direction with his non-existent right arm. Focussing what little strength he had left he tried to form a coil out of his shoulder, all the while the machine drew closer. He groaned inwardly as his will time and again failed to form a new appendage with which to fight off his aggressor. He watched on as it closed in, his anxiety beginning to rise, his dire urgency mounting higher and higher, urging him to fight back despite the lack of strength.

_'Come on. Come on. Come on! I'm not a human, this isn't even my real body!'_ Spurned on by the pressure he managed to form a growing green coil out of his empty shoulder, pointing it in the direction of the transport bearing down on him. Gritting his teeth as it closed the distance he gave one last shove. _**'COME ON!'**_

A lance of diamond hard dark flesh shot forward, straight for the oncoming machine. Impaling it from front to back he tossed it up and over, landing on its back in the sand. Heaving a sigh of relief through his ruined body as the thing blew up he retracted the tentacle back to his body, focussing on it to restore what he'd just lost. With his newly found focus he managed to slowly reform his arm complete with the sleeves of his suit, along with the rest of his human imitation, leaving him to rise unsteadily to his feet again.

Surveying the damage to their base it was clear that they were now loosing this battle. Lurching forward weakly he made his way to where the trees had been previously, now charred and flattened by the blasts. A number of deep smoking holes marked where the bombs had dropped, destroying everything they encountered. Their little patch of paradise had been destroyed, the sand and trees gouged beyond repair. None of the Nerglings defending the tree line had survived, and there was no remaining cover to hide the remaining handful of gun emplacements. Now there was little to prevent their enemy taking the beach. Already even as the soldiers pulled back to the shoreline to regroup he could hear the helicopters coming in to offload their troops behind him.

Staggering drunkenly he made his way as quickly as he could back through the ruined landscape without ever having a shot fired at him through the settling dust, back and up towards the mouth of the cave. As soon as he arrived he was relieved as Tak rushed up to embrace him, kissing him softly on the lips as he held her back.

"I'm okay." He reassured her, moving out of her arms to address his faithful minions gathered around them. He grimaced, knowing that their situation was getting ever graver by the minute, and that by now they had lost at least a third of their fighting force. Luckily they'd had the foresight not to deploy everyone at once, knowing their enemy would brake through eventually. But the fact remained that their main defence was now gone, and their situation was going to get progressively worse still as time went on.

"Fall back to the entrance. Spread out through the base. Guard the front door and destroy everything that tries to get into the cave." He commanded them all, the twenty or so before them rushing back to spread his orders and prepare for the onslaught. Watching them go he weakly began lumbering back towards the heavy blast door at the end, when he felt Tak catch his arm.

"Junior." She spoke. Turning to face her he saw as she reached back and took hold of his faithful M1A rifle. Holding it out for him to take she smiled as he reached in and slung it over his shoulder, taking renewed strength in her presence with him through this.

"Are you coming?" He asked her.

"Go on ahead. I'll be there in a few minutes." She answered. Letting go she watched as he turned and marched back towards where his faithful minions were preparing inside.

Behind him Tak turned to look back down to the devastated beach now lost to the enemy. Helicopters were now landing and unloading hundreds of troops, the larger ones offloading Bradley fighting vehicles for armour support. Turning her eyes to the many more helicopters approaching she scowled.

_'I have to stop them before they land any more. I have to blow those little bastards out of the sky!'_ Activating the shroud in her pak she stepped on out of the cave as her body flickered out of sight, knowing that in minutes where she'd been standing moments ago would be overrun by the dregs of the human species. She knew what she had to do.

* * *

Standing alone high up on the rock face Billy smiled evilly down over the troops landing below. He'd been most impressed by Junior's fighting prowess, especially considering he was usually so suave and refined, more a high class gentleman than a bloodthirsty demon like himself. Covert operations overseas were one thing, but facing off against a small army was a different story. A real all out battle tested a person's abilities to the very maximum. What he'd seen below, of how he had dispatched that transporter despite having an arm blow off, had dispelled any doubts he'd held of Nergal the Second's prowess on the battlefield.

"So very many targets. So very many corrupt little creatures all begging for death." He chuckled, scanning the hundreds of troops now charging on up to the mouth of the cave, accompanied by infantry fighting vehicles. Their combined numbers and the weapons they fielded, as well as the presence of several light tanks, promised that this would be a greater challenge than the usual slaughter, and a great deal of fun. Reaching into his dark leather coat he withdrew his revolving cannon, swinging the chamber out to inspect that each of the sixty calibre rounds were present and accounted for, six in total. Smiling still he closed the weapon up, pulling the hammer back with his thumb as he watched the fire fight beginning around the cave entrance on the other side.

"All those filthy rotten souls. The air smells like selfishness and hypocrisy, all those murderers and rapists and child killers. It's like a million school bullies all gathered in one place all for me." His smile grew into a wide sadistic grin filled with bladed teeth. Like a shark in a cloud of blood the scent of their cruelty, and the pathetic yellow-bellied cowardliness they all tried to cover up, drove him insane with destructive glee.

"Feeding time. Hahahahahah!" Turning back he strode to his bike positioned behind him, mounting and starting it with a loud buzz. Grinning madly as his cloak closed across the front and his features became full blown demonic he accelerated onwards down the rock, tearing out a wide arc towards the beach and his prey below. **"Judgement day is here boys!"**

* * *

For the majority of his life Kevin Ethan Levin had been a man of contradictions, of wild swings in character. In the beginning he'd been an alright kid, but soon the anger he felt for his peers' mocking scorn and derision, combined with his elevated sense of superiority and self-importance for his unique abilities, had led him to take to crime. As a youth he'd been Ben Tennyson's most hate-filled opponent, despite him having shown mercy on his soul several times. Years later he actually joined them in fighting to defend Earth against threats from outside their world. He'd become good friends with Ben and Gwen, and the Plumbers as a whole. Alas, unfortunately for them, old habits die hard. As Ben Tennyson's fame rose Kevin's ever important ego came to the forefront again. Whereas Gwen was quite comfortable to sit back and let Ben take all the poster boy glory, Kevin soon became jealous and resentful. Ultimately, just as before, he slipped back into thinking only of himself, distorting his thought process to completely disregard others as irrelevant next to his own wishes, all the while putting up a façade that fooled his friends until the very end.

When the ruling party began to fret over the ever increasing danger they posed to their own desires of brutality and mass murder while lining their own pockets, who else would they have gone to? They gave Kevin a two million dollar hit contract against the Tennysons and the Plumbers organisation, which he was all too glad to accept. But instead of confronting the two and killing them face to face, he took the cowards way and put poison in their food, going on to join a strike force to wipe out the Plumbers on Earth. At the end of it he was two million dollars richer, and was known as one of the best hired killers on the planet, if also the most dishonourable and dishonest. When the government came to him with an eight million contract to get rid of two more annoyances he saw no reason why not.

Thus here he now sat in the cabin of a Super Stallion helicopter closing in on its destination. Dressed in a black militant uniform with bulletproof vest he sat on the left, staring at the shady looking man in the cheap blue suit sitting opposite. He scowled at said man as he drummed his fingers on his alligator skin briefcase, the documents inside for the contract already viewed and signed.

"Remember we're paying you four mil in advance, so if you don't deliver your ass is gonna fry like-"

"Shut the fuck up you fucking little toad!" Kevin spat, hauling a SAW machine gun onto his lap, loading it ready for firing. "Just make sure the money's in the account by tomorrow, or I'll come round to your place and put a bullet through your head."

"Alright sure, jeez." The seedy man grizzled.

"And another thing, I'm getting eight mil to take out the freak and the bitch. If I have to kill one of those other little shits then that's another four mil I expect to be paid, eight mil if I find and kill them both." He explained, taking out his black forty four calibre Desert Eagle from his hip holster, drawing the immense slide back and chambering the first round. The greasy man sitting opposite got a look of outrage.

"What? Another four mil! The hell you will! This was not part of our agreement you little piece of shit freak! You'll do as we-Guuuk…" Snarling with rage Kevin quickly reached across and grabbed the slimy figure around the throat, lifting him into the air as he bought his handgun up to his face.

"You know, there's nothing stopping me from pulling this trigger and blowing your fucking brains out the back of your skull, killing the pilot, and crashing this thing into the ocean. It'll look like they shot it down, and I'll still go on to get my reward. So I suggest you change the terms of our contract, and refrain from calling me a freak again. Got it?" He quietly relished in how wide the suited man's eyes were in terror as he held him roughly. His slimy friend managed a nod, Kevin dumping him back into his seat as he returned to his.

"Two minutes!" The pilot called out as they neared their destination. Folding his arms across his chest Kevin returned to his brooding arrogant grimace, awaiting touchdown on the battlefield below.

* * *

A Bradley exploded, its turret blowing off the body as the heavy shell blew right through it. Billy raced past the burning machine, ignoring the mosquito bites of his enemy's bullets as he cut a path of devastation and horror through their ranks. Swinging his arm around he fired his revolver again, blowing one soldier's head to pieces in a hail of chunks, continuing on to blast through the armour of an AAV. Putting that weapon back in his coat he drew his MAC-10, racing up towards the cratered remains of the trees to mow down a group of five troops. Spying another Bradley aiming its gun at him he turned his bike around to avoid its fire, shredding the sand as he tore towards the offending machine.

He called upon Berserker, lashing out with a thin stream of liquid energy into the side of the armoured machine as he passed, cutting through armour with ever greater ease. He grinned maniacally as he rode away, the satisfying explosion behind him intensifying his blood rage. Swinging his weapon around again he sent a burning wave of destructive might towards a helicopter coming in to land, sending it careening off to crash into another group of Marines.

_"BOOM!"_

Before he could even think his bike blew apart underneath him, tossing him up and over, landing on his feet in the war-pitted sand. He smirked wide as a large number of troops opened fire on him, their bullets tearing through his flesh and bone without effect. Lashing out he splayed their bodies across the sand with a slash from his weapon, digging his machine pistol out again to drill and mow down another ten or so who tried to fight back.

"**Worthless little thugs! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"** He roared as his eyes shone red, launching himself head first into their ranks as he slashed and hacked them apart without remorse or hesitation.

* * *

Junior on the other hand wasn't having such an easy time.

Try as he and his followers might to prevent their enemies from advancing any further, they could not defend against their tanks and superior numbers. One by one the defenders fell, and with every one of their enemies they slew another took his place, bombarding their position endlessly with their far superior firepower. Gradually under the cover of their armour they advanced towards the wrecked blast door now blown inwards.

Junior fired downrange at them with his M1A rifle now devoid of scope, still weary from being bombed to pieces earlier. He gritted his teeth as he took cover behind the broken door mount, reloading another magazine as the Nerglings continued to take pot shots back at their advancing enemy. They could sense it in their master that they were in a bad position. They didn't need him to know that they were outnumbered, outgunned and that they were slowly running out of ammunition to resupply themselves with. And all they had managed to do so far was stall their enemy's movement. But for all their efforts at the rate they were closing in on them they would soon have to leave this position and take the fight inside the base.

"That's it, fight them back at every step!" Junior commanded in his semi-German accent, rallying his troops to keep up their defence. Taking a look out at their enemy he saw them advancing with a Bradley and a Stryker in the lead, giving cover to the Marines behind them as they inched towards the door.

"You, bring me a rocket launcher." He spoke to one of his servants, the small demon saluting and scurrying off to the armoury. Waiting anxiously for its return the young demon kept up the fire, taking aim through the iron sights and shooting one soldier through the chest, followed quickly by another where they stood beside their armour support, taking cover immediately after with a bullet hole through his shoulder.

Gritting his teeth he willed it to close, in time for his servant to return with the same tube launcher Tak had used. Crouching down he shouldered the heavy weapon, the small creature loading the first rocket into the rear. Rising again he eased his way out of cover to where he could set the Bradley in its sights. Locking on he fired quickly, the tank hit through the frontal armour and exploding in a shower of sparks and flames.

"Reload." He stated crouching down again. Sliding another missile up into the chamber the small demon patted him on the shoulder, Junior stepping out to aim at the Stryker. Firing before it could achieve lock it detonated on the front armour again, blowing straight through and incinerating everything and everyone inside. Junior and several Nerglings watched with a flair of enthusiasm as the doors and hatches blew out and the thing was engulfed in flames, leaving the Marines without armoured sup-"

_"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"_

Their celebrations were short lived as one of the small creatures were blown away, Junior and the other half dozen gathered around the door ducking out of their firing line just in time to avoid the cannon shells. Managing to steal a glance back he sighed as another two Bradleys pushed the burning wrecks out of the way to continue their advance. He grimaced and turned to the Nergling, knowing they had done all they could here.

"Prepare the inner defences. They'll break through any minute now. We have to retreat back deeper inside." He told them grimly, the agitated creatures nodding, some running to further strengthen positions in the upper level walkway overhead, some dispersing to other rooms to inform their comrades. Junior saw that once their enemy got too close to be able to stay here their last defensive strong point would be to use the broken in doorway as a choke point to concentrate their fire, through which their tanks wouldn't be able to go through. But after the infantry got inside they would be fighting one on one, and the almost endless numbers of thugs would quickly overwhelm them.

A few still opted to stay and fight with their master, not content to leave him to bear the brunt of the invasion on his own. Setting down the empty rocket launcher Junior took up his main weapon again, extending his coils to take hold of four individual weapons lying about from his dead soldiers in addition to his own in his hands. Turning back to the open doorway he stepped out into the line of fire, letting out a snarl and opening up on their numbers with all five weapons in a hail of bullets. He struck down two, three, five Marines, gritting his teeth as their bullets blew through him, until finally the gun of the closing tank blew off one of the tentacles.

He ducked for cover again, groaning through the ache and weakness of the holes in his being, healing much slower now in his weakened state. While ever he still used his human body as a base, he would always be restricted in what he could do. Still he stood tall and strong, a symbol of strength for the Nergal demons around him as he picked up the rocket launcher from before and began to load another missile himself.

_'Come on Tak, you have to get rid of those transports before they overwhelm us. Where are you?'_

* * *

"Thirty seconds!" The pilot called back to the chopper's two occupants. Setting his sights on a patch of sand now vacant he slowly bought the machine in. "Twen-"

* * *

_"BAAANG__!"_

A huge shockwave hit the side of the big chopper, buffeting it around badly as the Stallion on their left exploded.

"What the hell was that?" Kevin barked as he rushed up to the cockpit as the craft rocked, the suited man sitting behind them clinging to the handles with a look of terror. Looking out the front windscreen they watched as another two machines close to the ground blew apart to crash to the beach and surf, struck by several shafts of blue light from high above on the mountain. Casting their eyes up to the peak they stared intently out at a small figure barely noticeable against the rock. "What is that?"

From her spot high above the battle Tak stood alone atop the mountain, her arms beside her as she glared out at the army riding in towards her. From her pak mounted to her human spine her four spider legs pointed out ahead at the targets she'd destroyed, a trail of vapour rising from each, while a hundred more hovered in range. She breathed deeply in and out as she scanned over each of them, her anger and defiance burning ever brighter throughout every cell with each breath.

_'These people.'_ She mused to herself. _'These people, they signed up for a job that allowed them to go all across the world, pillaging and raping and killing everyone they see, and somehow think they're the ones who are superior. They think it's just glorious to invade another people, and spread unimaginable suffering to every man, woman and child, and its good to do so because they're different.'_ Her fists clenched tightly at her sides, as a myriad of hard experiences came to the forefront of her mind.

"Just like that mob of monsters on Irk."

She snarled as her anger rose. She was an angel of revenge, and the day of reckoning had come for these people. For so long she and her partner had suffered under them. Now she judged them on their heinous sins, and had found them guilty. Their punishment was death and damnation.

"You made a mistake when you came here today. You have all committed terrible evils against people who couldn't fight back, and came here expecting the same thing. You are all going to die for what you've done, and none of your depraved gods are going to raise a finger to save you from the horrors that await you." Raising her metallic mandibles again she took aim at the swarm approaching. "My Tallest, I hope wherever you are you can feel what I'm about to do here, because no matter how long it takes, or how far you run and hide, I am coming for you."

The angry young woman snarled with rage as the weapons glowed a bright blue.

"I'M COMING FOR YOU!"

At once the four laser cannons fired away a blazing stream of devastation. Within seconds the blasts felled their targets, Tak pouring fourth an overwhelming mass of fire into the approaching assembly of transports. They blew up like fireworks on New Year, their hulks crashing down into the water below with all hands lost, before the ones behind them became engulfed in heat and flames.

"OH JESUS!" The pilot cried as he tried to steer the helicopter violently to the left away from the hail of lethal plasma fire that was now wiping out everyone around them. Kevin gaped out ahead as the figure atop the mountain shot down one after another ahead of them with disturbing ease, the pilot not even bothering about the danger of crashing into one of the other helicopters around them as he swerved. "Hang on, we're gonna-"

_"BANG!"_

Kevin was thrown back hard as the cockpit caved in from the impact, the pilot dead in his seat surrounded by blood. Ignoring the terrified screams of the suited rat he reached up and locked his hands around the hand grips as heard as he could, holding on for dear life as the big thing careened out of control in a circle. The tough guy hitman gritted his teeth and shut his eyes. All his incredible abilities as a warrior and a superhuman were now meaningless, unable to do anything but hope that with the engines still under power their crash would be softened as they spiralled down towards the debris strewn water. The rotor blades struck first, twisting and shattering as the burning body of the machine followed in an enormous crash of metal and composite on water.

"EAT STEAK AND ONIONS AND DIE HUMANS!" Tak shrieked as she blew away half of the assembly of helicopters, pausing in her fire to turn her head left at the sound of jets racing in. The two Strike Eagles fired on her with their cannons, Tak diving down the rock face as the spot she'd been standing blew apart under the shell's impact.

_"DIE JEW WHORE! AAHAHAHA!"_

She rolled to a crouch as the jets streaked by in a deafening roar, aiming her spider legs at them as they retreated, firing away at their retreating forms with deadly accuracy. "EAT IT!"

_"AHAH-AAAHHHHH!"_

The fighters both blew apart one after the other as the bolts blew through the air like lightning. Pivoting to the side she lined up another two as they swooped in towards her, easily sending them crashing to the waters below in a fiery rain of carnage. Watching as the last of the fighters fell she returned her attention to the remainder of the helicopters now routed and attempting to flee in disarray. Staring out at them with the depth of her anger she took aim again, no mercy left in her for the people inside desperately trying to get away. Lancing out with lasers again she struck them down one by one without remorse or pity even as they tried to flee, each of the four taking aim at their own targets. She did not cease firing until she watched the last one burst into fire, falling out of the sky in a trail of smoke and flame to crash into the sea strewn with carnage and burning oil.

Taking a deep breath in and out she relaxed her muscles, her fists unclenching as the four electronically controlled limbs retracted back into their case on her back. From her vantage point she examined the scene below her. It looked like a scene of hell, the fires and wreckage and dead bodies looking like an angry god had gone on a rampage. Gleefully she could make out as several soldiers ran around like ants amidst the mass devastation, when suddenly the thrill bought on another sensation. Tak paused in surprise, and pursed her lips as her hands wound down to touch the bottom of her waist.

"Oh… _Oooohh…"_

She closed her eyes and rolled her body forward as her mind returned to the strange forbidden territory she had largely made her own, along with a flurry of deep and pleasant sensations from various… _secluded_ parts of her figure. She remembered distinctly the feeling of writhing back and forth in front of her lover, clad in only her boots and a purple thong, biting her lip and blushing as he leered at her body with love and perversion, giving him her bra when she put her top back on over her breasts. She remembered this morning, when the love of her life told her just how deeply he felt for her, how they had kissed, and how he had passionately molested her, groping her as if to strip her of all dignity. And then she went on to her sick fantasies about what she wanted to do to him, how she wanted to degrade herself for their shared enjoyment.

But now wasn't the time for such depravity. Pulling her mind back out of the gutter she refocussed on what was the real issue, Junior and the centre of the base, he couldn't hold them off forever.

Surveying her work with satisfaction one last time she turned and made to return downstairs to where Junior and the Nerglings were in the process of being overrun.

* * *

The incredible destruction that had occurred overhead had served as a drug for Billy, as well as his hundreds of victims for that matter, except where he was driven deeper into his madness, they were currently screaming and losing control of their bodily functions. But as glorious and spectacular as it was, Billy wasn't particularly interested in what Tak had done because he was so deep in battle fury and blood lust that the carnage she had inflicted paled compared to the bloody swathe of slaughter he was inflicting upon his enemies. He had long since put away his guns, relying solely on his demonic blades, Berserker and his own monstrous hands, both he and the evil spirit of his weapon roaring and screaming with rage.

He raced across the bloody sand faster than his enemy's eyes could catch, brutally butchering one soldier after another, desperate to sate his desire for blood and death. Tearing around to the left he tore one in half through the waist, bringing the scythe down to quarter him from head to crotch, opening his mouth to receive the immense spray of blood. He barely even felt the bullets pelting through his back as he raced to his right, extending is hand out to disembowel another three before he tore open their throats, their blood spurting across his face in a display that only deepened his frenzy ever more. Whipping around he gazed out at the group of Marines firing on him with everything they had to no avail, others turning to flee in terror.

_"****__A_AAAAAAHHHHH!"

Overcome with fury he charged them, ploughing straight through the bodies of several in an explosive display of flesh and bone. The cowardly little fools who tried to flee soon had their legs torn off from the hips, their torso's torn open as the red-eyed prince of demons ripped his hand up through them. Turning his gaze to another as he fell over on his back, grovelling and begging for his life, he only grinned.

"**Hello little tough guy rapist bitch!"**

"Oh please for the love of god! I have a family!" He squeaked.

"**THEY'RE BETTER OFF NOW!"** Striding over he lifted him up by his collar, bringing his razor sharp teeth in to bite into the arteries of his throat. Grinning he savoured the blood that poured into his mouth, running out through the gaps in his teeth, before he tore his throat out altogether, spitting out the clump of flesh as he bought his boot down on his face, crushing his skull and brain to paste. Tearing onwards he rounded on the rest of the group, hacking and chopping them all to pieces in a matter of seconds.

"**Gaugh! Fuck! Heh heh!"**

He grunted as a large hole exploded out of his chest from behind. Turning around he saw another Bradley in the distance on the left side of the beach which had managed to escape the carnage, its twenty five millimetre gun trained on him. Emitting a guttural growl like nothing any animal could give he lowered himself onto all fours, launching himself at the offending machine, a shit-eating grin on his inhuman features and shark-like teeth. The panicking crew fired again, the rounds exploding behind him as he tore a streak up the body strewn beach towards his prey. Jumping up onto the front glacis he clamped one claw-like hand around the base of the turret, easily tearing it off and sending it tumbling away into the cratered undergrowth. He sneered down at the crew inside as they screamed at the sight of his bloody features, the massive hole in his chest and spine closing before their eyes as they scrambled to try and escape their fates. In a display of incredible mercy and forgiveness Billy pointed his scythe into the machine, blasting a wave of immense heat and power, incinerating them instantly, a quick death he knew they did not deserve.

"**Eh."** He moped. **"That wasn't much fun. It's just not the same without the blood and the screaming. Poor Mandy, she doesn't know what she's missing. Oh well."** Shrugging it off he dismounted the burning machine, lowering his scythe as he looked out over the beach. Smoke billowed from the wreckage of twenty or more armoured vehicles, including a great many crashed helicopters, with much more wreckage littering the sea beyond. One of then he noticed was Junior's boat; he'd liked that boat. There were corpses and body parts absolutely everywhere, most of which were in more than one piece, many looking like they had been partly eaten either by him or Berserker.

Still wanting more prey he looked to the mouth of the cave in the distance, where the sound of gun fire could be heard echoing from within. His sharp grin extended across his face again, his eyes flashing orange as he found what he desired.

Taking off up through the blasted remains of the rainforest he raced around the cratered side of the mountain, passing the ruins of the blasted in bunkers, disappearing into the mouth of the cave.

* * *

Kevin swam his way to shore, putting his feet down on the sand at last as he hauled himself out of the water, his blubbering friend coming up behind him, unfortunately. Without waiting for the pompous solicitor he walked on up the beach, trying to shake the irritating salt water out of his clothes and hair. Looking over the beach he surveyed the carnage, regarding the horribly mutilated bodies and piles of meat with indifference except for the knowledge their bloody remains conveyed.

_'He's here. That Billy freak's come to bail out his friends.'_ A smirk tugged at the edge of his lips. _'That's another four million in my account.'_

"Augh! Great! Fucking great! Isn't this just fucking fantastic!" The soggy wet rat of a man grizzled as he strode up onto the beach, his suit soaked to the core, his brown shoes making irritating squelching noises on the sand. "I come out here and almost get killed by that little teenage whore, my suit's ruined, hey this is a Gucci, it's better than anything you'll ever have! And I drive a Ferrari!"

"Bullshit. Your suit's got cheap and sleazy written all over it, just like you." Kevin answered in a bored tone, the pretentious prick twisting his face in disgust and derision. "And you drive an old Corolla."

"Oh fuck off you miserable little shit!" He spat back at the much larger man who flattening his features out with incredible irritation. "God I have to get up and come out here to this place, and get soaked to my ass, and be surrounded by all these dead shitheads, and all for one little demon bastard and his bitch! And best of all, I have to drag around, A FUCKING PHYSIOLOGICAL FREAK LIKE YOU!"

Having had enough of the pretentious little bigot's insults and complaining Kevin turned around to face him, pulling out his huge pistol to aim at his head. Instantly the greasy worm's face morphed into terror and cowardice with his mouth open like a fish.

"It wasn't me!"

_"BANG!"_

He fired one heavy calibre round through his eye, blowing an immense gaping hole out the side and back of his head, his brain splattering across the sand and water as he fell over on his back. Returning his pistol to his hip he smirked. _'Now that's job satisfaction. Why did I ever hang around those two pathetic losers before, when I could've been doing this all along, and getting paid huge amounts of cash for it!'_

Turning back around to the landscape of destruction and slaughter he searched for any sign of his quarry. Despite the wreckage of human bodies and various armoured machines littering the field, or the carpet bombed rainforest further ahead, there was no sign of his targets, except for the sound of gun fire coming from the cave not far away. Setting his face in a contemptuous grimace again he hefted his machine gun strung over his shoulder to his hands, setting out in search of his objectives. _'Twelve million dollars tax free… Palace in Bermuda here I come.'_

* * *

Nergal Junior loaded the last magazine for his recently acquired AK-47, chambering the first round as he held the venerable old weapon to his chest, switching from auto to single shot. Sparing a glance back down the corridor he managed a glimpse of the five or so Marines keeping him trapped in the reactor room.

The Marines had broken through the doorway and flooded into the entrance of the base, where they had continued to engage the Nerglings now scattered throughout the facility. Though they were now fighting without their armour support, inching their way through the ruined complex one corner at a time, the Nerglings were still at a disadvantage due to many of their number being cut off from the armoury, limiting the amount of ammunition they had left. Junior had led them in a brave last stand, but eventually the main staging area was overrun, and as he ran out of ammunition for his favourite weapon and with no alternative left he was forced to flee, leaving his minions to fight on while taking a new weapon and magazines from one of his fallen comrades. But still despite their worsening situation they fought back bravely for their remaining pockets of the base still held by them, peppering the invading troops with whatever they had left.

On the right side of the entrance one group of Marines hunkered down behind the cover of a large computer terminal, its components smashed and broken by the hail of bullets from the Nerglings on the railing above and in front of them. Taking turns they poked out behind their cover to return fire at the little black demons, all the while they rained down more bullets on them, keeping their heads down. Amongst the group of creatures one came scurrying up behind to join them, an RPG-7 slung over its small shoulder. Whilst his comrades kept the soldiers below pinned under fire, he lined up their position in the iron sights, firing away the rocket in a blast of smoke. The warhead exploded against the computer terminal, blowing a sizable piece of it away, killing two. Before they could load and fire another rocket one of the surviving Marines took aim up at them with his rifle mounted grenade launcher. Firing it up at them it detonated against their walkway, the entire section they were standing on giving way, the wrecked side collapsing down to dump them all to the ground. Around the room the remaining twenty or so Nerglings watched in mourning as their comrades were gunned down by the savage brutes before they could get up.

On the left side another group had coalesced around the opening to the corridor leading to the reactor room, the demon they had all come to hate for his differences trapped at the other end. Braving the hail of fire Junior took aim down the steel lined hallway and fired on one of them, the Marine dropping dead as two of their bullets tore through his shoulder and arm. Gritting his teeth against the pain he took cover again, pausing as he willed the wounds to heal. From the amount of damage that had been inflicted on him today and how far he had pushed through his own exhaustion he didn't know he could go for this long, and he also knew he didn't have much strength left to give. The barrage continued raining down on him from the other side, two of the heavily armed men beginning to advance down into the corridor towards their target.

Junior wasn't having any of that, turning back to gun the first down with two shots through the body armour, killing the one behind him with a bullet through the brain. Both fell as one, Junior continuing on to gun down two more at the other end, forcing them to take cover as he fired more rounds down at them.

"He's switched to semi-auto! The freak's running out of ammo!" One of them called out to his partners, Junior hearing as he continued aiming down at them. He knew they were right; he'd already used twelve rounds, leaving eighteen left. He fired another few rounds down at them as they turned to fire, killing one more before he took cover again. Now he had fifteen rounds left, and steadily more troops were coming in to reinforce their position at the other end.

Out of the blue he heard their guns cease. Glancing out at his enemy he saw they had taken cover again, with one of them doing something with his arms, though he could not see what it was. Still looking down the corridor he saw as the man tossed a metallic object down towards him, clanging as it bounced off the walls to land at the base of the controls for the reactor core. His eyes widened in alarm. Acting on instinct he dived for cover behind the armoured vessel as the grenade exploded, riddling the room with razor sharp pieces of metal, the blast shocking Junior like a sledge hammer.

"Uhhh…" He struggled to pull himself together as he held himself up on all fours, vaguely hearing the sound of the Marines' boot falls approaching rapidly through the haze of smoke and steam from the damaged cooling system. Bringing his head up he saw his weapon on the ground in front of him. Reaching out he tried to take hold of it, until one of his enemy's boots stamped down on it, sliding it out of the way as a rifle butt crashed down on the back of his head. Wincing in pain and shock he held his breath as they kicked him in the ribs, rolling him over onto his back as another struck down on his face with his rifle but again. At this stage though it didn't hurt, his mindset was slowly taking on the position where this human form was just a shell. Sneering down at the youth he aimed the barrel at his head, his friends crowding in around him to watch as Junior looked up at them from below with apathy.

"Heh heh heh… Time to die demon freak!" He spat, raising his rifle to his shoulder as he prepared to fire.

In that instant Junior's vision became consumed by a brilliant flash, forcing his eyes closed as several loud bangs rang out close by. He lay still as the blasts ceased, sensing that he was still alive and well. Opening his eyes he looked up to his tormentors. He noticed something different about them. They didn't appear to be in the best of health for some reason, though there was nothing to say the exact reason why. He had a hunch though. It may have had something to do with the fact that neither of the men had brains anymore, all of them missing the tops of their heads, but he could've been mistaken.

They each dropped to the ground at his feet, revealing a metal panel in the ventilation shaft running down the corridor had fallen to the floor, an empty hole where it had been previously. A clunking sound echoed from within and from the floor, before the plate on the ground clanged for some unseen reason. Junior could make out a barely perceivable shimmer in the air, some mirage distorting the light passing through and around it ever so slightly. He smirked as he rose to his feet.

"Excellent timing." He stated as the shimmer gave way to reveal Tak in her compact Irken form, her spider legs extended around her, her submachine carbine held beside her. Now out of the ventilation shaft she rose to her full height as the metal appendages retracted into her pak, another shimmer of light taking over her as she returned to human. They both shared a gentle smile to each other for the affection they held.

A string of shots rang out, and Tak turned to see two soldiers standing down the corridor with their guns trained poorly on her. Junior swept in and shielded her from the bullets with his own body, all the while she reached around to the back of her belt, retrieving a single tactical tomahawk. Stepping out from behind her partner she tossed it flawlessly at the one on the left, the axe head burying deep into his brain causing him to fall back, toppling the other in the process. Racing out towards him she reached behind her again, this time pulling out a long bowie knife, latching onto his head as he rose and stabbing it viciously into his right eye, with the same effect as the tomahawk.

"God you're magnificent when you're in your element." Junior spoke as he waltzed up behind her with a smile, Tak content to forget about the battle for just a moment as she turned to face him happily. "You're so beautiful when you fight, it's turning me on."

Again Tak's mind flashed with love and lust, and she looked to him with wide eyes filled with emotion.

"Oh Junior."

"AAAHHHH!"

"Oh god no! NOOO!"

They turned to the end of the corridor as several blood curdling screams rang out, the sound of gunfire blasting away noticeably more now in the chamber. Raising her MP7 Tak jogged toward the opening as Junior turned back and retrieved the Kalashnikov, joining her in guarding the entrance to the reactor room. A brilliant flash of green light erupted, several mutilated bodies flying through the air in its aftermath, followed by a blast of very rapid fire. Another scream and the sound of small chunks of flesh and bone being blown apart greeted their ears. After another few quick bursts of fire and a brutal cracking and tearing sound, the top half of a mans torso landed at the entrance, his hips and lower waste missing somewhere else.

Stepping into their view the blood stained, dominating figure of Billy smiled as he approached the still alive body, his MAC-10 in his left hand, his bloody green scythe in his right. He took aim at his last victim, blasting out the last ten or so bullets into his body and brain, the weapon halting afterwards as he turned to face them with eyes no normal living creature could possess.

"**So I see you've been enjoying yourselves."** He grinned as he ejected the empty magazine, Junior and Tak lowering their weapons as they stepped up to join him. He reached into his coat for another magazine, opening it up to look inside when he didn't feel any, finding he'd run out of ammunition. **"Oh, **I liked this gun." Sighing he dropped the now useless weapon beside the body, his features reverting back to blue-eyed human and his coat opening up to show his blue and white shirt.

"What's happened?" Tak spoke up.

"They came after Mandy and I at the house. Heh, we won't have to worry about Endsville anymore. It was biblical." His blue eyes glazed over with some unknown and wonderful memory, as Junior's eyes widened with the realisation of his revenge. "Mandy's gone to get Zim and the antideath, and I came to bail you guys out. You looked like you had it under control."

"Yes well we could always use the help of a demonic creature such as yourself to take care of half the enemy's numbers for us." Junior added. "Thank you for the save cousin."

"Oh it was my pleasure. "Billy grinned, bending down to tear off a strip of the dead soldier's sleeve, wiping the blood off his face as he became serious.

"Now listen, as you probably know they found out all about our plans, so they're gonna come after us with everything they've got from now on. We have no choice but to go ahead with the plan early. We're beginning the takeover tonight." He explained, both looking at him in shock at just how suddenly everything was happening. Though they'd planned for this, they'd never expected it to come so quickly and so out of the blue. Suddenly the prospect of actually invading and taking over was much more daunting than it had been previously. It was almost too much for them to handle.

"What do we do?" Junior asked uncertainly.

"From here we're to head out to the desert base outside where Endsville used to be. I don't know if they know about it or not, but if they do, and they know we've escaped, then they'll probably be coming to stop us there so be ready. Junior your parents and mine will already be there with Grim. We're to assemble together there at five this evening. The army's not complete yet so that means we'll have to do a lot more work ourselves." He now turned to the blue-haired woman exclusively. "Now Mandy is bringing in Zim and we know he still has no idea that you still exist, so it would be good for you two to get there before he does so you can hide. It'll ruin everything if he discovers you're one of us before we're done with him. We know he plans to betray us after we've taken over the Earth for him, and we don't want to risk inciting him to carry it out early."

Tak nodded. "We'll take the ship out there. If they're expecting us to go there I can defend against any attacks from the air."

"The Nerglings and I can defend on the ground if they come for us, but I want the Nerglings to guard from the inside." Junior stated. "There aren't many left after defending the island. I can get reinforcements from the cavern, but I won't sacrifice any more unless I have to."

He looked between the two and gave a nod. "We'll get our immortality from Zim, then we hand him over to you. From there we'll begin the takeover."

The three split up. Tak went back to clean up her blades from where they sat imbedded in the soldiers behind them, while Junior picked up his M1A and scopt, turning to face the remaining Nerglings as they came out and assembled before him. One stepped up and handed him another few box magazines, which he took gratefully. Looking over his soldiers his heart ached to see that where there were over one hundred and fifty before, now there were only thirty or forty left. But their comrades had died for him, their beloved overlord, and in return for that dept he would be as strong and dominant over the situation as he had ever been.

Facing his remaining servants Junior fished their summoning card out of his coat, tossing it to the ground in the middle of the ruined base. "Nerglings. All of you are to go back home. There you are to round up everyone you can find, inform them of the situation, rearm yourselves, and wait for us to summon you when we arrive at our destination." Immediately the small horde of gremlins stepped speedily across the floor to disappear en masse down the rectangular portal. Junior walked over to it as the last of them disappeared inside, picking it up and returning it to his jacket as Tak joined him again. He smiled, taking her hand in his as he bowed down, kissing it lightly as she smiled back blushing.

"Shall we tell him?" He asked her, Billy turning to them intrigued.

"You tell him, you're his cousin." Tak spoke placing her arms around him as she stood beside him, Junior linking one arm around her as they held their guns in the other.

The two turned to Billy as he watched on. "Hey Billy, didn't you hear the news? Tak and I are a couple now." Billy's eyes widened in surprise, before a happy smile graced his features.

"That's great you guys! Mandy and I knew you'd be great for each other." His smile grew however. "Speaking of which, I thought you should know now, Mandy and I are getting married." Billy answered, seeing their faces light up in surprise and excitement.

Really? You proposed?" Tak cried in delight as Billy nodded.

"Congratulations cousin." Junior smiled warmly, then turned to face Tak as he held his arm around her waist. She looked up to face him, in time to see him give her a leering smirk.

"Well this morning Tak slammed me up against a wall and started making out with me, overwhelmed by her own passion." He told him, Billy's eyes now turning to bafflement. Tak caught on to his game quickly.

"Well Junior put his hands under my top and ran his fingers all over me, like the filthy lecherous pervert he is." She told him leering back in his arms, wanting to humiliate her lover. He grinned back.

"Yeah well Tak slid her nice wet tongue down my throat after just a few seconds of kissing because she couldn't hold in all her sick fantasies anymore." He shook his head at her for her shame.

"Well Junior reached around and put his hand down my panties to squeeze my nice round soft ass."

"Just last week Tak was writhing around a pole topless in front of me, and she was loving every second of it. Dirty, dirty girl."

"This morning Junior molested me." Tak gave a mocking look of innocent helplessness. "He reached up under my top and started groping my big soft boobs without even asking."

"Tak's not waring a bra." He grinned evilly, sensing victory. Tak smirked, grabbing his hand and leading it around to her back just above her pak, and put his hand there between her shoulder blades. Junior's cruel smirk turned into a rude surprise. "You put a bra on for the battle?"

"I _dis_honestly don't know what he's talking about." Tak smiled and turned back to Billy with fake innocence, before they both stopped, seeing him staring at them with wide eyes, pursed lips, and a very strong 'what-the-fuck' type look on his face. His eye twitched.

"… Perhaps we should get going?" He suggested, to which they nodded with a small blush.

"Alright. We'll see you two down there." Tak replied.

She and Junior walked back out of the ruined entrance of the base which had been their home for the pat two years. Walking to a hidden control panel set into the rock Junior punched in a code. The flat bed of the cave creaked and groaned before a set of rams pushed a large rectangular slab up and over to the left like a giant door, clearing away some of the wreckage of the tanks and bodies in front of the entrance. A flat bed of steel rose up from underneath to reveal Zim's old Voot Cruiser aimed out the cave entrance, the obsolete craft modified with a more powerful reactor to power new cannons and numerous other add-ons. Climbing in through the front Tak unhooked her pak and sat down in the pilot's seat, and soon had the engines started, while Junior strode around to the other side. Billy watched them from behind, smirking and shaking his head.

_'Sick freaks… They're meant for each other.'_

Hopping in as the front hatch closed Junior looked out ahead and saw a problem. The way out was blocked by the broken wrecks of the numerous tanks. But Tak had it all under control. Taking the yoke she lined up the two cannons on either side and fired. Junior watched with curiosity and satisfaction as one by one she blasted the wrecks to smithereens, what wasn't destroyed altogether being pushed to either side of the cave, clearing a path for them.

Looking across to his lover he saw her take her hands off the controls and sit back with her arms held tight by her side. Tak faced him biting her lip with a shy blush on her features that he adored.

"Junior, I want you to know that though I have these urges for you, what we do together is more than just my own lust." She spoke somewhat awkwardly. "I do these things to you because I genuinely love you, and that's how I want to show you how much I care. I would never do this with anybody else but you, because I lo-"

"I love you." Junior finished, both smiling warmly between each other. Moving over Junior sat close to his partner, linking one hand with her as she absently reached for the controls and bought the craft up off the ground, firing the engines to send it down the rock cave and out into the sunlight. Setting in their coordinates however Tak throttled back to a gentle cruise. Biting her lip again she faced him with a sensual look on her features.

"Would you like to squeeze some nice big soft tits again?" She spoke to him seductively, Junior smiling back the same.

"No, I wanna squeeze _your_ nice big soft tits again."

Letting go of the controls Tak turned in her seat to face him, Junior reaching across to put his hands up under her top again. Sliding around to her back he quickly found the strap of her bra and unhooked it, Tak helping him as he actually tore the shoulder straps and pulled each loop out from her arms to then withdraw the cups from under the front of her top, Junior dangling her bra in front of her as they blushed hard. Junior immediately set his eyes on her chest where her nipples poked through the fabric. Tossing the bra aside he reached both hands up and set them on her breasts, giving both a hard upwards squeezing that made Tak gasp and push her chest into his hands.

Tak was in ecstasy. Every movement of his hands bought on another flood of sensations. Closing her eyes she breathed in and out hard through pursed lips as her love partner licked his lips and grasped both her nipples, pinching, twisting and rolling them hard between his fingers and thumb, loving how everything he did made her dizzy with pleasure.

"Oh Junior… my tits… it feels so much better than when I touch myself." Forcing her eyes open she drilled into him as he looked at her wide-eyed. "That's right! I touch myself thinking about you! And I touch myself when I'm watching you in the shower! I do it all the time!"

Buzzing with excitement and humiliation Junior gave her a romantic look as he slowed his hands ministrations.

"I knew all along."

She gasped in surprise at that, seeing no lie in his face as he looked to her with love and lust.

"Tak, you're so beautiful when you're not wearing a bra… or panties."

_'What?'_ Tak looked at him perplexed._ 'But I am wearing…'_

"Ohh!"

Suddenly Junior whipped one hand out from her top, reaching up under her skirt to grab a rough hold of the front of her underwear, pulling it down hard and yanking it straight down her legs off her.

Caught by the shock and the sudden waves of emotions and feelings Tak rolled her head back and moaned uncontrollably. Junior smiled as he watched her writhing in front of her, spreading her legs so she could feel more of the air's touch on her now not so forbidden area. Opening her eyes she saw Junior facing her with a gentle smile, holding her panties in front of her.

"Ooooohh Junior, I never thought you would be so daring. You disgust me." She spoke hotly. Junior smirked and narrowed his gaze.

"Because you degraded me with your eyes in the shower all those times, from now on all your bras and your panties belong to me. You will wear them only when I say you can. Otherwise you will go about braless and pantiless under your clothes in front of me and the whole world every day." Junior spoke in a mock commanding tone. Of course if she asked to be able to wear them he would allow her, but by doing this he could both repay the favour and put her romantic urges and disgusting fantasies into overdrive.

Tak let out a gasp and a smile, so he knew she liked the idea. Putting away her underwear for later he resumed massaging her breasts for her enjoyment. Tak closed her eyes, and a look of total and overwhelming happiness came to her burning red features before she faced him again.

"We might not make it to see tomorrow." She spoke to him almost out of breath. "And with this thing cruising on autopilot, it'll take us an hour or two to reach the base. This might be our only chance to be alone together."

Junior looked to her star struck. His heart skipped a beat and his breath caught in his chest as they both looked to each other wide-eyed and blushing. "Tak…"

"I… I wanna…" She leaned in close to him with all the affection and perversion she held for him in her eyes. "Junior, I want to make you feel how much I love you. I wanna do something to make you feel so good, you won't wanna wear underwear for a year. I wanna degrade myself for you so you can feel just a little bit of how happy you have made me."

Junior couldn't speak, except to give her a heartfelt smile. Linking her hands around his shoulders Tak moved in to him so they could share a long kiss. Overcome by their love for each other Junior massaged her breasts for her and ran one hand down her side, pulling his arm out to place it gently on the inside of her thigh causing her to moan as they licked each other's tongues. As he caressed the inside of her leg Tak pulled off his jacket and set it aside, then let go of his shoulders and reached down to unbuckle his belt. Going further still she began unzipping his suit trousers as Junior began to gently trace his hand up towards the inside of her hips, as the moaning couple both bought themselves towards what they really wanted.

* * *

Billy stood and watched as the craft launched them off and away, tearing out of the cave mouth to rocket away towards their far distant destination, the two advanced ion engines lighting their exit with a purple afterglow as they soared away into the distance.

_'God, imagine if my kid and their kid ever fell in love… Like that'll ever happen!'_

He smiled in content as they disappeared, leaving him… _not alone._

Someone was watching him.

Predatory instincts kicked in again, and his heart began to race with excitement. Flicking his now orange-red eyes up to the left he called upon his demon side as his coat closed around him, sensing another presence close by. It felt similar yet different to what he'd felt before in the soldiers, like power, unique abilities, and a particularly rotten soul. He smiled with mad monstrous glee. This hunt was going to be a challenge.

* * *

_'Eight million down the fucking drain.'_ Standing in the shadows of the damaged walkway he snarled furiously, watching his targets escape, all because of that one little freak standing down there. _'Little fucker thinks he's so great. I'll fix that.'_

Stepping up silently to the railing making sure not to give away his presence, he looked down on the blood splattered figure standing inside the entrance with his back to him. Moving steadily he bought his machine gun up to take aim through the red dot sight. Stilling his breath he lined up the dot on the back of his chest, his victim still oblivious to his presence. He sneered down at him in disdain as he tensed his finger on the trigger. _'Time to die freak!'_

He pulled the trigger. The relentless hail of armour piercing bullets struck home in the young demon's back, tearing straight through him in a bloody splatter that coated the ground in front of him. Kevin watched through the shuddering sight as his latest victim recoiled forward from the many lethal impacts, splaying his arms out as his vital organs were wounded beyond any ability to sustain his life. Pausing he smirked as his victim fell forward on his face in a spatter of blood and minced flesh. He didn't cease there though, continuing the long barrage of fire anew, controlling the weapon easily with his superior strength, blasting the lifeless carcass with high velocity rounds through his skull, blowing his brains out across the floor, continuing down to tear apart every organ in his body.

Finally he relented, lowering his weapon as he surveyed the gruesome scene he'd dished out, smirking in satisfaction as the ruined corpse lay in a pool of blood and other various organic matter. Kevin's smirk turned to surprise however as the body erupted violently into a sparking and sputtering mass of green flame, his eyes widening as the entire mass burst and blew apart to nothing right in front of him.

"**So it's you."**

All over his body his hair stood on end, his blood freezing at the feel of that breath on the back of his neck. Turning on his heels he aimed his weapon defensively at the smiling creature standing behind him. Billy just smirked, a low chuckle escaping his pail slightly green lips as he gazed at his new chew toy. He loved the sense of fear he received from the larger and by far older man, Kevin's thuggish grimace replaced by shock and anxiety as he tried to guard himself, not knowing how the youth was still alive.

"**I thought I smelled hypocrisy. I never thought I'd be gifted with the chance to meet the one and only Kevin Ethan Levin, the back-stabbing sociopath who killed his own two friends. Now killing two warriors of that calibre on your own is impressive, and I'm ashamed to admit you probably did us a bit of a service by getting rid of the Tennysons for us, but by poisoning their smoothies? That really is just pathetic, just what I'd expect from a stuck-up, insecure little schoolyard bully like yourself."**

"Shut the fuck up! Why do I care what some weak little shit like you thinks anyway?" Kevin snapped like an angry street dog. "Worthless little freaks like you and your friends are nothing but lab rats gone wrong!" He spat, Billy only sniggering as he gripped his scythe in his right hand.

"**Now isn't that the pot calling the kettle black. I suppose you'd know all about being a freak, wouldn't you?"**

"Fuck you! Where did they go? Answer me!" He roared into his face. Alas Billy was unfazed, taking only ever greater amusement from the self-inflicted punk's fury. "Now you listen here you little asshole, I'm getting paid eight mil for those two." He smirked condescendingly. "Plus another four mil for taking care of you, and I'm spending the rest of my days in a waterfront mansion in Bermuda, with a new sports car every day, and a new bitch to fuck every night. Who knows, maybe your fine little girlfriend could be the first one." He grimaced again. "And you're not going to fuck it up for me. Now where are they going?"

"**Heh heh heh heh. They're heading to a place in the desert just outside where Endsville used to be. But you needn't worry about them anymore Kevin. You will never leave this island."** His demonic grin widened across his pale features and his teeth grew massive again.

"DIE!"

Kevin fired again, the bullets hammering right through his monstrous foe's chest as all the while Billy continued to grin back, not even flinching against the useless barrage. Bringing his left hand up he crushed the weapon in his iron grip, tearing it out of his hands before delivering a mighty kick to the chest, sending Kevin sailing off through the guard rail, roaring in shock and crashing down against the wall on the other side of the base.

He groaned, opening his eyes to see Billy jump towards him from afar. Pushing himself to his feet he called on his own unique abilities, his left arm morphing into a studded steel mace, which he used to smash his opponent away as he came down. Billy tumbled off, landing on his feet as he easily recovered from the brutal impact, relishing in the ability to kill someone who could actually fight back. He looked to where Kevin now charged him, his entire body taking on the grey metal as he formed his right arm into a pike. Roaring a war cry he lunged for him, Billy batting aside his pointed arm with his vacant left hand, holding his scythe in reserve behind him as he batted aside his mace a second later. Frustrated Kevin continued to try and stab and pummel him, his anger growing ever more as Billy continued to hold him off with seemingly little effort, grinning as if it was just a very fun game, but concentrating hard nonetheless.

Bringing his leg out Kevin made a swiping kick to knock his legs out from under him. Billy easily countered, jumping into the air as Kevin's foot sailed across where his were a moment before. Grinning with destructive joy he bought his scythe into play, using the blunt back end to brutally hammer into Kevin's mid section. He buckled over in pain, his breath escaping his lungs as Billy whipped his scythe around again, catching him on the left side of his face, sending him sprawling across backwards to land on his side despite being made of metal.

Billy landed at a crouch facing away from him. Turning back to where he lay still he strode over quickly before he could rise. He delivered a brutal kick to his stomach, and was surprised when it went straight through. He looked at Kevin in shock as his entire body crumbled into broken pieces.

'_**What the hell?'**_

It came from behind him, the long point of Kevin's arm punching up and out of Billy's chest. He grunted in pain as he pulled it out, Billy turning around in time for him to be stabbed again through the side. The now human Kevin smirked as he saw the monster's face tighten with the massive injuries, rearing his mace-like other hand back to bring it in across his chest, knocking him back and tearing the pike out through his front in an enormous wound that almost cut him in half.

Billy staggered but remained on his feet, even though many of the muscles needed for standing upright were torn apart. He gaped as pain and dizziness hit him despite being largely detached from his own body, using it almost like a puppet. Turning his head upright again he saw Kevin coming at him with a large kukri in his hand, and promptly slashed him across the front of his throat. He gaped in shock as an enormous amount of blood burst from his severed arteries, his head dropping back as he staggered around and fell on his face, a pool of blood rapidly forming on the ground.

"I'm still the one who's better." Kevin spoke to him breathing hard.

In one violent move Billy's bloody corpse rocketed to the ceiling where he latched on with his hands and feet still with his scythe in hand. Shocked Kevin gazed up as Billy's face twisted around a complete one hundred and eighty degrees, breaking his neck, to gaze down at him with madness in his eyes. He uttered a snarl of delight, letting go to rocket back down in an arc landing on his feet with a loud crack of his boots hitting the concrete.

"**That was fun. It's been too long since I saw so much blood that was actually mine."** The demon spoke. Kevin watched in worry as the enormous chasms through his torso and throat closed in a mass of green and black spectral matter, even his long coat healing the same way. Kevin quickly willed his body to return to steel again in preparation. **"If this is what you can do now, you should be able to do even better when I turn it up a notch or two!"**

Berserker erupted into flame, and as he levelled the blade at him Kevin was shocked as the head of an immense burning dog burst out and raced towards him with its jaws open. Kevin darted across fast enough to avoid the jaws, but not fast enough to avoid the impact of the fireball. He was scorched and battered, cracking the steel of his body in places as he was flung aside. Getting to his feet as the dragon turned in his direction again he reared a hand back and threw the kukri, the blade imbedding in the demon's skull causing it to disintegrate into flame.

He looked back to his main opponent just in time to receive a brutal fist to his face, knocking him back a few steps. Still grinning Billy grabbed his scythe in both hands and swung, cutting a thick gash through the front of Kevin's black armour vest. Seeing how the blade had eaten through the armour Kevin jumped back, his face now showing fear.

Another hard kick sent him flying across the room to impact against the wall on the other side. He smirked as Kevin groaned in pain.

"**Oh come on Kevin, I've waited a long time to test myself against someone who can hold their ground against me. After that first time I thought you were something more than all the others but so far you've been a big disappointment. Maybe that's why the press poured all their shit-eating praise on Ben instead of you."** Spurred on by his insulted pride Kevin rolled over to face him, pulling his Desert Eagle Magnum and taking aim at his head, bracing himself and firing one heavy calibre round through his forehead, blowing out the back of his brain and skull. Still smirking Billy rolled his eyes up to the gaping hole, before returning them to his prey. **"Oh, now I have a headache. HAHAHA**_**HAHAHA…"**_

Kevin shook and shuddered in abject horror as Billy's laughter deepened, filling the entire room with a monstrous, horrifying presence, the hole in his head closing before his eyes. He gaped in terror as his nerve fled him, turning to try and run for the exit. Billy wasn't done with him yet, aiming his scythe and blasting him with a searing burst of green lightning. His victim tensed in agony, unable to scream as he flung him from one wall to the next, his pistol dropping from his hand as he hammered him relentlessly about. The steel and concrete facility broke and collapsed under the impacts, Kevin's steel covering breaking away with each massive impact, until Billy dumped him back down at his feet, the rest receding back inside of him as he lay limp.

"The government made me do it." He groaned weakly, Billy's sneer turning to a look of surprise and then disgust. "They said… they would kill me if I didn't accept the contract. Trust me I'm with you, I hate the government just like you."

"**Oh shut up."** Billy spoke with a disheartened sigh. **"You're as bad at lying as you are at facing your targets in open combat. Besides that you murdered your own best friends, how's that for trust? You've deeply disappointed me Kevin. I thought you were someone special, someone who would entertain me with a decent fight before I made you answer for all you've done. But I was wrong. No, you're just another worthless cockroach with a big ego, just like all the rest."** His disappointed features gave way to an evil smile as he reached into his coat with his left hand, withdrawing his revolver to point down at his head, Kevin's eyes widening as he cowered in terror. **"But that doesn't mean killing you is gonna be any less satisfy-"**

A blaring alarm siren interrupted him. Letting his eyes wander from Kevin they gazed down into the corridor leading to the cold fusion reactor, seeing the copious amounts of steam coming out of the wrecked cooling system, an idea forming in his head. Looking back to him he pursed his lips in thought, turning to stride quickly down the smoke filled hallway into the room. Glancing around the damaged room he looked to the damaged controls, scanning over the display as it flashed with warnings, the countdown to the reactor's failure ticking down second by second. He smirked, returning quickly out to where Kevin was trying to crawl away.

Extending a powerful green-black coil out from his former left hand he lifted him up by the leg, moving him over beneath the railing overhead as he shouted and cried out, where he ordered the tentacle to detach from him and secure itself to the walkway. Walking over to his position he picked up his Desert Eagle on the way, bringing it over to Kevin's form as he lay on his back, his leg secured tightly to the coil above him.

"**Say Kevin, did you ever see Mad Max?"** He asked, Kevin looking at him in wonder, before seeing the significance. **"The cold fusion reactor in there's going supercritical. It'll blow in just over three minutes. There's a boat out on the beach you can use to escape. All you have to do is get to it."** Bringing his hand down to his he transferred the gun back into his possession. **"If you shoot the tentacle, it'll only grow stronger. You leg on the other hand, heh… that's different."**

Turning he walked away towards the exit, leaving a horrified Kevin behind him, holding the key to his release. He dispelled his scythe as he walked calmly out the broken down blast door, before he stopped at the sound of a loud gunshot, followed by mindless agonised screaming. He smirked, turning to walk back inside.

Kevin cried and whimpered in agony as he dragged himself along the floor, leaving a trail of blood in his wake as he made for the exit as fast as his deformed body could take him. He crawled along, until a pair of boots came to a halt directly in front of him. Looking up in terror he gaped as Billy's demonic eyes looked down on him with satisfaction.

"**I lied Kevin. The boat's been destroyed. There's no way off this island. And it's not three minutes, it's one minute, which is just about up now. I'm just gonna stand here and watch what happens." **The demon prince walked around to gaze at him from his legs standing over the stream of blood left in Kevin's wake.

Driven by despair Kevin raised his gun to aim at his face, only for Billy to smirk mockingly down at him, knowing it would be a waste of a bullet. Shaking in terror he turned the gun around, opening his mouth to jam it inside, ready to prevent the horrible burning death that was coming. He hesitated, his fingers shaking and cramping up as he fought his fear, until his cowardliness won out, pulling the gun out to abandon it at his side.

The alarms continued another few seconds, before a number of loud crashes rang out from the reactor room, followed by a final loud bang. Kevin waited for the flames, and waited, but they never came, the alarms and lights overhead flickering out as the power died, leaving the two illuminated only by the dim light coming in from the cave. Confused he looked up to Billy through the pain and blood loss as he smiled evilly at his feet, or rather foot.

"**It's called _cold_ fusion for a reason Kevin."**

With his features obscured in shadow his demonic eyes shone out with a radiance that heralded the apocalypse. Whipping out his huge revolver with his right hand he trained the gun on Kevin's head. The broken wretched thug gaped in terror and cowardice.

**"By the way, I though you should know I ran into some friends of yours a few months back in the underworld."** As Billy spoke, out of his own back a pair of immense glowing spectral forms emerged, one green and one pink. Kevin gaped and whimpered in terror up at them as the two burning clouds formed a pair of human shaped demons, a man and a woman, staring down at him with open cruelty and wrath as Billy grinned evilly. **"And they're very eager to see you again."**

"It wasn't me!"

He fired, smiling as Kevin's brains spattered across his face.

* * *

Billy calmly reloaded the spent bullets with more of the giant rounds from his coat as he walked, snapping the revolver shut as he emerged from the wreckage strewn cave out into the sun. He looked out over the horizon, the sun still high in the clear blue sky despite the destruction all around him. He smiled, the pure and beautiful sunlight shining down on his pale skin with its slight green tinge, the light breeze catching in through his open coat. Continuing on down to the ruined beach he came upon Junior's G36C not far from the wreckage of two machines. Tak had given it and the M1A to him for his fourteenth birthday. He smiled, bending down to pick up the weapon, knowing he would love to have it back again. With a contented smile he continued on, focussing his abilities to send Junior's weapon to a safe place in the netherworld, his revolver still held in his relaxed right hand. He regarded the countless body parts and corpses strewn across the sand, turning to look down to a severed head.

"You people don't deserve to see beauty like this." He spoke as he pointed to him with his revolver, putting it away in his coat holster as he returned his gaze to the debris strewn horizon."You have so much to be grateful for, and all you can think about is taking more from your fellow man. Every time you find a place that's pure and wonderful and untainted like this you come in and corrupt it, and destroy it for everyone who can appreciate it. Mandy, Tak, Junior and I, we're bringing about an age of darkness to save the light of the world from corrupt people like you. It's gonna be beautiful."

Abandoning the head he continued on across the sand, using his energy to clean the blood away from his person. Looking to his wrist he checked the time on his silver watch.

"One o'clock." He paused in thought. "Four more hours until it's time. What to do?" Taking a moment of thought he considered what he had left to do, before an idea came to mind. He grinned again, his maniacal darkness taking over his entire being once more. Summoning his scythe again he cast a portal into the ground beneath him, slowly sinking into its event horizon with destruction in his eyes.

"**I think it's about time I paid Townsville a visit again! _HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_**

* * *

**As you all know this fic is almost finished, and after five years what a finish it will be. I have plans for other fanfics after this, notably a crossover of Hellsing with the characters of Jhonen Vasquez. I also have another giant Billy and Mandy series in mind, but that will be a long time in the making so don't hold your breath. Once I upload the final chapter and the epilogue I'm gonna go back through the entire fic and tidy up. I'll rewrite parts here and there, add some things and take others out, because a lot of things missed the proofreading stage, plus my writing style has improved since I started. I'll publish it as the complete version later, just because I like things to be perfect, then I'll mark it as complete. Just so you know.**

**Next chapter, the grand finale of it all. Everything is put in its place. Everyone gets what they deserve. The corrupt world falls, and the Age of the Night begins!**


	51. Day of Reckoning Part Three

**Hello again dear readers for the last time.**

**After five years of thinking, planning, writing, typing and uploading we've finally reached the end of our run. It really has been a wonderful experience to do this. It's been so satisfying to bring all these plans together to the point where it's at now, I never would have thought I could do something like this before, and to hear all of your feedback makes it so much sweeter. I've learnt a lot from this as well, about people and life, my writing style has improved over time, and I've also learned never to stick to a rigid schedule for something like this again. ****It just goes to show you that hard work, dedication, planning, inspiration, panic, stress and a vision can accomplish some remarkable things.**

**But I could not have done it without your support. It has been so very good to hear how you've enjoyed it. Though I still have one final chapter to go, and later I intend to go back over and give it all a good cleanup, this will be my final address. I want to thank youall so much for all your wonderful support through every step of the way. It's been such a rewarding journey, and I hope it was for you too.**

**You may want to drop by and look at some of the fics I have planned for the future, and I know I can get around to reading yours now. Until then, thank you and enjoy.**

**I Am The Night.**

* * *

**Day of Reckoning Part Three.**

Mid afternoon.

Mandy red over the last few words of the last issue of Time magazine to have been printed before it had gone out of production. Sitting in the couch she closed the magazine, her heart somewhat heavy now that she looked across the front cover, a picture of the fourteenth Dalai Lama smiling benevolently out at her. The central story was a last message from him to the billions of people worldwide suffering under the oppression and hatred of other groups, giving them as much hope and guidance for life as possible, even knowing many would meet an awful fate at the hands of their fellow human beings. She managed a slight smirk back at the man, putting the magazine back on top of the stack sitting on the cabinet to the left of her. It was strange to think that Zim would keep human magazines in his base. Perhaps it was to keep up the appearance of being normal. Perhaps he kept them for Billy and her. She knew he would never have red them, or anything that involved thinking.

She couldn't help but shake her head in a heartfelt sense of regret, remembering just how many of the good and noble things in the world, things which she found comfort in, had all faded into the history books. Besides Time magazine and most of the nation's minority groups, the world had been robbed of many endangered species, tropical jungles and most coral reefs, clean air over urban areas and the loss of growing soil and fresh water supplies. Their little blue and green ball had lost much of its innocence and beauty in the past few years. Though there were multiple ways to explain why these things and more had occurred, all up she'd found humanity as a being in itself to be the best way to describe the overall problem. Of course on an individual level it was a different story, but the problem wasn't limited to individuals. Throughout what remained after the ravenous creatures human beings no longer had faith in each other.

It occurred to her now that the real test of her own wisdom and judgement was yet to come. How was she going to fare as this world's new dictator? They would all have a lot of work to do once their takeover was complete, and it would be a long road ahead for both them and her subjects towards that joint heaven and hell world she envisaged, but every day it would get a little better.

Looking back Mandy saw she was no longer the angry little girl she had been when she first decided to dedicate her life towards this day. She remembered being a little girl in a pink flower dress, with a constant scowl of discontent, full of contempt and disgust towards everyone and everything around her. She remembered her head being filled with dreams of power and glory, and of holding all humanity under her heel. And she remembered being disgusted by thoughts of care and compassion for others, and love, considering them to be weaknesses. Of course now she knew better.

And then there was Billy. By the time they had met Grim and the start of their Grim Adventures she had already known Billy for as far back as she could remember, the boy with no intelligence and an enormous nose. Loyal as a dog he had stuck with her through heaven and hell, and even though he was usually the one dragging them there, she was always willing to drag him out, despite not having anything to gain except his company. The hyperactive boy with the blue and white shirt and red hat was everything she wasn't, at least superficially. It was only in retrospect they could see they were perfect for each other.

And here they were now. That girl had quite accidentally inspired that boy to begin growing and learning. She still remembered the first time he had learned from a previous mistake, when he had simply swerved around a street light instead of ploughing his face into it. In the weeks that followed when they had to fight for their lives against all manner of madness he had grown far stronger and smarter than she had ever anticipated possible for him. And in the hard times that followed as Max turned their lives upside down he had demonstrated a level of judgement and strength of character to see them through. He had been there to comfort and protect her when she was tortured, and had forgiven her for all her faults and the awful things she had done, and had also shown underneath to hold a dark cruelty for the corrupt that rivalled her own.

She meanwhile had come to realise the folly of her fears. The love and care that she had tried so hard to shun for supposedly being a crippling weakness was in itself her one crippling weakness. It was Billy who had showed her that it was as vital to human life as the oxygen she breathed, and with him taking her in his arms had proven that it bought more life and energy into her than all the brooding anger she had developed in the years before. And beyond that he had helped show her just what a magnificent thing it was to be alive, to be grateful for every blessing and to take humour in every moment of insanity and satisfaction in every little victory.

Now they were going to be married to each other, and would spend the rest of their lives together no matter how blessedly long or how gloriously short, and they would be thankful to each other for every moment they had together.

Then there was their friend Nergal Junior. It had taken some time for the awkward little demon to earn her respect as a person, but it had taken far longer for him to earn the respect of himself. He had put himself in terrible danger alongside them, and had bled willingly to protect the very people who abhorred him for not being like themselves, but when it came time to stand up for his own dignity against them it was always wrong to harm another person. And so he had suffered their persecution in silence, enduring it even as it got to the point where he couldn't show his face in public anymore.

Though they hadn't met her until two years ago Tak had her own failings. She had grovelled and fought tooth and nail to earn the respect of her people. She had even dragged herself all the way out here in the hopes of taking Zim's mission to regain her honour as a faithful Irken soldier. But they were the ones who were unfaithful. They used her and then tried to have her killed, by her only companion no less. She had taken refuge in one of the countries worst cesspools, and there her fire had all but burned out. When they found her she was but a shadow of her former self.

But a remarkable thing had occurred the moment the two had been bought together. Junior was just what was needed to start the furnace in Tak's heart again, and Tak was just what Junior needed to show him the way when he finally unleashed all those years of built up rage, a companion. And as for how they had developed romantically since then, she could not say.

One way or another though they were still in essence the same people they had always been, throughout the years they had been together they had bought out the very best in each other. It was because of this she was now ready to take the role she had been preparing her entire life for.

She sighed again as she settled, and began looking for a way to distract her boredom from the wait. Seizing the remote she turned on the large television, realising as she did so that she was more than likely to only make herself depressed by watching it, or angry enough to kill their subordinate before they were done with him. But she watched it anyway, all those days spent with Billy on the couch having conditioned her. Hitting mute before any annoying sounds came out she flicked through the few remaining channels and static, passing one with a picture of a grizzled looking monkey to a helicopter view of a devastated cityscape.

Immediately she sat up and payed attention, releasing the mute to listen to the narration.

"_This has been the first time in several years since Townsville was visited by any kind of monster, but as you can see right now nothing stands between this creature and the annihilation of the entire city, with the Powerpuff Girls having selfishly betrayed and abandoned us long ago."_

She flattened her features. God she hated the media. The image was grainy from interference, but it clearly showed the abandoned, fenced-off city inhabited by those elements of society the party considered too dangerous to simply kill with the other minorities. As for the monster attacking the depraved cesspool it appeared to be her old pet Cerberus, all three heads snapping and tearing savagely at the crumbling buildings and masses of terrified people. As for the reason why Cerberus had gone from his kennel in the underworld to the middle of a city full of killers and whores, she could find only one answer.

'_Billy. What the hell's he doing in Townsville? I told him to go bail out Tak and Junior, unless they're already safely outta there and he's just passing time.'_

She looked across away from the screen as she heard Zim's trashcan elevator rising up again, the short green chauvinist striding out to meet her. As Zim saw Mandy facing her he quickly became uncomfortable under her gaze, cutting through the thick coat of pride and hypocrisy he used to hide the reality of his selfish existence, and turned to the screen in interest to escape. "What is…"

"Billy got bored and thought he'd destroy another city." She answered, watching him as his red bug-like eyes seemingly bulged at the thought. "How goes the serum?" She asked bringing him back to more important subjects.

"Ah, yes the serum. The computer's creating the last one as we speak. It's taking slightly longer than originally planned though."

"How much longer will it take?"

"Another hour. Trust me, the great Zim is never wrong." He boasted much to Mandy's chagrin.

"Zim you said all up it would take five hours to make all three, and that was four and a half hours ago-"

"SILENCE!" He snapped aggressively, jumping up to lean directly in front of her face, glaring into her ever disdainful onyx eyes with all the spite his nasty soul possessed. His arrogant vehemence crumbled like a stack of cards however when Mandy fixed him with a withering point-blank stare filled with such deadly force it made his blood congeal in his fingers and toes.

"Don't ever get this close in my face again."

His every fibre screamed at him to run and hide, Mandy's controlled and even voice laced with a chilling malice. Zim climbed down away from Mandy's continued merciless glower, turning his eyes to the television screen again in hopes of a distraction. Though the lie-filled narration by the oily news anchorman droned on, the scene of destruction still playing fourth, it did little to ease his discomfort.

"You have till five at the latest to get the three vials and anything else you need ready. A second later and we're gone, no delays. Got it?" She demanded sharply.

Her associate gave a curt nod in response, turning to make his way back into the laboratory. He paused mid step, raising a finger in thought as he turned back to her.

"Who exactly is this third serum for anyway?" He asked, Mandy looking across to him, her blank features not betraying anything of their conspiracy against him. "All you ever told me was that you and Billy needed two for yourselves, plus one extra. You never said anything about anyone else. Who is this lowly third recipient that I would bother assisting?"

Mandy regarded him with quiet calculation, figuring how best to disclose the information he needed without giving themselves away. "It's for another associate of ours, a very special young woman who's been working tirelessly with us towards bringing you all you rightfully deserve, as the great mass murdering tyrant of the master race." She subtly worked and fed his ever bloated and hungry ego while mixing in a good strain of honesty, seeing him smile and straighten up as if he weren't just a stuck-up worm. If Zim had any moral fibre at all he would have known instantly that what awaited him wasn't going to be good so the fact he was pleased with himself didn't speak highly of him. "She's a human as well, most of the time, and she needs the antideath to continue serving you for years to come. So you see Zim it is best to have three vials instead of just two."

"Well when you put it that way, very well." Zim responded. "But who is this other little hyuman slave I have serving my will? What is her name?"

"Zim we don't work for you so you can ask questions. Continue with the serum." Mandy ordered, quickly putting a stop to any more questions. She watched as he scurried back to the elevator, catching a glimpse of his self-confident smirk as he descended back down again. She didn't have to read his mind to know that he was thinking something along the lines of how she was keeping secrets from him, and that she was in far over her head, and that he would bestow upon her the greatest and most humiliating betrayal of all history.

'_Stupid hyuman vermin filth stink thinks she can keep secrets from the all knowing Supreme Overlord Zim? HAH, I scoff at the puny pathetic notion, and scoff I do! She's not the only one that can play the secrets game. Poor little Mandy, I would almost pity you and your race for your naivety in thinking you could fool me were it not for my lack of such weakness. You will come to rue the day you swore allegiance to Zim, for I have such a biting betrayal awaiting you and your puny little friends for when I am done with you.'_

Still, it didn't hurt to just reach out and gently probe his mind, finding that his thoughts actually burst out clear as a bell almost like he wanted her to know. _'Oh Zim, there's a seat in hell with your name on it. You'll be there by tonight, right next to your old pal Dib.'_

Turning her eyes back to the screen she relaxed back into the pillowy embrace of the sofa, propping herself in the corner, watching Cerberus' bloodthirsty slaughter with a vague satisfaction. All she had to do now was wait another hour. It weighed somewhat on her mind that the time she spent waiting here would more than likely be the last time she, Billy or her friends would be able to just sit back. After five tonight they would likely be on their feet for the next decade or so in bringing about their rule. So long she had dreamed about what it would look like, but now that it was really happening what was it going to take to bring it about? They had already spent the last few years in preparation. They had saved the best bits of human history to be bought back later, and now it was time to hit reset. They would destroy the world, wipe the slate clean save for the lives of those still alive at this stage, and then they would begin the long process of building their new society from the ruins of the old world. She breathed a slight sigh. Though the weight of the situation was greater than anything they or the world had ever faced before, she would be able to bare it all provided her fiancé was there by her side.

Mandy smiled slightly at the thought, noticing on the television screen a tiny object hovering high over the city, watching the destruction with glee.

"_It is not yet known if this attack is connected to the mysterious happenings in Endsville. As of yet authorities have still been unable to contact the city."_ The announcer drawled on. Apparently what they'd done to their despised home city still hadn't reached the ears of the public. It would soon though. Soon Endsville's destruction would be the least of their worries, a foreshadowing of what awaited the depraved souls that had bought humanity close to extinction.

Her attention peaked again as a new addition emerged amidst the destruction playing fourth on the television. Three streaks of colour tore across the city, circling the area before they turned their course towards Billy. Mandy leaned forward with interest, it had been a very long time since the world had heard from those three. She knew better than to doubt his abilities though, and felt no fear for him as she settled in to watch whatever played forth next on the screen in front of her.

* * *

Billy smiled with content, his scythe held lazily in his fingers with the blade balanced up against his shoulder as he hovered effortlessly a kilometre over the city, and watch with blue eyes the carnage below.

This time, unlike Endsville there were no great fire storms or suffocating dark clouds to block out the slowly sinking sun edging its way towards the horizon. Townsville, the once great and magnificent city long since left to rot by those who built it, went out with a whimper, like an old, sick dog that just wanted to be put out of its misery. Perhaps this method of demise, destruction by a giant three headed dog demon, was a nostalgic way to go, allowing whatever combined spirit the city had left to reflect on times before. It was a strangely respectful way of putting an end to it all for the cancer riddled shell of a once great people, who'd let themselves become corrupted by the very success and ambition they'd come to take for granted.

'_Yes Cerberus, that's it. Destroy it all, right down to the foundations. Leave no survivors. Kill all those diseased creatures disguised as people. Lay it all to rest for the poor souls that lost everything to all that crap down there.'_

He smiled, not sadistic but a grim, sombre, even slightly sad smile, watching as the snarling three headed dog tore through the crumbling apartment buildings one after another in a frenzied yet methodical sweep of the block all around him. Thousands perished as the brick and concrete walls fractured and came down on top of them, crushing them out of existence, the survivors out on the street fleeing in mass hysteria, tripping and running each other down as they scurried like rats away from the demon dog.

Cerberus would not allow it. All three heads parted to stare down different streets, hundreds running and driving away in an attempt to save themselves. Opening their toothy maws they took a deep breath and belched forth a searing torrent of flame, turning the areas downrange into a blast furnace. Regardless of wether they were out in the streets, in their battered old cars, or hiding in the alleys, people incinerated down to little more than bones, a swift punishment for their heinous crimes.

Shutting off the blast of hundred thousand degree heat Cerberus saw that the block had been sufficiently destroyed, with whatever survivors there were either dispersed throughout the rest of the city or hiding amongst the burning wreckage, and that they needed to move elsewhere to continue their killing spree. Rearing back the great beast jumped up out of the flaming rubble, soaring an immense distance to crash down in another nearby block, demolishing a garage under its paws as it landed, and there continued on its rampaging destruction of the city. Bit by bit the three heads smashed down the walls of the city, snapping and tearing at the people fleeing in the streets, and belching gouts of flame left and right as it neared the central business district, the great towers still standing tall despite being abandoned, many of their windows having been broken in by age. They stood like ghosts of a world now long gone waiting to be put to rest.

Billy was guiding his pet through his concentrated will to go from place to place throughout the city and destroy it in wide patches. The survivors from one block would flee throughout the city, and they would then be killed wherever they fled to, until there were only ruins left. Once the city was destroyed he would have Cerberus finally tear down the electric fence that had sealed off the urban mass and let what few survivors remained of the devastation to escape, just so they could watch as their army closed the noose around them. None of them would escape in the end.

'_Hmm, this could be better somehow.'_ He thought to himself, then brightened with an idea. _'I know what this place needs, monkeys!'_

Reaching out with his left arm he pointed down somewhere in the city, and cast out a streak of purple light down into the streets. Amongst the panicked masses fleeing the monster the haze quickly condensed at ground level, and they were suddenly confronted with several dozen glowing purple furious monkeys.

Billy laughed light-heartedly as he watched them fan out instantly, screaming and thrashing and tearing bodies limb from limb. It was all so ridiculous, the mindless raving creatures running in circles and going at anything that moved, or anything that didn't, tearing open walls, car doors and stomachs. The monkeys butchered everyone they found, as well as each other, as well as themselves, and within seconds there were none left, leaving Cerberus to continue destroying the city alone.

As Billy watched him demolish and incinerate everything in the area, he picked up on the telltale sensation of powerful entities entering his midst. They were different to what he normally felt, three shining beacons of truly titanic power, and accompanying them a sombre mix of light and darkness, each dragging with them a worn and beaten air that spoke of too much betrayal, of broken innocence. He smiled sombrely again, his new companions hovering behind him watching on silently.

"I'm surprised you girls came out here for this." He spoke with a gentle tone. "What was it that bought you back here anyway, nostalgia?"

"Something like that I suppose." Blossom spoke with a heavy tone.

Billy turned on the spot to face them, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, the three twelve year olds formerly known as the Powerpuff Girls. Though their physical characteristics and abilities had changed little over the years, with the exception of them growing into their pre-teens, neither of them sported the same red, green and blue colours anymore. Instead they each wore simple white school uniforms, obviously from somewhere that still had an education system. Their clothes and skin all showed the times, burned and marred by humanity's fall. Blossom stared him down hard.

"Call your dog off."

Billy gave her a nasty smirk. "Or what? You'll engage me in deadly super powered combat, where we'll end up destroying everything in our path, all the while Cerberus continues his rampage?" He asked mockingly, earning a threatening grimace from Buttercup that did little more than heighten his amusement.

"Don't push your luck you arrogant punk. We'll tear that smug little grin off your face before you can even blink!" Said dark haired girl threatened with a note of genuine authority. Once more Billy just smiled, twisting around to where his hound continued to smash everything in sight. Raising his right hand he transferred the scythe across and snapped his fingers, a spark of green flashing between them for an instant, Cerberus raising his heads up to look in his direction. He cut his hand across the air, ordering them to cease immediately, to which all three obeyed, not bothering about the hundreds of people fleeing in all directions around them.

"I apologise for my arrogance ladies. My fiancé taught me better than that." He returned to the three girls. "However, if you came to save your old home town you can forget it. The shiny and bright Townsville of the past is already long gone. This is just the carcass left behind by the city's death, and those people down there, back-stabbers, killers, rapists, drug peddlers, they're the parasites that killed it, and now they're just maggots feasting on its remains. It deserves a proper funeral." Billy stated to them all, facts they themselves had since come to understand.

"We know that already." Bubbles replied, a hard edge detectable below her soft voice.

"Then why did you come here?"

"To pay our last respects I suppose." She answered dejectedly and looked away.

Neither of the sisters really had full understanding of how they felt about the fate of their old home town. They had lost so much to this place. Even after fighting and suffering to protect the people living within its confines, after all they'd done for them, the very people they shielded and nurtured ultimately turned on them. In the end they ended up being hated for being freaks, and not protecting the people from their own evils, blamed for the cruelties their accusers were responsible for. When finally the time came for them to leave to seek solace elsewhere, they weren't so much leaving as being driven out by the people's angry taunts and assaults and gunshots as an enormous mob burned down their house. Later, after they'd set up in a bleak city with no official name, they learned the government had put contracts out for their deaths, just as they'd done with the Tennysons. They'd escaped with their father, setting up in Mexico as all the while they watched from a distance as the people they'd once defended turned on each other, and their city became one giant prison. Of course even in Mexico City they weren't safe for long.

"We've been hearing funny stories the last few hours. Reports are flying around from everywhere that Endsville was destroyed this morning." Buttercup announced as Billy cocked an eyebrow and listened, turning down to watch the smoke rise over the destroyed areas of the city. "They say there was an explosion. People say they saw a bright light and a mushroom cloud hundreds of miles away. We went to see ourselves. There was nothing left but a crater miles across." Billy continued smiling contentedly whilst displaying nothing, his lips sealed in silence. They knew well enough though. "It was you wasn't it."

Sparing a glance back at Cerberus still awaiting his orders, he gave a wide smirk and turned back to them. The three received a start when they saw pale features and a pair of dreadful orange eyes facing them.

"**You're close, but it was my lover's right to destroy that corrupt city."**

The girls gazed upon his fearsome demonic form with awe and trepidation, before he calmed himself, his eyes never ceasing to shine with hell's fire.

"Who are you?" Blossom asked, her adversary smiling at the chance to introduce himself to such powerful entities.

"My friends and family call me Billy. You may call me that. My enemies call me all kinds of names like monster, freak, abomination, they call my friends that too… I see they call you the same." He spoke as he felt the darkness and pain in their wounded souls rise. "…but mostly they just call me aaahhh."

His audience just stared at him with a look of bewilderment. "My favourite things are my master, fiancé and love of my life Mandy, and hurting and killing those corrupt souls who enjoy hurting and killing innocent people. You may call me Billy. Or, if you would prefer something more formal, you may address me as _Emperor."_

"… So I take it you did destroy Endsville." She responded.

"Do you want to know what happened to that city?" He asked. "My partner Mandy had waited her entire life for the right to cast judgement over Endsville. When finally the day came out of the blue we went to the top of the tallest building, as the city was sealed off by the souls of all who had been murdered there and the sky turned dark with an eclipse, she replaced the sun with a shining red ball of destructive power. And when the city's inhabitants saw that big red ball of destructive power hanging over their heads, and realised they had no one who was different left to blame… _they ate each other alive."_ Smiling evilly he turned down to the city below them. "In fact I think something vaguely similar is happening down there right now."

Indeed the girls could hear gunshots, and screams that didn't quite sound like they were made by human beings.

"Once Endsville's citizens had revealed their true faces to the world Mandy rained hell down on each and every one of them, and after she left I finished off the remains. That's why there is a gaping hole in the Earth's crust. Later we will erase every mention of that unimportant little city from every book and every map, until there are only fading legends left that nobody truly believes. And one day in the far future there will be no evidence to say there had ever been a city there in the first place."

Bubbles frowned perplexed. "You talk like you're going to rewrite history." Billy shook his head.

"No, only that one little piece. It's the future that we're going to rewrite."

Billy watched as the sisters absorbed that, looking between each other with trepidation, but none daring to touch it any more for fear of what they may find underneath. Looking back to the young demon lord they each fortified their will in facing him once more.

"You should realise by now we can't just sit back and let you kill millions of people like this, even if most of them are evil sociopaths." Blossom spoke up, Buttercup backing her up.

"First Endsville, now Townsville? I don't care who you think you are, or how bad these people are, we can't just stand back and let you commit mass murder… right?"

"Yeah." Bubbles added with a noticeable underlying hesitancy. "It's still wrong. You can't do this. Neither you or your partner have the right to pass judgement on them like this. If you keep going we will-"

"No, you won't." He stated confidently, earning a glare from the three as he scoffed inwardly. "I don't mean that as I'd kill you in my sleep if I wanted to, because if I wanted to you'd already be dead. I can see it in your eyes, darkness. Though the innocent part of you denies it underneath I see the truth, you need this just as much as I do. Part of you wants to forgive and forget and continue treating everyone like your best friend, but as much as that part of you wants to deny it there's still another side that wants to see justice and revenge done."

The three girls looked at him perplexed, although his words did strike a major cord within each of them. Billy's smile slipped to a look of scorn.

"And what the hell do you mean I don't have the right? If not me then who does, some guy with a piece of paper? I actually expected better than that from you three. After all, you were in Mexico City when all those warheads fell weren't you?"

Each of the three contorted with pain at that. Bubbles let out a short whimper and turned away in pain, Blossom looking at him aghast, while Buttercup snarled with rage.

"You son of a bitch."

"_They… They killed the professor."_ Bubbles whimpered, her sister's shock and anger failing as tears welled up in her eyes. "We gave these people everything we had… _and they killed our father for it, along with a hundred million other people."_

Billy lowered his face as he gazed at them, his heart heavy with the responsibility of what his job entailed. He remembered his soon to be wife, how she bought him comfort and strength and support. He remembered how he had kissed her body that morning. Closing his eyes for but one brief moment he recalled the feeling of her breast giving under his fingers, and his lips. He remembered her sighs and cries of love. He remembered her scent; vanilla. She always smelled subtly of precious sweet vanilla to him.

Opening his eyes he faced them with mercy and compassion once more as their Emperor, his eyes returning from a pit of fire to a gentle life giving lake, while Bubbles wiped away her tears and the sisters each looked back to him.

"What are you telling us?" Bubbles queried him.

Billy thought. He opened his mouth to talk, but hesitated, mulling deeply over the thoughts Mandy and he had formed through their life philosophy. After a moment he faced them again.

"Do you know how darkness was first created?" He asked them. Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup looked at him in wonder and curiosity, their silence giving their answer.

"The concept of darkness first developed a short time after the universe was first created. In the earliest days when the universe first came into existence, all the immortal souls and nameless entities which would later become gods and humans and animals were gathered as one, and in that vast vat of consciousness we were bathed in all the wonderful light and warmth the universe had given us. There was peace, and happiness, and nothing else, which is now impossible for our minds to truly understand."

The girls gazed at him in wonder, entranced by his strange words of an existence that neither of the four could comprehend.

"Somewhere along the line something new came into this vat of unified consciousness. It bonded with the vat, and split the people up into individuals. Today we call this strange by-product ego. And it had a profound effect. When these now individual entities were blessed with so much light, it soon began to influence them, and cloud their judgement, and began to make them separate themselves from their brothers and sisters and believe that they were more important than everybody else."

"And that was how darkness was formed?" Buttercup asked, to which Billy shook his head.

"No. This was something very different to light or darkness. It is called corruption, and it was a plague like nothing else. The corruption infected the souls, and they began to turn on each other, crushing them down to try and take as much light and happiness for themselves as they could. They began to feed off the misery and pain of those they crushed below, and in turn they spread the disease further." As he explained his face formed a hard scowl that showed the same anger and power as had driven Mandy her entire life, his blue eyes hardening and yet shining with their own passionate vengeance. "Corruption spread, and it preyed on the light. It destroyed the innocence of the world, feeding, raping, killing, anything to sate their sadism. It consumed humanity, and ravaged and destroyed those early worlds, leaving only a small percent of people left who still held onto hope and faith despite the horrors inflicted on them."

Billy paused to gather his thoughts and feelings. Watching as he stood still they noticed a cruel smile begin to tug on the edges of his lips. "Amongst these last remaining few was an even smaller group. They knew what those people out there were doing was wrong, and it angered them that they were allowed to get away with what they'd done. Their anger grew, until eventually it changed them. They became the opposite of what it was those corrupt souls were devouring each other for, and in their desire for justice and revenge they began to attack the corrupt, wanting them to suffer the same horrors as they freely inflicted on innocent people. They struck them down, and though their brothers and sisters were horrified at what they were doing they refused to attack them, continuing to inflict pain and revenge only on the corrupt. That is how darkness was created. Darkness is not truthfully the opposite of the light; it is in fact its closest ally, protecting the innocent even when they condemn what they do. Corruption is the disease, and darkness is the cure. In better times when you went about your everyday business you shared your light and warmth with everyone around you, but when you saw what the corrupt did to the innocent, the monsters that attacked without concern for the people they were hurting, the darkness within you drove you to fight back, to protect the innocent. It is that same darkness inside of you that knows that those people down there deserve to die for what they've done. That is the reason why you aren't going to stop me."

The three girls cast their eyes down as they mulled over his words. They knew deep down that he was right, and though part of them didn't like where their thoughts were going, they couldn't help but follow to that place he had bought to them.

"Of course that doesn't mean you should get the wrong idea about me." Billy continued with a shrug. "Make no mistake, the fact is I am a pretty bad man. My friends and I are doing this as much for our own power and control as we are for our principles, so don't make the mistake of thinking I'm innocent. I've killed so many people their blood would fill Olympic swimming pools, and I'm sad to admit the blood of the innocent is in there too." Looking at each of them he let his other side shine through, the girls watching on as his eyes changed from blue to red and back again. "I'm the prince of demons girls, don't forget that."

"So what now?" Blossom asked. Billy turned his head around to look out over the destruction with Cerberus still awaiting orders with loyalty.

"This place was your old home, not mine, so I think it's only right that you get to choose its fate. I can either call Cerberus off and spare it temporarily, until we return to crush and oppress those living in it, or I can order him to continue, ending it quickly. One way or another those people down there will have to answer for what they've done. Other than that, it's your choice."

Blossom cast her gaze down in silent thought. Turning to her left she looked to Buttercup, the more direct and passionate of her sisters, seeing anger in her dark eyes, her fist clenched at her side. Turning to her right she looked to her softer and more benevolent sister Bubbles, whose greatest desire was to do good for others. She held a look of utter sadness, turning her face away as tears stung her eyes again, giving a short nod of agreement for what she knew had to be done. Many of her friends had been butchered and killed by the mob that came after them, who still lived down there now. Facing her sisters as they shared her thoughts she returned her gaze to the blue-eyed destroyer and gave a heavy-hearted sigh of defeat.

"Send your dog back home." She instructed. Somewhat surprised as he was, Billy obeyed her wishes, turning around to point his scythe in the great demon's direction. Underneath Cerberus' paws a great gaping vortex took shape, the three headed monster sinking slowly back down into the underworld with a respectful nod before the portal closed up after him.

"I have to say you kind of surprised me there." He spoke looking down on the rubble where his pet had vanished. "I must admit though, your dedication is worthy of respect."

"Just like you said, this place was our home Billy. We grew up here. We had friends here. We spent the best years of our lives fighting tooth and nail to protect the people we loved here. And it was this town, these people, that took everything from us. Townsville was our home, and in some way it always will be, until the end of its days." Blossom spoke with a sombre voice, saddened that it had come to this, but resolute in their decision nonetheless. "If anyone's going to destroy it, it's going to be us."

Turning back to the three wide-eyed he faced them with surprise. Below them a crowd had gathered, thankful that the freakish mutant girls had come to rescue them once again. Out of the distance a blue news helicopter hovered its way up behind them as they drew their convention to a close.

"I'm with you. They have a lot to answer for, and a dept to us that must be paid back." Buttercup spoke with an angry glower. Bubbles though turned away, shaking her head in despair at what had become of the people they had once loved.

"I… I'm sorry you guys, but I can't do this." She whimpered back, her eyes now wet with unshed tears. "Destroy it all. I won't stop you."

"Girls! Powerpuff Girls!" Called a voice from the approaching helicopter. Turning around they looked over to the little Eurocopter as it came to hover nearby. Frowning Bubbles flew up to the cabin as a reporter looked out the open side door with a microphone in hand. She immediately felt a shudder of repulsion as she saw the snide look on his face. "Bubbles, the cowardly one. Could you tell us why you've returned now, after betraying and abandoning us all several years ago after all we did for you?"

Bubbles' tearful eyes froze over with shock, and turned into an emotionless stare at the brown suit clad man with too much product in his hair. After so long they still blamed them for everything they themselves had done, and the fact that they were the ones who betrayed her and her sisters didn't even seem to register in their selfish hypocritical minds.

"Because of people like you." She hissed coldly. "You all caused us so much pain after we fought and suffered for you, you took everything we loved from us, and then you rewrite history and act like you're the ones in the right. And you're going to pay for all of it." The reporter took on a look of worry as he felt the chilling stare now devoid of compassion or mercy cut through him. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you." She spoke, alleviating his fears.

"Oh… That's right!" He stated self-righteously.

"That would be either the fall or the burning jet fuel."

With that she moved to the rear of the helicopter, bringing her palm down to tear through the middle of the tail shaft, the rear rotor falling away as the helicopter began to spin out of control. Watching on coldly as it plummeted she displayed no remorse as it crashed into the side of a building, tumbling down to explode on the populated streets below. Turning their attention back to Billy he nodded in respect, preparing to part ways with the ex-superheroes.

"Before I leave I need to tell you, a great calamity is about to happen." He spoke with a serious tone. "Humanity has had its time in the light, and the dregs corrupted it and destroyed it for everyone. That time is over. The age of darkness, of the Night, is coming, and it will be beginning in little more than an hour from now. I'm not asking you to side with us, all that I ask of you is to stay out of our way and let us do what we have lived for, while you do your own job. Girls, I want you to know for certain right now, if in the future you decide to oppose us and fight against us in our takeover, then regardless of my respect for you, I promise, I will kill you. Do you understand?"

"We do." Blossom answered with a hard glower. "Do as you like, just stay out of our lives. We're not very merciful these days either."

Billy smiled in response as he began to lower himself down towards the streets below. "Good luck girls. You will probably see our faces a lot in the future. I hope not to see yours again."

Watching him descend to the streets below the three turned to each other with understanding, and shot off in streaks of red, blue and green, tearing downwards to strike down at the people below.

Throughout the city the streets echoed with the sound of the screaming citizens, ravaged by the blasts of light and heat that detonated all around them. Three sets of burning beams of energy cut down through the buildings. The walls exploded into billowing flames, engulfing everything and everyone around them. The girls smashed and burned their way down every street, destroying every car and incinerating every person they came across. The scant gunfire that greeted them did nothing to slow them down. They turned the decaying old apartment blocks into burning pyres, their smoke crossing over the face of the sun.

As the time passed as the sky grew gradually darker with the ash and the lowering sun, the sad old skyscrapers of Townsville finally came crashing down in billowing smoke and dust. And as the screams slowly became weaker, until the only sound they could hear was the low drone of the flames consuming all oxygen in the destroyed urban mass. With Townsville finally laid to rest and their father and many long lost friends completed at long last, the three moved out beyond the flames to where the mad government had sealed off the city. There they tore down the rusting electric fence and the barbed wire,, smashed the guard towers and machine gun emplacements, destroyed the helicopters trying to escape and slaughtering the few remaining guards.

With the fence gone the girls rose over outside the ruin to behold what they had done. Now that there was nothing to hold the prisoners inside the city the survivors would be able to flee, and hide themselves away in some corner of the ruined society, where they would live with the experience for the rest of their lives. But no survivors ever emerged. With their revenge complete Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup were finally able to come to terms with what had happened to them, and finally left to live their lives in peace.

* * *

In the ruins of the old city, as the burning clouds of ash filled the sky, turning it a dark red with the orange setting sun, Billy stood nestled down in the heart of it all. With the burning buildings and billowing lifeless dust flanking him on either side, he stood with his scythe held low in front of him, staring out into nothing in the abyss. Overcome by what had transpired here he stood as an apocalyptic figure amongst the end of the world, casting an ominous presence over the immense heap of rubble he stood upon, and the thousands of dead piled beneath his feet and paving his path ahead.

The sheer significance of this moment pressed itself upon the demon lord as he stood on the bodies of those killed in the calamity. The twisted and corrupt people that had plagued him his entire life, and the corrupt society they had built to feed their endless hunger for cruelty and human lives, had received everything they deserved. These people would never parasite off the world ever again.

In that moment he remembered back to his childhood, when he was eight and his eyes were first opened to what was happening in the world around him. He still recalled what his classmates did to the girl on the bus, how Irwin's face became so ugly as he spoke about Junior with all his hypocritical intolerance. He had sworn he would never forget what those people did that day. But he never would have dreamed of actually killing one of them. Back then Mandy and he wouldn't even have been able to fathom what that would be like, to turn the tables on them so completely, and bringing their wretched life to a short, violent end.

Now six years later he stood amidst the burning remains of a destroyed city, on a throne of rubble, and the thousands of burned and ruined corpses of his corrupt enemies.

And yet even with the faces of the lifeless bodies under his boots still twisted in terror and agony, that wasn't the most significant part. He hadn't lifted a finger to do this. Townsville had been laid to ruin because he had inspired the three most noble and innocent of demigods left to stand up for their own dignity, and take revenge on the foul city and all of its inhabitants for themselves, with nothing but the underlying strength of his cause. And if he could do it now with them, he could inspire the same inner fire in his subjects. Even without having laid a hand on an enemy himself, this one moment was the greatest triumph of his life.

Out of his silence a happy smile stretched across his pale features. Overcome by the mad joy of the moment his orange-red eyes filled with tears, and as he let out a few gentle chuckles they spilled down the sides of his face.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"**_

Billy opened his mouth and screamed with an appalling laughter. Arching his back he screamed and wept with evil joy, his ghastly howls of devilish laughter washing over the fields of death and blood. The sound filled the air with a presence that swept through and overwhelmed the entire burning ruin under the choking sky, heralding the apocalypse. He felt the final peak of all the power and darkness he had filled himself with. He would destroy the world, he would destroy a great many worlds in years to come, and his enemies would fear him.

As his screams of laughter echoed throughout Townsville's destruction, one by one the remains collapsed into themselves, and the dense clouds grew thin. As the sky turned a brilliant orange with the late afternoon sunlight the ominous presence ebbed away.

Long after the city's destroyers had left Billy emerged through the destroyed remains of the fence, walking on past the remains of the old urban blight to where the city started to thin out, the space around him opening up to reveal what was left of the decaying suburbs, long since pillaged and vandalised by scavengers. Billy past row after row of houses much the same as those of his former home city, all of them empty, the lawns and yards having long overgrown, their walls rotting and beginning to crack under the weathering of time. Not even squatters lived here. Many garage doors were left up from when their owners left. The only car he saw was a gutted wreck on the side of the road. There was no sound, the only disturbance from the silence being the soft breeze across the decrepit rooftops.

Finally he stopped amidst the middle of the empty street. He turned back to the city, in time to smile as he watched the sun sink lower in the sky behind the ruins where Townsville used to be. The clouds rose over the rubble of the city into the orange afternoon sky, the sun's amber light shining on through the plume to cast the ruined city in a deep orange glow. It was a beautiful image, the last sign of the end of an era. Billy smiled towards the sunset, the last humanity would see before their age of darkness and order began. Turning his eyes down to his wrist he checked his watch.

'_Twenty minutes left.'_ Looking back to the city one last time he set his face in grim determination. _'Time to go.'_

Raising his scythe he cast a portal behind him, turning away from the sunset to step through its event horizon to await his friend's arrival at the base.

* * *

In the streets just outside the eccentric green house a number of people walked the footpaths, cars pulling into driveways as their relatively mindless owners returned to their housing units after the day's work in the city centre, doing whatever jobs could be found in the depression at least. Despite the bitterly hard times, loss of job meaning loss of life, like in days past they walked about practically oblivious to the presence of anyone else, no one so much as sparing each other a polite nod as they passed by their neighbours.

In their thoughtless selfishness neither of them payed any particular attention to the quiet, haunting figure of a woman stepping up to the window inside, her blonde hair fixed in a pair of horn-like peaks, the ominous cold-hearted scowl of a ruler set on her pretty face as she surveyed them all like germs under a microscope. Though neither of them payed any attention to it each of them felt the deathly cold grip of her stare as her black eyes descended on each of them.

Mandy stood her scythe in the corner of the walls as she watched the festering sore of a city with loathing, the television droning softly behind her. As far as rat's nests went she had to admit it was impressive what they'd accomplished. The city was architecturally what she was looking for when it came to her future society, a bleak, artificially-lit concrete jungle towering half a kilometre or more into the polluted sky. Just a few tweaks to what she was seeing to turn it into a prison for her less noble subjects, and it would be perfect.

'_And what about the portion who don't only think of themselves, or their own circle?'_ She wondered. She only intended her cities to be prisons for those who deserved to be in a prison. What would she give to those citizens who genuinely pulled their weight and sought to contribute? Of course they would have their own cities and their own standards of living which reflected the kind of people they were, they would form the basis for her middle class, but she had spent so long thinking of the harsh noir world for her more lowly subjects she hadn't given much consideration to anything else. Hopefully her rule would inspire them to be able to appreciate dark and oppressive future-noir environments as much as she did.

Shifting her attention she bought her hand up, studying the ring on her finger. The diamond was quite large, sitting above the thin golden band perfectly fitted to her finger. It was strange however. Though at first glance it just looked like an ordinary ring albeit with a large stone, Mandy's eyes were sharper than that. She narrowed her vision on the beautifully cut stone sitting in its claw-like base. The light passing through its surfaces was distorted, its colours separated from each other, causing it to glow a shifting mixture of reds, greens, blues and violets. Mandy knew normal diamonds didn't do that, refracting the light in a way that made it cast out onto her fingers in a flurry of coloured lights. Her interest growing she rose it up to the window, looking through it out to the dystopian city, the sun now setting over the great skyscrapers, a pair of huge grey airships hovering over the city centre. As she moved the city into view through the faces of the gem she noticed something peculiar.

The images in the diamond changed from that of the city to a lush, cool forest of green trees, a crystal stream running down from snowy mountains in the distance, the sky above a brilliant cloudless light blue.

'_I know this place.'_ Mandy thought. _'Yes, that was where we had our cabin years ago.'_ She remembered the secluded little patch of paradise as if they'd only just left a day ago. Remembering back she could remember each sensation and feeling the place bought her. The feel of the cool, damp air on her arms in the morning, the sunlight filtering through the trees and trunks, and the cold water running across her bare feet between her toes as she stood in the stream. Most of all she remembered her closest person right there beside her.

'_Billy, I should have told you how I felt then. Someday we'll go back there. We'll rebuild the cabin, and there we can be alone together.'_ A small smile graced her lips at the dream. _'When the time's right that's where I'll give you my virginity.'_

She felt her face grow warm, lowering her face at the thought, remembering how far they had gone this morning. She smiled softly as she bought her hand up to her chest, the feel of his hand fondling her breast while he kissed and tasted the other making her whole body glow with warmth. Billy had always been so caring and affectionate towards her, and she shared his affection back with him. There was nothing quite like the feeling of his arms around her waist, and his lips kissing hers in a tender embrace. As much as she wanted him to make her his when the time was right, ultimately their love was based on something far superior to selfish animal lust, an affection and care for each other. She wanted to spend the rest of her life within his arms.

However as much as she loved him, she knew that at the age of fourteen regardless of how developed they were mentally, she and Billy both still felt they were too young to rightly take it any further than they'd gone already. But where was the trouble with that? All she wanted was for him to be close, to be a part of her life. Until they were ready for the final step she was content as it was.

Moment by moment she returned herself to the matter she'd been focussed on before. The futuristic urban sprawl still drifted in and out of the diamond's faces, the image of the secluded forest migrating out to the edges of the jewel as the bleak metropolis came into view. Mandy's interest rose again as the charmed diamond changed abruptly, taking on a darker tone within its shining faces. Her eyes widened slightly as gradually the city began to change. The polluted orange sky grew dark and heavy with industrial clouds, the towering buildings becoming far taller and more numerous, taking on a stark visage against the darkness. The people walking the streets changed, turning from hunched, sloppily dressed, apathetic creatures, to haggard and grey, dressed in thick jackets and coats in muted hues, moving about with a constant look of anxiety and fear etched on their faces for the artificial eyes that watched them. Meanwhile other similar figures stood tall and contented, knowing those eyes were looking out for them. Their combined fear and just satisfaction was intoxicating to the girl, to see that all those spiteful little bastards she had known who thought it was fine to step on people's faces for the fun of it were now living in constant fear of…

The image changed again. Behind the towering skyscrapers an immense stake and foreboding structure arose, a monolithic slab-sided ziggurat of grey concrete, the very fortress she herself had stormed in the false future. The vision closed in on the top of this titanic structure, the people below fading out as her view became centred on a strip of light emanating from within its walls. Closer and closer it moved in, until finally she came face to face with the heart of this land of darkness and vengeance.

Mandy's mouth gaped as a woman dressed in dark red robes scowled out through the jewel, her long hair still fixed in the two sharp peaks that defined her. She stared in mute amazement at her magnificent future as beside the woman with the commanding scowl, a man came into view. Red hair, demonic orange eyes, an all encompassing black coat, and a quiet malice-filled smile as he linked his arms around the front of her waist.

Her husband.

Together they looked out over their immortal imperium, their all powerful and wise gaze coming to rest on the teenage girl who was about to take over this failing world, and smiled contentedly. This then was her future. She was to rule over a world where the power of their darkness and strength of will had wrought eternal punishment upon the wretched elements of humanity, where she and her lover held absolute power over trillions of people across the stars, and where the beauty and light of the world was at the same time protected for those honest and noble souls who deserved it. Light and darkness in perfect harmony for millennia under their rule, with the corruption now turned upon itself. Gradually her amazement turned into a scowl, her merciless iron will finally satisfied in the justice it had bought humanity in the form of her long reign known as the Night.

She was Mandy of the Night, and tonight was nightfall.

"_It appears reports of an explosion have proven correct. The city of Endsville has in fact been completely destroyed."_ Mandy lowered her hand, listening absent-mindedly to the softly droning television behind her as she gave the city one last look over, promising each of the people she saw that they were going to pay for their crimes. _"Authorities say they are already aware of the perpetrators, and had this morning tried to eradicate them for treason, undermining the pride of our Aryan Empire, and several acts of terrorism. It is reported that one of the two responsible led a bloody massacre of troops attempting to storm their island base to capture their accomplices, one of which was the freakish monster Nergal Junior."_ She ignored the voice as the presenter spitefully insulted her friend and fed the racist frenzy.

"_We currently have news that the military has tracked them to an underground lair in the desert outside of where Endsville used to be, and is preparing a massive force ready to confront and destroy them."_

Instantly Mandy stopped. Turning to face the screen she watched and listened intently. There on the screen thousands of trucks and helicopters had congregated with what was by all definitions a substantial portion of the Empire's military personnel. There were tanks, the newest Abrams in black paint, hundreds of the poor quality steel-armoured machines all gathered in rows ready for battle. Overhead helicopter gunships hovered and landed, armed to the teeth with the most destructive weapons available. Above them flew fighter and bomber aircraft. Joining the army was an immense congregation of white racist garbage armed with a multitude of weapons, drunk, high and foaming at the mouth, stirred up by loudspeakers screaming out insanity. Together they had amassed an army large enough to invade several Middle Eastern countries at the same time, and they were about to converge on their base tonight.

Walking over to the couch she seized the remote and turned off the television, leaving the room silent. Abandoning the controller she returned to the window, wrapping her hand around the cold staff of her scythe. She held the weapon, feeling its weight in her hands, examining it like she had when she'd first been presented with it. The weapon knew what its master knew, that the final war was coming. It was ready and brimming with destructive power, and would one by one crush her enemies without mercy. Looking to the clock on the wall she saw that it was now only ten minutes until it was time to leave. Sparing one last look out at the city, the gritty mindless people, the grimy streets, the towering skyscrapers, the airships hovering amongst the polluted sunset, she turned and headed back across the room towards the trash can in the bathroom. Opening it she stepped in, the elevator descending with her as the top closed again.

* * *

Zim gritted his teeth, watching intently through a set of freakish thick goggles as the clear liquid in the tubes slowly dripped the last of its volume down through the long glass pipe. Behind him Mandy stood watching with her arms folded as drop by drop the final vial of the priceless antidote filled. Holding the base of the tiny squat bottle in his fingers he allowed the liquid to fill to its brim, until it reached the plastic seal over the top currently held open by the tube. After finally finishing the long process he took off his goggles and retracted the vial from the feed, holding it in his gloved hand as he presented it to the girl.

"It's done." He spoke with a hushed awe for what the little thing meant, his hand quivering as he did. Mandy took the flask between her middle finger and thumb, holding it up to her eye in order to examine it with a detached gaze.

"How is it administered?" She asked.

"It is based on water, so you can drink it." He explained. "Just drink it all, and it will take effect immediately as soon as it touches your cells, bonding with you genetically in a matter of seconds. You won't even notice it, and in less than an hour it will have completely dispersed throughout your body. Once it comes in contact with your cells it will bond permanently. You'll never need another dose." Handing him back the vial he deposited it in the compartment of his pak. "I'll keep the formula for it here though just in case."

"Good." Mandy stated, moving away from the console to the centre of the room as Zim reached for his plasma pistol fixed it to his belt, feeling hopelessly in over his head, clinging to his thoughts of betrayal to keep himself from breaking under the strain. Raising her scythe she formed a wormhole to their destination while Zim watched in awe and fear. "Let's go."

Following her guidance Zim stepped back and reached across to the console. Dancing his hands across the controls he shut down the computer and all the base's systems and lights, feeling the base around him going dark and still, before he stepped up to the red vortex. Taking a last glance around at his base he stepped through the portal, Mandy taking one final deep breath before she herself followed. The swirling red disc vanished after them, leaving the dark laboratory quiet in their wake.

* * *

Evening.

Not much changed this far out from civilisation, which was slightly odd considering it was only a hundred kilometres away from where Endsville used to be on the other side of the mountain range. Every now and then a road train would pass through one of the long stretches of highway crossing the vast wasteland, but other than that little tended to happen, especially away from any of the roads. There were many parts of the wasteland that had never actually had a human foot tread on them before. Out here the world was governed by natural cycles, the flux of day and night, the differences in temperature of summer and winter, and the cycles of the moon as it orbited high above in the cloudless night skies. If there was one thing that bought instability to this place it was the wind. Occasionally it would kick up dust storms or form tornados, blocking out the sun under a vast red haze, but alas these were rare, with the wind usually just gliding across the sand and rock in a steady sweep.

Tonight that perpetual state of calm would come to an end.

From his vantage point atop a shallow hill Billy looked out over the red desert. His blue eyes and fair skin caught the orange light of the setting sun as it passed through the low cloud of dust kicked up from the army in the distance currently closing in on them. Next to him side stood Grim, Nergal Senior and his wife Sis. Senior stood with his arms crossed watching out towards the massive army with a hard stare, while Sis bit her lip. Her son should be here now if what Billy told her was accurate.

Out of the sky the group turned their eyes up as the Voot Cruiser appeared ahead of them, descending out of nowhere like a fly to hover down over the orange dust in front of them, the queer little flying pod touching down effortlessly. Frowning they looked at the bubble hatch at the front trying to see the two inside, but it had become clouded over, almost an opaque white. After a few seconds had passed the hatch opened out forwards, and they saw as Junior disembarked the craft from their side. He hurried around to the other side of the cockpit and held out his hands. He smiled as Tak swung her legs out, the exotic blue-haired woman giving him a coy alluring smile as she slipped down into his arms catching her around the waist.

Billy, Grim and the Nergals watched as the two emerged, smiling contentedly and holding each other close around the back. The two elders paid particular notice to how they were looking at each other with love and devotion, all the while blushing like tomatoes. As the parents saw the two nuzzle each other's face affectionately their eyes lit up with the realisation; their son had found a lover.

As Senior and Sis were sharing their own moment of joy Junior and Tak strode over to them at a relaxed pace, all the while unseen by them Junior's hand had gone up under the back of her skirt and was tracing his hand across her bare ass cheeks. Tak bit her lip and smiled close to him at his perverse touch. It was nothing compared to what she had been doing to him a few minutes ago.

As the two finally turned to face those congregated to greet them they smiled again happily.

"Sorry we're late." Junior spoke as they stopped before them, moving his hand out from under Tak's dress to hold her waist as she placed her hands on his shoulders facing them. "Mother, father, you both know Tak, the best person to ever come into my life. Well I'm happy to tell you that she and I are now lovers."

They watched as Nergal and Sis both beamed with joy and happiness for them. Tak sniggered in his arms.

"We told each other how we felt this morning and we are in loooove!" She squealed excitedly. Billy and Grim frowned as he noticed them nuzzle each other without any actual kissing, and wondered why that might be. Nergal Senior recognised the giddy look in their faces however, and combined with the fact that the cockpit window was still foggy and they were shining like neon, and he let out a chuckle.

"It looks like that wasn't all you were doing. Were you two in a hurry to get it all out after all this time?" The elder demon mocked, causing the youths to blush even further and snigger amongst themselves.

"I'm my father's son dad. Of course we were." Junior remarked. Earlier in life he'd been disgusted and humiliated by his parents' perversion. Now he couldn't get enough of Tak and his own.

"Come on honey after two years together of course they had a lot of built up tension to take care of." Sis told her husband while she put her arms around him and looked to him in a similar seductive manner, which he matched perfectly.

"Junior here is a very affectionate man. He's courageous, he's smart, he's always calm and in control of himself unlike me, and he knows how to make a slightly insane woman feel like a deity, and he does it every day, even before we got together." She spoke with love for her partner. "On top of that he has the same sick mind full of sick, awful, beautiful, humiliating urges of how to express his love to me as I do for him."

Billy looked between the four as they chuckled with a squeamish look. _'These people… What's wrong with them? And why aren't Tak and Junior kissing each other's mouths? Wait… Never mind…'_

"You know Mandy will be here with Zim any moment now." He prompted them, forcing them back to a part of reality his mind could work with.

"On the way here we saw the army that's been gathered there to face us." Junior spoke. "We estimate their numbers are at least one hundred thousand armed psychopaths coming to kill us with the army alone, plus they have a large number of militias gathered for a slaughter though they'll probably be used as cannon fodder. We also know from the scanner that they have aircraft already on the way. They'll be here in a few minutes."

They listened intently, Billy already thinking on how to deal with the situation. Even without the enhanced vision of his primal form to scope out the enemy he knew that the eighty or so group of Nerglings they had left to defend the base wouldn't be enough against this enemy. They were hopelessly outnumbered, completely outgunned and they were likely facing the military's strongest remaining elements in a determined attempt to put an end to them here.

"I'll have the Nerglings take positions closer to the entrance ready to take the battle inside." Junior spoke as he looked across to where his loyal warriors bustled about in preparation. To the side of the group was a modestly sized hill rising up from the flat wasteland. Set into the base of the hill was the open concrete and steel hallway leading down into their hidden lair beneath. Beside it on either side a two hundred metre long work and loading bay extended out across the bottom of the hill facing west towards the approaching horde, each closed off from the desert via a number of huge interlocking blast doors with the exception of one directly to the left of the entrance. Hidden under the desert hill a number of armoured plasma cannon turrets lay in wait for the order to rise and fire in defence of the base from any direction. All up it was well equipped to deal with a full frontal armoured attack, but nothing like this. But even their massive power paled in comparison to what their masters themselves held.

"We'll keep the turrets hidden until the enemy is closer in, that way when we activate them they'll wipe out as many as they can before the airstrikes destroy them." Billy told them, having come to grasp a considerable understanding of basic military tactics in preparation for their takeover.

"What about de rest of em?" Grim asked.

"I think that's where we come in." Tak replied. "Together with the base's defences we'll cut down their numbers, then when it comes time to unleash the army they'll be completely overwhelmed."

"There's another thing." Billy spoke. "I was thinking, a massive attack like this is a major event, people are gonna want to capitalise on it. With the way the Aryan Empire is caving in on itself National Unity is going to want to boost their standing. They're gonna want to take advantage of this to try and scrounge for support in the population, to get back some of that white pride they were talking about before they cannibalised their own country." He looked between Junior and Tak intently. "I expect they have some important figures here to take the glory."

The two nodded. "I'll keep an eye out for anything that looks important." Tak stated.

"Junior." Nergal Senior spoke drawing his attention. "Seeing as there are an immense number of people coming to kill us, far more than I expect you had to deal with while defending the island, I should advise you one last thing. You've already proved yourself in every way to be ready to take over the Nergal name, but you're still restricting yourself to your human body, and while ever you associate yourself with this form, which if I remember correctly you copied from some child you met at winter camp, you will always be working within the limitations of that form. The last thing you have to do now is to overcome your attachment with a human form, and be whatever it is the situation needs you to be, then you will be a full Nergal demon."

The younger Nergal faced him and thought, giving a quiet nod. This body wasn't him, he didn't even have a body as such. For so long he had restricted himself to such a small base. Now if he was to have any chance of surviving this battle he would have to emerge from it, and show the world what a Nergal demon really was.

"Zim's coming soon. You should be somewhere else when he arrives or it'll blow everything." Junior spoke as he turned to face Tak.

"No problem. It looks like they're sending bombers after us. Heh, I'll take care of them." She answered with a sly grin, turning to make her way back towards their ship, swaying her hips for Junior's amusement on the way. Smirking Junior made a coil lash out for her from his back.

"Hey honey!" He shouted and flicked the back of her skirt up with his tentacle, exposing her bare ass and lack of panties.

"Ah!" Tak squealed with delight and whipped around facing them, putting her hands down to keep the front of her skirt from coming up as she beamed with a mad smile and laughed while she blushed intensely. Junior leered at her while his parents chuckled light-hearted at their romantic games.

"Junior! That's only for you to play with!" She felt dizzy with the emotional high. Billy and Grim's minds seized as the others just laughed. Beaming and blushing shyly at each other Tak stepped over to her lover again. "Seriously though can I put my panties back on for this?"

"Of course honey." Junior responded affectionately. Tak gave him a gentle kiss on the lips, poking her tongue out wit ha smirk before turning and going back to the Voot. Junior smiled at her retreating form, edging over to his father's side as his head whirled with desires for her.

"You're gonna have to teach me how to use my tentacles." He spoke, causing Billy to gasp for breath and take a woozy step away from them. Nergal Senior smirked and patted him on the shoulder.

"I'll explain everything in time."

Clambering back up into the cockpit of their small craft she quickly had the engines started. The remaining group watched as she lifted and soared off again into the cool evening air, taking a vertical incline to race straight up to where her enemy would soon fly over.

"You guys should go downstairs. Get the Nerglings ready." Junior spoke to his parents. Nergal Senior and Sis both smiled at him and went back into the safety of the bunker, and Tak disappeared into the sky.

'_Not a moment too soon.'_ Billy thought as behind them a red vortex formed in the air just above the ground, Zim and Mandy stepping through a moment later.

As Zim stumbled and looked about his dry surrounding warily, Mandy paid the nervous bigot no mind as she stepped past him, coming to a stop facing her fiancé standing ahead of her. Billy smiled as he saw her looking back at him, a small smile gracing her soft features now that they were finally together again. It had only been a few hours since they were together, when Billy had proposed to her and she had said yes, when he had touched and worshipped her body, but even without the significance of this day it never escaped them the blessing they had in having each other.

Together they both walked in towards each other, starting at a run as they came closer to wrap their arms around each other and coming together in a passionate kiss. Grim and Junior saw fit to look away with a contented smirk as his two masters shared their love for each other, coming apart to nuzzle each other affectionately.

"Hey there beautiful." Billy said as Mandy smiled and kissed him again gently.

"Is everyone here?" She called to Grim.

"Yer parents are all safe down below waiting for you, and dis boy's girlfriend is on guard elsewhere." Grim spoke without dropping the girl's name Mandy's eyes widened and looked to Junior, who nodded with a wide smirk.

"She's a very affectionate and loving woman, and very sensual and physical." He gave a sleazy grin. "You should have seen what she was doing to me on the way over here."

Her eye twitched. Trying to push those thoughts aside she and Billy both turned to face Zim.

"So is it ready?" He asked.

"All three doses. Where's the third recipient?" Zim asked as he scanned over those assembled, noting Grim with nervous apprehension. A loud blast echoing high overhead drew their attention. Looking up they saw a ball of black smoke and debris high overhead, a long tail of flame and smoke trailing behind the remaining two thirds of a Stratofortress now falling out of the sky towards them. The burning hulk roared down directly overhead, the five turning to watch it impact with a massive crash on the hill a few hundred metres behind them, bouncing off and disintegrating all over the desert on the other side. Another two loud explosions rang out overhead, and Zim watched in awe as two fighters met their end in a fiery blast of plasma.

"There." Billy stated with a smirk.

* * *

"NYAHAHAHAHA!"

Tak screeched madly as the two F-16s exploded. Not staying still for a second she banked around to the left, taking a wide arc that bought three more fighters into her sights. Lining them up with the computer sights she tensed her thumb against the fire button on the column.

"A TRILLION YEARS OF DOOKIE ON YOU ALL!" The aircraft shuddered as several large bolts of green energy blasted fourth towards the three. She screeched with laughter again as one after another they blew to pieces under the impacts of the devastating blasts.

"HAHA-What?" An alarm sounded in the cockpit, warning of a missile lock. Twisting around in her seat she saw another two F-16s closing in on her tail, followed by a puff of smoke as they both fired a missile. Acting quickly she fired her flares, a wide hail of bright red sparks coming out behind her as she accelerated onwards. Behind her the two missiles impacted and detonated on what they believed to be the target, the pilot's view of the target obscured by the blast until they rocketed through the smoke clouds.

"_Where is she? I didn't see any debris."_ One of them spoke through his radio. Searching the skies ahead of them they hunted the twin trails of purple light left by their quarry.

"_There's nothing out there. Radar's picking up nothing."_ His partner sneered into the microphone. _"The alien bitch is dead."_

"_Sorry to disappoint you little punks, but I'm not as dead as you think I am."_ Came a British sounding voice in their helmets. The two pilots began searching frantically for their target, all the while she just smirked at their helplessness. _"Bet ya thought you were pretty big didn't cha? Thought you could do whatever you wanted didn't cha? Not so big now eh? Nyeheheh!"_

"_Where are you? Where the fuck are you fucking bitch freak!"_ One roared into the radio.

"_Look behind you."_ Both felt their blood freeze. Turning around they checked their tails, finding nothing but air there to greet them.

"There's nothing the…" He cut away as Tak deactivated the shroud, the Voot shimmering into view right on their tails, the forward lasers trained on them. "OH SHI-"

"_BOOOOM!"_

Smirking she watched the fighter on the left explode. The survivor wavered from the blast before trying to pull off to the right away from its predator.

"_OH MY GOD! OH MY-"_

* * *

Another aircraft exploded high overhead as the group below the hill watched on. Their mission threatened by the enemy pilot the approaching bombers quickly turned around, letting their escorts swarm in to deal with her.

"She's completely outnumbered. She won't be able to hold them off for long." Junior observed as a number of missiles flew and exploded in the sky, gritting his teeth slightly. "We have to take on that army quickly or those bombers will destroy the base's defences."

"Don't worry. Zim's got something that can help there." Mandy spoke as she began to walk quickly back towards the open bay. Following her to the base of the hill they entered into the giant cavernous space of bright steel. In the centre of their view stood a large metal gantry twenty feet tall. Supported within stood one of the ailing Irken Empire's most fearsome weapons, a maroon coloured bipedal armoured war machine modelled in an organically shaped armoured body, with two shoulder mounted cannon turrets aside the central cockpit, two missile racks mounted above.

"Behold the Megadoomer Ultra!" Zim bellowed dramatically. "Megadoomer, activate!" Following his orders the giant machine grunted and whirred as it came online. "Follow me." Stepping out towards the door with his co-conspirators in tow he led the machine through the heavy doors out into the desert. "Modified and improved by me it has an upgraded power core, a custom shield generator, and even stronger doom cannons!" He told them as they came to a halt, the machine standing over them. "Nothing will be able to stand against the might of Zim when I pilot this unstoppable machine into-"

"You're not piloting it Zim." Mandy stated flatly much to his shock. "I've got someone else in mind, someone far more qualified."

"Someone else? More qualified? What a stupid concept!"

Ignoring Zim's loud scoffing Grim looked to where his master stood looking back. She gave a curt nod. Turning around he brandished his scythe, forming a dome of rippling black energy atop the orange dust, a summon for a being from beyond the grave. The dome wavered in place for a moment, before a human figure Mandy's height emerged from within, setting its sights on the group.

"The mere thought that someone else could be a better pilot than I, especially when it is my own machine, why I should take this wormy little inferior worm baby and… and…" He lost his voice as a particularly dark shadow loomed over him from behind. Turning around awkwardly he looked up to the face of the new presence and gaped.

A crushing presence greeted him. She wore a dark purple dress with grey sleeves and purple leggings. Heavy black boots adorned her feet. In her clenched right hand lay a metal baseball bat, with a gaming console attached to her waist belt. On her collar sat a skull pendant. Between the sharp curls of her purple hair her eyes narrowed disdainfully down upon the dim-witted Invader wannabe.

"You were saying?"

"Hey Gaz, how have you been?" Mandy asked as she turned her attention to her mentor, Zim's protests dying inside him.

"Meh. I took a visit to hell. It's kind of like how I remembered regular life except everything's on fire. Speaking of which what the hell am I here for?"

Getting down to the issue Mandy pointed towards the army closing in on the horizon. "Problem." Turning her hand she pointed up to the Megadoomer standing nearby. "Solution. Can you pilot it?"

"Whatever." She stated casually. Looking back to the growing mass of tanks and trucks closing in however she faltered, her eyes widening somewhat in concern. "Uhh, I don't think I'm gonna be able to take on all of that on my own."

"Don't worry." Mandy consoled her with a controlled visage that gave her renewed confidence. "The idea is for us to wear down their forces as much as possible, then retreat back into the base. We'll all be taking part out there with you." Halting in her short speech she gave her comrades a look over, seeing them all standing ready. Looking to Billy he gave her a short nod. Turning around she looked to Grim, the swirling black dome still standing, seeing her servant return the nod of approval. "In fact, there is one more person who will be aiding us tonight."

Looking around to the black dome in anticipation they waited and watched as within another entity emerged from the netherworld, something far darker than the girl who came before. Those gathered before the orb of darkness noticed a steep drop in the temperature of the air, combined with a sense of such a complete and utter state of unfeeling remorseless power that it made Grim, Gaz and Junior shift nervously. Mandy however just stared on with a hard scowl while Billy grinned maniacally as finally the blackness lifted.

A lithe yet imposing figure clad in a dark blue long sleeve shirt and trousers stood in its place, a pair of black boots on his feet, his blue-black hair fixed in an even short back and sides cut. A stern, low cast scowl greeted them. Cold, pitiless onyx eyes with an inhospitable freezing depth stared back at the blonde girl now his master. He stared coldly into Mandy with objective indifference, the same detached calm as he'd shown them two years ago.

"Hello Max." The stern young woman spoke to the unemotional killer.

To Mandy the inhuman creature that she had met at the park six years earlier didn't have any real relationship with her anymore. He had taken so much from her, but then how could she complain when she was the one who taught him the very cold-hearted philosophy he was acting on? What he had done she would not forget, or properly forgive. To her he was nothing more than a means to an end, which in a strange act of karma was the exact same thing he saw her as earlier in life.

"Time to prove your worth."

"Why have you bought me out here?" Max asked with a hard, flat tone lacking in interest, almost insulted by the thought of having to serve these two weak-minded failures. Before he could even realise what was happening a powerful claw-like hand had him around the throat and lifted him up off the ground, bought face to face with a pair of savage orange-red eyes and a grin filled with sharks teeth, boring into him with sadistic glee.

"**You better watch your manners ungrateful little fucker. Don't forget, your soul belongs to us now, because I've been to where you've been wandering around, and I assure you that there are places infinitely worse than them! You do exactly what we say and start contributing something decent to this world, or we'll send you to the place paedophiles and rapists go to, and I just know they'll love a sweet little teenage ass like yours."**

This seemed to get through to the stoic demon, Max's eyes widening as he realised what was at stake. He did not recall Billy being so monstrous, or having a look in his face like he was about to torture and mutilate him. The demonic thing in the heavy black cloak and blue and white shirt looked right into his soul, examining his beliefs, survival of the fittest, order through slavery, and his contempt for everyone who wasn't in control of himself like he was, and just sneered mockingly.

He looked across to Mandy, seeing her gazing upon him with the same menacing scowl that struck fear into the hearts of less noble individuals, and inspired strength in those ready to take a stand against the wrongs of the world. But there was energy there, an intensity of will that he genuinely did not recognise. She was a lot stronger now than she was when he had hunted her.

But how was this possible? He had seen the weakness in Mandy, the cowardice in not breaking her bonds, and in Billy. Their need for love had made them both soft and weak, unable to effectively rule and bring order to this world. So why were they now so much stronger?

It was so illogical to everything he knew. With no possible explanation to what he saw, an unusual thought crossed his mind. _'Am I missing something? Have I made a mistake somewhere?'_

"What do you want me to do?" He asked evenly. Billy smiled, lowering him to the ground.

"The government found out about our plans. They've come after us with everything they have left. So we're putting our plan into practise tonight." Mandy explained as she gestured towards the enemy's closing in. "But first we have to hold off that massive army they've sent to put an end to us. The military doesn't concern itself much with tactics nowadays, so it will likely be just one massive disorganised group. Gaz, you will hit the tanks from the front, and hold them off from reaching the entrance. Grim, Junior, Billy and I will sweep through from the sides and break them up."

Mandy turned to face Max intently. "Now we have reason to believe there will be some high ranking party figures here to take credit for the battle. I can think of one madman in particular who needs to regain some face in front of the people he promised everything, and instead destroyed most of their society. So you are going to attack them from behind. Anyone important will be hiding in the back. Find them and kill them."

Those around her listened and acknowledged her orders as high overhead another series of explosion rang out from the dogfight. Looking across to his suit clad friend Billy reached his hand out.

"Junior, I found something of yours in the sand."

Turning to look Junior saw as his lost Gewehr materialised in his powerful grip, the but and handle extended out towards him. Smiling he took the weapon back, grateful to have his prized possession back in his arms again, along with his M1A stored safely in another realm waiting for his call.

"Hey! What about me?" Zim called up to them as they each regarded him with contempt.

"Zim, you are to go down into the base where our parents are waiting for us. Wait there until we return." She commanded sternly. Zim stared up at her in outrage.

"How dare you resign the great and terrible Zim to hiding in a hole! I am a weapon of ultimate doom beyond anything you pitiful animals could comprehend!" He waffled on arrogantly. Around him his compatriots eyes widened as they noticed the row of tanks in the distance give off a combined puff of flame and smoke. "When I am on the battlefield nothing can harm me! I am invincible!"

"_BOOOOOMMMM!"_

The seven recoiled from the blast of several dozen artillery shells detonating against the red dirt hill behind them. The myriad of explosions kicked up a cloud of dust that rained down over the cratered landscape in a drizzling grainy shower that blew away in the wind. From beneath the cratered surface the ground began to stir and crack from beneath. Pushing the earthen crust out of their way a dozen massive armoured domes arose from beneath the ground, each readying a pair of massive energy cannons, taking aim at the army in the distance.

Mandy watched from below as they stood ready to fire. Facing the foot of her war machine Gaz hurriedly climbed up the side towards the access hatch at the top, opening it to clamber on inside. The cockpit was a tight fit but she managed well enough, taking the controls in her hands. With her affinity for electronics she easily worked them out, the machine standing at attention beside her masters ready for combat. Junior concentrated his own strength, forming a number of coils to sprout from his back, switching off the safety of his rifle, focussing on what he needed to do. He was barely able to survive the attack on the island. If he was going to make it through this he had to do what he had been hesitant to do his entire life, and leave his humanity behind. Billy and Mandy both called upon their weapons, looking to each other for support, Grim standing behind the two ready once more, just as in days past. The guns on the hill fired, the blasts reaching out to strike the enemy with devastating power. A truck filled with troops exploded from a direct hit, while several tanks had their crude armour blown inwards under the impacts, their crews vaporised in their seats.

"Okay." Mandy spoke calmly as they faced. "Let the madness begin."

And so the final battle for humanity was waged.

* * *

"You flies just keep coming!" Tak growled out in frustration as she threw the compact spacecraft around in a jagged manner, surrounded by a literal swarm of enemy fighters. There were just so many coming at her from out of the sky, it was getting difficult to keep track of them. Whipping the machine around she blasted at two more F-16s, seeing them light up like fireworks. No sooner as they had blown apart as another three F/A-18s came racing at her through the cloud of debris, opening fire with a hail of cannon shells.

She banked sharply away, striving for the horizon as they joined the growing mass of fighters on her tail. The incoming alarm sounded again as three missiles found themselves hurtling towards her from the rear. Before she took action the scanner picked up another threat directly in front of her. From far ahead a hail of missiles raced in towards her, in addition to the ones behind her.

"Shit!" She pulled up sharply, the craft racing up vertical as she ejected flares, escaping just in time to avoid the several massive explosions resulting from the rockets detonating behind her. The blast hit her hard, knocking her about within the cockpit, cracking the windshield. "AUGH! WHAT THE HELL! THAT'S ALL YOU GOT?"

Looking back to the fighters that had fired from ahead she saw her new enemies flying in formation towards her.

"Raptors… And Lightnings. Not good." The advanced stealth fighters posed a more serious threat to her, more than the swarm of different fighters on her tail ever did. There were few of them remaining Returning to the controls she threw her machine around again as all the while the craft began to shake and shudder with the increasing damage and strain from the near misses, still hoping against hope to hold off the bombers as long as possible. "Guys, if you're gonna do something you better do it quick."

* * *

Gaz depressed the joysticks, piloting the heavily armoured battle mech towards the long line of tanks. She regarded them with boredom as they fired on her, their kinetic penetrators and explosive shells bursting against the invisible shield that Zim had replaced the useless cloaking system with, the smaller rounds passing through to impact harmlessly on the armour. Lining up the closest Abrams-knockoff with the targeting reticle displayed on the screen she fired the laser cannons. The repeating blasts exploded violently against the glacis and the turret front, moving her walker across to the right to bombard the one beside it. Watching as the smoke cleared she found both armoured machines still operating, firing on her again with their main guns, the penetrators shattering against the field around her.

She gritted her teeth in fury. _'God damn guns aren't powerful enough. Can't even go through stupid world war two armour. Zim didn't tune them right. Must boost the power.'_

Putting her hand to the control panel she increased the flow of energy to the main guns, drawing ever more from the powerful new reactor, while setting the computer to optimise the cannons for penetration. Lining up again she fired, the much more focussed and powerful blasts blowing through the cheap steel plate, the tanks turret blowing off in a white hot ball of flame.

"Much better." Turning around she fired away at more tanks. One after another they erupted into flames, the remaining survivors continuing to hammer her with their main guns to no effect. Swinging the body around to the right she lined up a Stryker as it fired on her, the fifty calibre rounds leaving small marks against the armoured body. With several massive blasts she cleaved it into pieces. Smirking she set her sights on a truckload of troops currently opening fire on her. One of them fired an AT4, the warhead detonating harmlessly on the shield. Centring the rangefinder on them she was about to fire when…

"_Warning. System heat at sixty two percent."_ Came an artificial voice through the cockpit.

'What? It can't be overheating! I only just started!" Gaz thought. Looking through the head up display however told her otherwise. The screen had turned amber, and on the right a small gauge was shown to be rapidly filling up, approaching the redline quickly. She clenched her hands in irritation. While Zim had upgraded the power and weapons system on the mech, he hadn't done anything to ensure that they could sustain themselves. "You son of a bitch Zim! You left the radiator stock!"

Grizzling angrily she looked to where yet more shells detonated on the shield, further increasing the power draw on the reactor. Taking aim she blew the truck to pieces along with the hapless troops in and around it, turning to blow away two Humvees before returning her attention to the five hundred or so tanks converging on the base in her immediate vicinity. Though the defensive emplacements blew one away after another in a hail of brilliant blue flashes, their guns returned the favour, firing back at the giant domes. Several Nerglings were incinerated as one turret exploded, its armoured head blowing off to reveal the burning tube that had supported it. Gaz saw this and tensed. She had to lessen the heat on the base, not easily done considering her machine was itself overheating in a very literal manner.

* * *

The motley of troops fired in terror at the demonic figure with a dozen powerful coils surrounding him, blocking their bullets while simultaneously striking out at them one by one, his gun in his hands. Stepping through the desert battlefield he lashed out at one with a machine gun, easily separating his head from his shoulders. Whipping another coil around he impaled one through the throat, severing the spinal cord. He tore it out and used it to cleave several men in half.

Currently he was moving in on the enemy army's left flank behind the main tank formation at the front, tearing out a bubble in the troops he encountered and breaking up the attack. Concentrating hard he widened his vision, looking through the gaps in the wavering tentacles protecting him from the relentless hail of bullets, to find targets that were within range. Another set of coils lashed out at the mob of untrained troops, probing for someone to sink themselves into or tear apart. Two such coils knocked on flesh and body armour, quickly wrapping around both soldiers and hoisting them into the air. Junior relished in their shouts and screams of terror as he waved them about, feeling how the balance of power had now shifted and now they were the ones wailing in fear and despair, helpless before one of the people they had degraded and ground under their heels. It satisfied him to no end when he bought the two down in violent swoops, and used their bodies to slash at the terrified mob around him, discarding them with the rest of the red mincemeat.

A Humvee approached him from his left, hammering away at him with its fifty calibre machine gun. It cleaved his already pitted and damaged tentacles off one after another. Junior grimaced. Ducking down he raced across to the vehicle's side, taking aim at the gunner with his rifle and firing, blowing apart the back of his skull. Focussing the abilities his father had given him he wrapped the vehicle in his vines, pushing a surge of power through them to incinerate everyone inside as it erupted in flames. Rather than dumping it he turned around and hurled the burning wreck towards a Bradley that was taking aim at him, crashing over the frontal hull. It gave him just enough time to move out of the way before it blew the wreckage apart with its gun. Its vision clear the turret swung around in search of him, all the while he crouched down beside the armoured left flank out of its sight.

'_That armour's too thick for me to punch through.'_ Scanning his surroundings with burning green eyes he soon found the answer. Another Abrams was taking aim at him, regardless of their comrades being in harm's way behind him. With a smile he dived back away from the machine as the tank's gun fired, blowing the IFVs turret off in a hail of sparks.

Before he could get to his feet the tank swivelled on him again, firing at him with the co-axial machine gun, along with the two dozen or so soldiers in the vicinity. The powerful bullets ripped through him, blowing deep chasms through his torso, knocking him over on his back.

'_I'm not cut out for this, not like this at least.'_

Disregarding the damage despite the fact there was blood coming out his mouth he formed another set of coils and launched his damaged body up above their guns. Supporting himself on the long tentacles he raced over the desert deeper into the enemy's ranks, towards the troops built up in a line at the edge of the bloody clearing shooting wildly up at him. Accompanying them he saw a few dozen pickup trucks, cars and even campervans, all carrying a variety of bloodthirsty sociopaths armed with cheap guns, now taking aim at him.

Even as the bullets blew holes through his body still he retracted his coils and fell into the battle line. Before the shocked troops and drugged-up supremacists could shoot he slashed everything around him. A shower of blood met him as twenty men were butchered. He watched as one fell over, looking down to his severed lower half and screamed, before he tore his skull open. With the next group around him ready to fire he flattened his coils out in spokes all around him, and pushed an immense surge of energy out, electrocuting and frying another dozen.

His bloody body however was having difficulty keeping up with the strain. As he raised his gun to take aim at a pickup truck full of skinheads he fired a long hammering stream. But this time he couldn't control the recoil, though he killed three the remaining bullets flew randomly. He didn't have time to reload before he was forced to move again under fire.

Coming up on another mass of uniformed thugs he lashed at them, striking down several, before he set his sights on one out of the immense crowd. Latching on to him he pulled him up, a series of serrated points emerging to cut into his skin, before throwing him back into his comrades, knocking them over and allowing him to retreat.

Scrambling back on weakening legs he took cover behind the burning wreck away from their fire, while the tank from before still turned its gun to try and catch him. Lying low he gave his body the necessary few moments needed to heal. As the many gaping holes in his being closed on themselves he was met with the sound of rotor blades, and looked up to see an Apache gunship closing in on him.

Bringing his remaining coils up he just barely managed to shield himself from the devastating blasts from its thirty millimetre gun. The exploding shells blew him backwards, impacting on the side of the burning vehicle as the cannon separated his tentacles from himself.

He grimaced, knowing he was in a very bad place. In front of him was the gunship ready to annihilate him, while behind him was the tank waiting for him to emerge from behind the wreck to annihilate him, all the while he was faced left and right with an immense number of soldiers and militia closing in around him. This kind of situation was known as checkmate. On his hands and knees he pushed his way past the wheels and tracks of the burning hulk to take shelter underneath, shielded from the gunship and the tank nearby.

'_I can't take them on like this. I'm just not strong enough while still semi-human.'_ He thought, all the while outside his enemies waited. _'It looks like now's the time to reveal myself.'_

Circling the broken hulk from above the gunner of the Apache switched to his Hellfire missiles, and after quickly achieving a lock, he fired a literal hail of missiles down towards where its target had hidden. In a series of massive blasts of heat and flame the wreck was torn apart and strewn across the battlefield. Following it came a barrage of rockets, hammering the site with high explosives, before the waiting tank fired a single shell into the midst of it all, ending it in one massive blast.

Hovering ready to blow away whatever was left of their enemy the gunship waited. Stepping up towards the smoking patch of earth the rabble of troops carefully searched for any sign of life. Gathered tightly around they watched the smoke drift away, revealing nothing more than a scorched black crater cut into the ground. Still clutching his arm where the coil had cut into him earlier the survivor of Junior's attack watched from further out as the congregation searched for any sign of their hated enemy.

"Hey, look at this." One man called from the edge of the crater. At his feet was an assault rifle, blackened and buckled from the blasts, of a type none of them had been using. Next to it though was a small slither of what looked to be a segment of one of Junior's coils, charred and dead. He grinned cruelly.

"We got him! WE GOT THE FUCKING DEMON FREAK!"

No sooner than he had said that and the crowd began to shout and cheer at his demise as the wounded survivor wavered and fell over onto his back. None of those around him paid any attention as he groaned and shuddered from his uncontrolled nerves, until his groan turned into an ugly growl from deep inside. Those around him immediately stopped cheering and looked at him with worry for the ominous sound coming from his wide spread mouth, while his body shook violently.

Out of the man's belly exploded a dozen huge dark green coils coated in blood, rising high up over their heads. None of them gathered around could even scream before they dived down again and butchered them, forming a wide bloody clearing around the shaking soldier. Most of those in the area around the field of horror shrieked and ran, only to find they had nowhere to go against the masses of soldiers behind them. Those who opened fire on the mutating body were quickly torn to shreds by the lashing coils.

The soldier let out another long guttural moan that did not sound in any way human. As the surrounding troops tried to flee in terror a series of brutal cracks rang out as his bones were torn apart from inside and the coils coming out of his stomach grew larger. Out of his shoulders, sides and hips emerged six muscular new limbs, a hard dark green surface with one knee joint each, breaking his body apart further as they reached up and out to then plant themselves down on the dirt and corpses.

As the horrific mutations outgrew the body and started pushing everything apart, the spinal cord snapped and disintegrated as his head began to rear up. Blood poured out of his mouth, eyes, nose and ears, and his skull cracked from the inside. And as the rest of his body was ripped to shreds and pushed aside by the growing coils and the six legs joined at the base, the head finally blew apart, and a pair of massive appendages emerged. One formed a worm-like body with an opening lined with razor sharp teeth, and the other formed a long coil tipped with an odd device made of a series of curved spines in a dish around a central spike.

Around the charred crater the remains of the tentacles dissolved into a liquid and flowed across the dirt to join with the growing beast. In the surrounding kilometre everyone turned to watch with dread as the creature grew massively, letting out a deep growl as it rose high above the battlefield. Reaching the size of a ten storey building with tentacles the width of tree trunks Nergal gave a horrifying bellow from the opening of his maw.

"That freak! KILL IT! KILL IT!"

As one they fired up at the monstrous creature. This time many of their bullets simply glanced off the outer shell, their heavier rounds only dealing out minor damage, which regenerated instantly. It only served to further infuriate Junior. Opening his jaws wide he bellowed out a devastating roar that shook the earth they stood on, causing the troops to fall over backwards and cover their ears.

The Apache fired its cannon. The shells blew holes in its mammoth mouth trunk and his other tentacles, which only alerted him to their position again. Reaching out with his mouth he lunged for the helicopter, the pilot panicking and steering it away just in time. Before it could escape though a number of thick vines secured around the body, dragging it and the two screaming occupants into the creature's waiting maw. Closing in the armoured helicopter Nergal crushed it, causing it to incinerate between the rows of teeth. The large coil thrashed and tossed it aside to crash into the troops below.

A shell exploded through one of his legs, drawing his attention to the heavy steel tank, as well as the many other tanks and armoured carriers in the wider areas now facing him. Turning his dish-like tentacle towards the one from before he willed an immense surge of energy to build up in the device, casting it out in a brutal wide beam down on the tank. The armour seared with the radiation, as those inside screamed and vomited blood as their bodies swelled and exploded, before the tank erupted in sparks and flame. Shutting off the beam he pointed the dish at another scattered group of tanks and other vehicles a hundred metres away. Firing again he drew the beam across a wide arc, the soldiers screaming and holding their skulls as their brains swelled up and burst along with their machines.

Bringing the tips of his massive coils down he slashed and blasted away all around him, smashing everything and everyone he saw, the enemy's bullets striking harmlessly on his immense body as he opened himself fully to the demon he was born as.

"_**UUUAAAAAAHHHHH!"**_

He bought his claw-like foot down on an armoured carrier, turning to lash out and blow away one tank after another. The troops fired up at him with everything they had, but nothing worked, not even their anti-tank weapons. The belligerent army that had been feared worldwide as the supreme world power now found themselves out powered by what they'd cursed and hated simply for being different.

One particular soldier instead of fighting decided he'd had enough, turning around and running as fast as he could away from the beast. Gritting his teeth as he sprinted away he rounded back on it to watch as it wreaked a path of destruction in its wake. Raising his weapon he took aim through the sights at the thing's mouth.

"Guh..." He gagged in horror as a powerful fist exploded out of his midsection. Looking down at the arm protruding from his belly he gaped as behind him an even more terrifying presence made himself known. Turning to look across his left shoulder he saw Billy's demonic features twisted in savage glee, before he tore his arm out and smashed his hand across his face, cleaving his head to pieces.

"**Heh heh heh heh…"** He flexed his bloody digits as around him yet more soldiers converged, led by two Bradleys. Rounding on them he raised his burning orange scythe, smiling savagely at them before he launched into their midst. He cleaved one in half, tearing another's mid section out with his bare hands, blocking a hail of cannon shells with a field from his scythe as he reached out with his hand towards another three soldiers. His fingers became snakes with snapping jaws, shooting out to tear into their throats and faces in a bloody display.

Returning his attention to the Bradleys he dropped the field and jumped high above their line of fire. Rearing back with his scythe over his head he slammed the blade down on the head of the nearest one, releasing a blistering surge of power to engulf its insides, blowing it to smithereens a moment later. From out of the cloud of debris he rocketed forward onto the next, disregarding the shells that blew huge holes through his body as he closed the distance, the holes closing as if they were holes in water. Setting himself on top of the turret he pulled his fist back and punched through the top armour. Inside the crew turned to look at the fist now intruding on their abode. Opening his palm he whipped his fingers around in a circle, five invisible blades tearing through the interior, chopping the crew into bloody chunks as the machine caught alight.

Pulling his hand out he caught a rifle grenade one soldier had fired at him. Grinning as said soldier turned and ran he threw it back, the projectile impacting on his head, blowing his top half to a red smear on the desert sand as he laughed. Looking back around from where he stood atop the burning machine he saw he was surrounded by a large group of tanks, troops, armoured personnel carriers and gunships, all their guns trained on him. The thrill of the battle coursed through his veins, the power it gave him surging through every fibre of the demon prince's body, overwhelming him with its destructive force.

"**YOU WANTED THIS! COME AND GET ME FUCKERS!"** He roared with bloodlust in his eyes, the waves of fear and terror he felt coming off the thugs gathered around him making him dizzy with its intoxicating aroma. How he had longed for this day, ever since he had given into the hell inside of him that night in the future now gone. How he had waited for this time, the time to make those vile little narcissists who called themselves human beings suffer and howl with agony for their crimes. That time was tonight, and as of right now the sun had disappeared over the horizon, heralding the end of their world, and the coming of the Night.

"**THE DAY OF RECKONING IS HERE! THE AGE OF DARKNESS HAS COME!"** He announced to them all below. **"YOU HAVE ALL BEEN JUDGED FOR YOUR SINS, AND YOU HAVE BEEN FOUND-"**

His words faded into nothing as in one titanic swoop they were all blown away in a blinding blast of red light. Billy shut his eyes against the power of the blast, cracking them open again once it had passed to reveal that the area where they had gathered had been swept clean, the charred remains of overturned tanks and trucks littering the wide oval of blackened dirt. Standing at the point of this vast ellipse was Mandy, a thin wisp of smoke rising from her scythe as her burning orange-red eyes surveyed the destruction with satisfaction, Judgement clasped in her hand proud.

"Guilty."

The sounds of destruction alerted them to something behind her. Turning around she watched as another tank burst into flames, the shadowy figure of Grim gliding down through the smoke to touch down before them.

"How we doin?" He asked them as Billy and Mandy made their way over.

"We're slowly cutting down their numbers, and we've broken up the group, but…" Craning her head to the sky she scowled and looked to where Tak's cruiser continued to dodge blasts in an increasingly desperate manner, a trail of smoke left in her wake. "I don't think Tak can hold out much longer. Those bombers will be getting through soon. And I don't think Gaz's doing any better." Indeed looking to the front where more explosions were taking place under the hail of plasma fire, Gaz's Megadoomer looked to be billowing out vapour and waves of hot air around it like an oven. "The base's defences are being destroyed too. We'll have to wrap this up quickly once Tak's ship goes down. Until then…" Turning their backs to each other they faced the ring of troops and machines that had surrounded them, readying their scythes for battle once more. "We've got work to do."

As one they launched themselves out at the offending army, entering the frenzied fray of battle once more.

* * *

For Tak it appeared her time had ran out. Though she continued to duck and dive and swerve madly amidst the ever darkening sky, her enemies never ceased their constant barrage of missiles and shells, the damage mounting with each nearby blast. Gradually her craft had begun to fail her. Due to a cannon hit the port side engine had been heavily damaged, and was now giving barely half the thrust it previously gave, in addition to leaving a trail of black smoke in her wake.

Despite this she continued to fight on as hard and wild as ever. She had gone through her life fighting the scorn and contempt and hatred of her own people and others for as long as she could remember, and if this was to be her end, she would not be going quietly.

"AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! WE'RE ALL DOOOOMED! AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!"

Screaming and screeching madly within the cockpit she recklessly threw the machine to and fro, abandoning her defence and turning around to attack the oncoming swarm of fighters. Taking aim she savagely blew away one after another after another with the plasma guns, each bolt finding its target with perfect accuracy despite the ship's head up display being destroyed. After a hundred years of training and suicidal missions she didn't need a reticle, simply aiming the ship through the badly cracked windscreen at the targets racing past her. In five seconds she had destroyed twelve aircraft, emerging out of the cloud of debris with mad laughter, stinging tears running out of her eyes. Never in her life had she felt more alive, like a true angel of vengeance and destruction. If she was to go out now, she'd go out happy. Out on the horizon the dusk twilight was fading to a low orange strip over the mountains where Endsville used to be, the dusk sky a deep blue. Looking up she saw the great full moon beginning to rise, a bright red ball looking down on the corrupt world with hatred.

"THE MOON IS RISING! THE END HAS COME! THE NIGHT IS HERE! AAAHAHAHAHA-"

"_BAAAAAAANG!"_

The entire machine racked violently, Tak's head slamming into the broken windshield as a missile detonated on the rear of her craft. Immediately it began to fall out of the sky, the battered and ruined craft arcing over to race down towards the burning battlefield far below. Though the crippled machine plummeted downwards, she found she could still control its descent, giving her one last idea. Sweeping the burning wreck around she aimed it at the rear of the army, towards the command and control station where the people responsible was likely hiding safely behind the lines, meanwhile starting the self-destruct system. There it was, one large black truck with an assortment of antennae sticking out the top, as well as several demountable buildings, and enormous limousines, guarded by two Humvees.

Aiming the machine at the command truck she gunned what was left of the engines, boosting the speed of the wreck as it raced faster and faster towards its target. The Humvee crews, seeing the incoming kamikaze attack, turned and desperately opened fire on her with their machine gun. It didn't deter her for a moment, a crazed grin on her features as she guided her machine one last time across the desert.

As much as she wanted to go out with a bang though, this was not to be her time. After all, she still had so much more destruction to sew, two depraved Tallest to kill, and a man who loved her with all his heart, and could make her squeal with delight. Activating the spider legs in her pak again she blasted out the windscreen. Withdrawing them she turned herself back into her small Irken body to fire the rocket engine hidden inside her pak, blasting her out of the ruined cockpit.

Flying overhead she watched as her machine continued to race towards the vehicles congregated around the command centre. Within the truck one man was drawn to a small window by the sound of the gunfire, and seeing the burning craft coming in towards them immediately panicked. Before it impacted Tak saw the rear doors open, one small man in an odd suit running out as fast as his stubby legs could carry him.

A moment later the Voot hit like a meteor, the self-destruct system detonating the reactor core on impact, a massive explosion of flaming debris destroying the command centre, the Humvees, limousines and buildings around it. She watched as it surged out into the sky as more wreckage streaked out to then rain down around the crash site, leaving a large patch of blackened carnage from where the command post had once stood. She could not find the man she had seen earlier, but wether dead or alive she doubted he was of any importance either way. With a smile she turned and raced away to inform her friends that the bombers were coming.

* * *

Emperor Robert Johnson, real name Percy Browncock, was not a happy man.

Now one may wonder why Percy Browncock was not a happy man, considering he was the ruler of the Aryan Empire, and carried such titles as Supreme Emperor of the Universe, Perfect, Most Important Person in the Universe, Destroyer of Everyone Not Perfect Like Him, Almighty Tallest, and most recently, The One and Only God, but the truth was there were many things that made him perpetually angry.

First, there was his suit. As Most Important Person in the Universe he deserved the most magnificent suit an Emperor like him deserved. So a team of several thousand people crafted a solid gold suit for the grand tall master of the Aryan Empire, studded with diamonds, and with a flowing red cape around the back. But Percy Browncock was not the tall imposing man he was presented as; he stood at four feet, ten inches high. And so the suit hung over his hands like a little girl playing dress-up with her mother's clothes, his trouser legs went over his solid gold shoes and were constantly tripping him, his red velvet cape was constantly dragging on the ground and getting dirty, and the whole ensemble was so heavy he had to struggle to stand. All up it looked so ridiculous that many thousands of people had been put to death for laughing uncontrollably at the sight of it, several having died from the laughing fit itself.

His crown was another matter. His first few crowns were immense gold edifices studded with hundreds of diamonds and other jewels, but Percy had grown accustomed to them all and demanded to have something bigger and more expensive. As if to prove a point he demonstrated his wealth and power by having them all melted and the gold discarded, along with all the gold in Fort Knox, because he could. But when it came time to fit his current crown, there was no more gold left to make it, and no diamonds could be found. What's more even if they could find the gold and jewels, because he'd had all his craftsmen killed, simply because he could, there was no one who could make the crown anyway. So now he wore a cheap plastic crown bought from a two dollar shop, with plastic jewels instead of the real ones, many of which were falling out.

But there were other reasons for why he was not a happy man. For starters, he had a silly name. People had made fun of his silly name a few times when he was a boy. Secondly, though he had gotten into power partly by preaching the superiority of white American people and culture, he was born in Britain and spent his first few years there. He was also an illegal immigrant.

And then there were the other little nuisances of being Emperor. Last year he'd had much of Washington D.C. bulldozed and rebuilt as Robert Johnson City. As part of the redevelopment he'd had the Washington Monument demolished, along with all the other monuments, and in its place had the Robert Johnson Monument constructed, a five hundred and fifty six foot high pile of rotting corpses. The corpses were supposed to be provided from the death camps, but by that point the camps were mostly empty, and there were too few non Aryans left in the country to build it, and bringing bodies from South America was too difficult. So while there had been a large number of elderly and children and people with funny names, like his, put on the pile, ultimately he had simply opted to unleash several canisters of VX on New York, also renamed Robert Johnson City and now severely depopulated. Thus all the corpses were white, and there were more corpses than they needed so it was slightly too tall, so he'd had the designers thrown in with it.

As the monument was being built he was also having a six square mile palace built in his honour. It had taken the cannibalising of fifteen percent of the economy to build, and stood two hundred feet tall. When finally it was completed, on the first night he spent there the smell from the rotting pile was so overpowering he left before sunrise and never went near it or the city again. Of course he had the designers thrown on top of the pile as well.

Then the city he was going to move his capital to as well as build a new palace outside, though oddly the smell wasn't much better, was destroyed this morning, by a pair of teenagers no less. Now what was he going to do? His Empire was rotting away because of the incompetence and stupidity of his subjects not doing what they were supposed to do. They didn't even kill themselves when he told them to. And now what was supposed to be a chance for him to regain some popularity was turning into a disaster.

That was why he was not a happy man.

"Uhh…" Groaning the short man in the ridiculous gold suit pushed himself to his feet amidst the smoke and debris, picking up his crown and putting it on his head. Looking back he saw he had only just escaped death by a second or two, the command post having been strewn across the desert in a burning mass of flame, with the surrounding vehicles and buildings having muffled the blast before it hit him. He was outraged to see it had destroyed his limousines.

With a grizzle he set out around the wreckage towards the Humvee pulling up in the distance, four soldiers hoping out to run over to him.

"Your holiness, are you alright?"

"It's about time you pricks showed up! How dare you keep me waiting! I was almost killed by that little bitch!" He spat as they approached him. His grizzling arrogant disposition faltered when behind the four a black oval of underworld energy formed on the ground, going unnoticed by the troops as they jogged over towards him.

From out of the black dome a lean, blue-clad figure shot forth towards their backs, his hands cloaked in dark power. Sensing someone coming up behind them they turned to look just as Max's hand shot out, striking one over the heart. Leaving him to fall he turned and delivered a hand chop to another's neck, the energy turning his palm into a blade that cleanly separated his head from his shoulders. Whirling around he locked his sights on his third and fourth targets as they raised their weapons. He look upon them with stoic, cold-hearted indifference, grasping one mans rifle arm in his hand and snapping it easily, going on to twist his head around, breaking his neck. The last fired frantically at him, the bullets impacting and bursting on the invisible field as he stood facing him, his low features looking him over as he emptied his entire magazine to no effect, Percy watching on with horror and panic helpless. Dropping the shield he moved in as the soldier went for his Beretta, clamping around his arm and forcing it up into the air as he delivered a two fingered Black Hand strike to the heart.

The last of the four dropping to the ground in front of him he gazed over them impassively with his mother's chilling black eyes. Kneeling down he took the soldier's 92FS from his hand, checking to see that the chamber was loaded, which it wasn't. Standing up straight again he cocked it and placed it in the back of his belt, looking at the terrified man ahead of him as his hands quaked fearfully.

Max knew who he was, and even in the underworld he knew the terrible things he did. Robert Johnson was the greatest evil to have ever lived. Not Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Genghis Khan combined could compare to the horrors and destruction he and his subjects had wrought upon this world. The dictator looked upon the deadly man with a mixture of blinding fear, helplessness, panic and outrage, but he did nothing but stare and quake where he stood.

But Robert Johnson never even existed, there was only Percy Browncock.

Even as the man prepared to launch into another mad tantrum, all that Max saw was a selfish little man-child who didn't get his way, wearing a ridiculous costume. And for all the horrible things he and his kind had ever done, that's all they ever were.

"Y-"

"_Tok!"_

The unimportant little man fell dead from the strike to his heart. Standing over where he lay on his face he bought his hand up to waggle a finger disapprovingly back and forth. At that moment Max truly noticed the suit he was wearing. How comical and absurd it all was, he could scarcely believe what he was seeing. The crown lay just ahead of him. Max cocked his head as she looked at it suspiciously. Bringing one foot in he pressed it under his weight, crushing it easily. His eyes widened as he realised… _it was a toy crown._

"Hahahahahaahaaa!"

He was stunned with himself. Never in his life had he genuinely laughed, or smiled, or felt the rush of life and energy through his entire being it bought on. He frowned in contemplation.

'_This energy… What is this? How is this possible?'_ He recalled the increase in power he had seen in the eyes of his previous acquaintances. _'Was I wrong? All those inner weaknesses that made them soft, were they really weaknesses, or is that where they got their strength from?'_

He pondered it with intrigue, but put it out of his mind for now. He craned his head skywards, to where high above a flight of B-52 ad B-1 bombers now soared overhead. Turning to the front far ahead he saw the battle drawing ever closer to the base, with Gaz, Junior, Grim, Billy and Mandy barely able to hold off the tremendous numbers being thrown at them even in their perfected states. Focussing his energy he once more formed a black dome around himself, the ellipse closing a moment later to reveal he was no longer there.

* * *

"_Warning. System heat critical. Ninety five percent."_

Gaz could only barely stand the searing heat inside the cockpit of the poorly cooled war machine. Though she had annihilated one enemy machine after another from within the safety of her fully armoured, deflector shield equipped mech, no matter how many she destroyed she always found more advancing towards the base on either side of her. The sheer number of tanks and troops they had sent after them was astounding, and she was always right in the middle of their rolling front. And with every impact on the shield and every blast she dealt out the heat just climbed ever higher. At least she knew they'd whittled them down by at least a third if not half by now.

'_Just hold out a little longer.'_ Willing the overheating machine on she ground out the flashes from the enemy's penetrators against the shield, taking aim at the line of tanks now concentrating on her. The cannons blazed and blasted away their hundred thousand degree bolts against her enemy's weak armour, the jets of plasma impacting and blowing through the steel to vaporise the insides. One after another they lit up like new years, the accompanying troops blown to ashes as they fired back desperately, sensing their opponent was on its last legs.

She fired the last missile she had at a tank, continuing the barrage before she halted. Looking up she stared as the bombers flew overhead, followed seconds later by a series of earth shattering colossal explosions that rocked the ground. Looking to the screen displaying the rear view she looked back to the hill the base was set into where the blasts originated. The remaining cannon turrets had been reduced to a series of craters in the earth, the hill now looking a lot like the surface of the moon. After just one sweep they'd wiped out their defences.

"Time to retreat."

Returning to the line of tanks that still confronted her she blocked out the searing heat and continued to blast away at them, all the while gradually stepping back towards the open hold a hundred metres behind her. The entrance would act as a chokepoint preventing them from surrounding them as they could out here. Gritting her teeth she poured fourth all manner of destruction upon them, until all at once the guns stopped. Her eyes wide with concern she looked to the controls in her hands, repeatedly trying to fire the cannons to no effect even as her enemy's bullets and shells impacted on the armour and shield.

"What?"

"_System heat ninety eight percent. Weapons shutdown."_

"NO!"

Stricken with distress she took one last look at the enemy closing in on her, before she turned around and headed back as fast as its chicken legs could take it, all the while the acrid smoke of melting electronics and hot metal flooded the cockpit. She'd given it her all and had nothing left to give. Her part in this battle was over, and it was time for her to get to safety.

"Sorry Mandy, I did my best." The flashes and bangs of detonations against the shield behind her continued unabated as her enemy pursued her, sensing her imminent defeat. It continued to struggle and hold it off valiantly, until finally…

"_System heat ninety nine percent. Shield shutdown."_

As soon as it was announced a sabot round struck home against the rear left shoulder, blasting through the armour to disintegrate the weapons station and continue out the other side. The blast hit the cockpit wall like a freight train, instantly blowing out the front viewport and the top hatch, sending shards of hot metal throughout the cabin. Gaz could do nothing more than close her eyes as several of the pieces cut into her flesh, the impact knocking her about within the cockpit as the machine toppled forwards to land on the ground with a harsh thud, leaving the injured girl to slump forward over the wrecked controls as her world went black.

* * *

Around the battlefield the combatants watched the destruction from afar, each realising that it was time to head back. Tak streaked by above the battlefield, ignoring the blatts of fire sent her way as she raced for the giant demonic form of Junior who was still savagely destroying everything that got close. He halted in his murderous rampage as her much smaller body flew by his reshaped 'head'.

"Junior, we have to get back now." She called to him, coming down to his feet as she reverted back to human. Turning to their side as several large explosions rang out they watched as Grim, Billy and Mandy arrived around his feet.

"Tak's right. Those bombers will annihilate us if we stay out here." Mandy called up to him. In response Junior relaxed the power coursing unrestrained throughout his being, the massive limbs and coils shrinking as he began to descend. Turning to give him cover Grim and Mandy took turns in shielding and striking out at the trucks and troops firing on them.

Junior's monstrous figure shrank down, retracting and returning to the suited, refined figure he usually used. "I've never gone all out like that before." He said in a dazed state. "How did I do?"

"You did just great sweetheart." Tak replied, leaning in to give him a soft kiss on the lips. "Let's go." Taking the lead she and Junior began making their way quickly towards the base, Mandy shielding their rear as Billy took out his revolver from his coat and began blasting away at the army behind them. Straight ahead they saw the wrecked body of Gaz's Megadoomer lying on its face, their alarm rising as they saw the enemy closing in on the crippled machine, urging them to pick up the pace.

* * *

For second after second Gaz's vision faded steadily in and out as she gradually returned to consciousness. She didn't know if the red she was seeing was that of the controls or her own blood, but as far as she could tell she wasn't injured critically, with the exception of several painful spots along her left side. Forcing her brain into gear she focussed her eyes and her will, seeking out the condition of her surroundings.

The Megadoomer was destroyed, the lights of the controls were out and the space was filled with heat and smoke. Looking down to her side she saw a number of pieces of metal stabbing into her arm, sensing what she figured was another one lodged in her cheek. With a grimace she bought her hand to her face, brushing out the slither without issue, moving down to her bleeding arm. Taking hold of the first one she pulled, and instantly regretted touching the deeply buried piece at all.

"Auuugh!" She half cried half groaned out, a fresh stream of blood running down her arm. Still she continued down to the next one, biting back the pain as she dug the shard out of her muscle, going on to the third lodged in the back of her hand, finding it came out relatively easily. Taking a moment to recompose herself she looked up to the hatch blown open by the blast, the desert sand visible beyond.

Straining her muscles she looked to where her baseball bat lay on her right inside the cabin, reaching out to take it in her hand as she then crawled out of her seat. Pulling herself out of the broken hatch she struggled on all fours against the dry dust. Looking up she saw the entrance to the base only perhaps fifty metres away. She knew that behind her a small army of sociopaths was coming to kill her so she wasted little time in trying to get to her feet. Leaning back on her legs she began to move herself up, only to come face to face with the barrel of an M-16. Her eyes went wide with fear, trailing the gun all the way up to the smirking face of the soldier looking down on her, the man being joined on the left and right by three equally thuggish men. Gaz's insides tightened; they looked at her the way Dib had looked at her every time before he ravaged her.

"So you're the worthless little slut who caused us all this trouble. Me and the boys didn't like it when you blew us apart." They each looked down on her with a mixture of extreme rage and leering spite. "Heh. We're gonna have ourselves a little payback. What'cha say fellas, should we have a little fun with her, or maybe we should blow her legs and arms off and leave her to bleed."

"I say we take turns to rape her, then slit her throat and bleed her, just like that little bitch in Panama!" Another suggested, to which they all sniggered and nodded in agreement.

Before they could move in to carry out their sick intent a blue blur shot past behind them, the one on the left falling with blood coming out his right ear and eye from a strike to the temple. Whirling around they tried to find the target, and find it they did, Max coming back to put two finger strikes over the hearts of the next two. The remaining soldier tried to take aim, but found his gun hit down out of his hands by a baseball bat. Tensing her arms Gaz rose to her feet, raising the bat behind her to brutally smash it into the side of the man's jaw, sending blood and teeth flying out across the sand as he staggered back in agony.

"Are you okay?" Max asked the irate girl with a slight note of genuine personal concern, noticing the bloody wounds in her arm. He and Gaz only had each other in the time they spent wandering the underworld. It didn't strike his as so odd that she should be the first person he ever showed concern for,

"I'm fine." She responded.

"Take this." He spoke, holding out the Beretta he'd taken earlier. Glancing it over she transferred her bat to her left hand, taking the gun in her right. Looking to where the wounded man staggered trying to hold his shattered jaws together she raised the dense steel weapon, lining up his head within the sights. Without hesitation she pulled the trigger, the gun hammering back in her hand as the bullet blew out a few chunks of the man's brains. His face contorted, his body fitting violently as the remaining part of his brain tried to keep his life going, before he dropped to the ground like a deadweight.

Pivoting around she took aim at where she heard the sounds of more footsteps, relaxing her guard upon seeing the faces of her summoners. Her narrow eyes widened somewhat as they caught on one of their number.

"Tak!" She asked in disbelief as said Irken, now human outcast made her way over with her friends, seemingly remembering her face.

"You, you're Dib's sister Gaz aren't you?" She asked in return. Looking away from her she laid eyes on Max as he stared coldly over each of them, sending a shiver down her spine. "So you must be that Max guy Mandy told me about."

"I am." He stated flatly.

"Gaz, are you alright?" Mandy asked, both women surveying the wounds she'd taken, Gaz giving a short nod in response. "We've cut down their numbers enough by now. Most of their tanks have been destroyed and half the infantry are dead. It's time we head down to get started." She looked to the two beings she'd summoned earlier. "You guys did good to hold them off this long. Do you want to stay and watch or shall I send you back now?"

"I'll stay. I'm not gonna miss this for anything." Gaz replied. Max looked across to her with indifference before returning to Mandy.

"I'll stay as well. After all, I did just kill an irate little despot." They looked at him stunned for a moment before they continued.

"Well come on you lot, we haven't got much time left." Grim urged the group of youths, hustling them away from the army of remaining tanks and troops towards the open doorway leading into their underground lair. Around the entrance a number of Nerglings stood guard as they made their way in under the cover of the red moon rising higher into the dusk sky. They looked up to it tense with anticipation, knowing that the dark and terrible rule their masters had strived to bring about was almost here. Once the last of their numbers passed trough the doorway they too shrank back down into the opening to join their comrades in defence of the base further down, the solid blast door closing down after them.

* * *

Mandy took the lead over the group, showing them down the long steel lined corridor that ran down deeper and deeper into the crust, their way lit by intermittent fluorescent lights shining overhead. Pacing steadily down the shallow incline they passed more Nerglings armed and ready for when the enemy broke through, the servant demons clearing the way for their masters as they passed.

"Is Zim already down here?" Tak asked as she tried to control the anticipation she felt at the vengeance she'd lived for being only minutes away now.

"Yes. He's down in the main hall waiting for us." She answered as they passed through another blast door, the incline levelling out as they arrived into a hallway with other corridors branching off from it to other areas vital to the base. Ignoring the Nerglings as they scurried about in preparation they made their way straight towards the door at the end, Tak now deciding to hang back so as to wait for the opportune moment to reveal herself and the deceit they'd played on the arrogant, bigoted little worm behind it.

Reaching the door Mandy grasped the handle and pushed it open out into the large space within. Accompanied by her fiancé Billy, her faithful servant Grim and her friend and accomplices Nergal the Second, Gaz and Max they stepped out onto a metal walkway overlooking the concrete room, looking down to where Zim and their parents turned to face them upon their arrival. Harold and Gladys both shared relief at their son and daughter being safely with them again, Nergal Senior and Sis sharing their relief as they laid eyes on their son again. Moving across from the door the group made their way down a flight of stairs to where their parents rushed to greet them, throwing their arms around their children in an affectionate embrace they shared back. Zim just regarded the emotional display with derision, his attention focussing on the girl and boy descending side by side along with the skeleton man, watching the show from afar.

"Alright hyumans stop your pathetic sentimental reunions, we have important work to do." He called, breaking up the embrace as they moved out from their parents towards him. "Is the army taken care of?" A loud explosion coming from the doorway gave their answer, followed by distant gunfire as the Nerglings began their defence of the base. "I guess not. Can't you pitiful fools do any-"

"It would've been easier if you'd upgraded the radiator to cope with the extra heat!" Gaz spat angrily, earning an incensed glare from Zim.

"Don't worry, our army will take care of them soon." Mandy said as she stood before the shorter creature. "The vials?"

Holding his hand out he gave her the first two small glass canisters. Looking at them intently they turned back to their families, themselves gazing in awe at what she held in the palm of her hand.

'_Immortality.'_

"Shall we?" She asked her mate, Billy nodding his head quietly in agreement. With a deep sigh she transferred one to her partner's fingers. Unscrewing the lid they looked to each other quietly. Linking arms they moved the little bottles to the other's lips, and both drank the watery contents, and cast aside the empty glasses.

Suddenly it was done. They had now received what countless souls had dedicated their lives to finding, eternal youth and life. They smiled as they glanced across to each other. They were going to have all eternity to spend in each others arms as they ruled over their empire.

"It will already be taking effect as we speak for both of you my humble slaves." Zim boastfully told them. Billy and Mandy turned to face their parents and aunty as they stood smiling proudly.

"What about you guys?" Billy asked concerned. "Do you want to live forever with us?"

To their surprise neither of them even hesitated to shake their heads with a contented smile. "Thank you Billy, Mandy, but this is your world now, not ours." Gladys spoke to them.

"We've discussed it before, and we decided that it would be better for us to just live out the rest of our lives happily together." Harold told them. "Besides, creating a worldwide empire was your dream, not ours. We're happiest just to live and die normally."

"And that brings me to another thing." Nergal Senior spoke up, drawing his son's attention. "I don't know if any of you saw me, but I saw what you did up there Junior. You reached a level of power and greatness that I could only ever dream of. You have made your mother and I so very proud of you son, so that is why as of now you are to take my place as my successor." Junior's eyes and mouth gaped with the revelation, a heart warming smile crossing his features. "With you there as master of the Nerglings, I am free to live and grow old with my beautiful wife, so one day we can be together in the afterlife." Everyone except Zim, Gaz and Max smiled at the love the family shared together, the husband and wife wrapping their arms around each other tenderly.

Zim just grimaced in revulsion. "Ugh. Could you filthy vermin stop your filthy verminous affection? It makes me sick!" He spat arrogantly, the group turning to face him as they became reminded of their final enemy. Mandy held out her hand.

"The third dose." She spoke, Zim handing it over grudgingly.

"Now, who is this lowly third wench who dares bow themselves before my supreme presence? Perhaps she could serve me in my harem later if proved worthy. Show her to me you filthy worms!"

"Zim, we have a confession to make." Billy spoke up with a smirk as he stepped up in front of him. "I promised you everything you ever wanted if you sided with us, but truth was we didn't tell you exactly what side we were on. You see we're really doing this so that all the selfish little sociopaths around the world get what they deserve, and you're one of them Zim."

Zim frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Remember when we told you that you would get everything a mass murdering tyrant like you deserves?" Mandy spoke up looking at him with a scowl that made him falter. "Well we meant it. And the third recipient is the girl who's going to give it to you."

Mandy whirled around to toss the vial cleanly up towards the now open door. Turning to watch its flight, Zim's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, gaping at the sight of a woman now holding the vial in her hand, looking down on him with deep seated satisfaction and cruelty. He could not bring himself to utter a single word, unable to do anything more than stare and point in shock as she held the glass to her lips, the precious fluid quickly draining into her system, before she smiled back at him holding the empty container.

"Hello Zim!"

"Hoooooohhhhh… Y…Y-You… Tak! No, it can't be. No! They got rid of you! I saw it! They told me they got rid of-"

"I know they did, I heard him say it." She answered down to him with derision. "Once again you proved you were stupid enough to believe whatever was fed to you. Just think; all it took was some shallow flattery to turn you into our mindless little pawn."

"W-What? Hey, how dare you disrespect me! And give that back! I created that serum for my loyal servants not some worthless freakish defect like you!" Alas it was already too late. The serum had already begun spreading throughout her body, Tak tossing aside the empty glass as she walked down the stairs to join her comrades, her killer intent rising at him having called her a defect.

"A worthless freakish defect. Is that what I am to you Zim?" She spoke with an icy voice that made his spooch twist with anxiety. "You think an arrogant little piece of shit like you has the right to degrade and humiliate people simply for not being like you? You think that you have the right to do and take anything you want but think its wrong for anyone else to do so?" She glared hatefully at the conceited bigot who, despite his fear for the waves of malice rolling from her eyes, showed no apparent regret or guilt for his corrupt ways. "After all you've done you think I'm a defect simply because I think for myself instead of swallowing all the lies the Tallest shove down our throats? _You_ Zim, _you_ are the defect, just like the Tallest, and all the stupid, selfish little liars and hypocrits of the universe like you."

Zim stammered and touched his fingers together nervously, shifting his eyes now back and forth from the grinning Tak, to Mandy as she faced him with a hard scowl, to Billy as he smiled maliciously at his cowering figure.

"So… uhhh… So now you're gonna take over the world for me, right? Heh heh heh… _Right!"_ Mandy, Tak and Billy looked back and forth between each other, knowing the time was right to reveal their deception and give their friend her first taste of revenge so sweet.

"Did you really think that we didn't know about your plan to betray us after this was over?" Mandy spoke, sending a shuddering wave of dread throughout his core. "Capture us, lock us away, torture us, experiment on us, does that sound familiar to you?" She scowled mercilessly as Zim took on a look of utter horror at having been found out, silently mouthing out worlds like 'what' and 'how'. "I read your thoughts Zim, they were clear as day. It was easy since you have such a weak mind and will. But then again, that's why we singled you out in the first place."

"You're not as special and superior as you like to think you are Zim. In fact, there's plenty of people who think they're better than everyone else, so you're not really special or superior at all." Billy stated with a cruel smile at chopping him down to size, before Tak did so literally. "When Mandy and I first met you we needed someone who could get us the work we needed done. You were the easiest to turn to our side because of your arrogance. You were just a means to an end. And now that we've gotten what we need from you, you're time of usefulness to us is over. Now we no longer have any reason to spare you. So we're handing you over to our good friend Tak, and she has just been dying to meet you."

Zim's terrified features gave way to a blinding range. "You! You! You lying traitors! You betrayed me! You can't do this to me! HOW DARE YOU STAB THE ALMIGHTY ZIM IN THE BACK!" Reaching around to his belt he whipped out his bulky plasma pistol and took aim at Tak. Before he could shoot she launched herself forward, grabbing and easily wrenching the gun out of his hand and punching him in the face. He fell down on his back, holding his hand to his sore face as if it were the worst pain in the world. She hadn't even hit him particularly hard hit. "Ah! Aaaugh! DAMN YOU! YOU WILL PAY! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Snarling furiously he summoned his spider legs from his back, glaring at Tak as he got to his feet. Once again before he could even take aim Tak had willed her own spider legs out and fired, the four beams blowing away Zim's four metal appendages. Shocked he snarled furiously, charging her with his fist reared back to beat her to death. She smirked, grabbing his arm as he reached her, giving it a quick twist it to snap it easily in her hand.

"AAAAAHHHH!" Screaming in agony he clutched his bent and broken arm, staggering and falling back as he wailed and wallowed in despair and frustration. Stepping up to his crippled form as he lay grovelling on the cold floor she watched in a strange mix of disdain and satisfaction as he grizzled and whined in a mad tantrum of delusional ranting.

"Gerrrrraaaaaugh! Nooo you can't do this to me! You can't! You can't! No! I am Zim, not you, I am! Only I can do this! You can't! I am Zim! It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair!"

"Ah shut up!" She spat down to him. "God I can't believe my entire species is made up of crap like you! It disgusts me to think that I harboured resentment for all this time against an insignificant little colostomy bag like you." Grimacing at him she reached down and took hold of his plasma pistol, taking aim at his head as he gazed up in terror.

"This is the end of you Zim. But before I kill you are there any last words you'd like to say?" She spoke quietly down to her old enemy. Looking up to her Zim stilled himself, taking a few deep breaths to compose what was to be his last legacy.

"Well... Though I will never take back the greatness and power that was rightfully mine, the great and noble Irken Empire will live on. I was born Zim. I am Zim. And even after death I will be-"

"Nyeheheh. I'm just kidding."

Suddenly Tak surprised all those congregated as she tossed aside the weapon and knelt down to face him eye to eye.

"I'm not gonna kill you Zim. Seeing just the kind of sad, cannibalistic person you are inside, I've decided to do something much worse. I'm gonna let you live." She sneered at the fearful wretch. "I am going to lock you away in some unimportant little prison cell somewhere, and there you will have to live with yourself, with nothing but your own rotten soul and all your cannibal hunger. And I'm going to make sure you live for a very long time Zim."

"NOOOO! NO NO KILL ME NOW! IT'S NOT FAIR! YOU FILTHY DEFECT I'M BETTER THAN YOU! OH-HOH!" They watched as Zim cried and shrieked like a rotten soul did when cornered and exposed, while Tak stood back and smiled in satisfaction. After all, that was the ultimate punishment every narcissist, sociopath and selfish egomaniac had to live with; _themselves._

Smiling as she watched Grim step in and send him to some crevice within the underworld she closed her eyes and breathed a deep sigh of satisfaction. Returning to the group behind her they stood in silence, their last task between beginning their takeover complete. Looking to the open doorway on the side wall leading deeper into the base she beckoned her friends to join her. "Hm… Well then, shall we begin?"

"Just a minute." Mandy spoke. Turning to Billy she beckoned him, leading him away from the group towards the other end of the room. Watching the young couple the group saw them as she began whispering into his ear, Billy looking intrigued before facing her wide-eyed a second later. A smile formed on both their faces, the two sharing a small kiss before they rejoined them.

"Grim." Mandy called, said Reaper coming to stand before them. "You know this morning we were thinking, you've been our loyal door stop for six wonderful years now.

"If not so wonderful for you." Billy added.

Grim grimaced as he remembered just how thoroughly the two had humiliated him over time. "It's been a long wild ride hasn't it?"

"In those six years you've proved yourself to have gone out of your way to protect us time and again, and have always been there for us when it would have been better to leave us to die." Mandy continued with a stately visage as she faced her loyal subordinate. "As thanks to your loyalty and devotion I've been talking to Billy, and we were thinking about letting you go free." He and Mandy smirked as the old skeleton's hollow eyes widened, his jaw dropping wide with joy. "There was just one last thing we wanted you to do for us."

"Really? What is it? Anyting! I'll even dance around like a pretty girl again! What'll it be?" Grim asked eagerly. Mandy and Billy shared a look, a smile shared between them as they linked hands with each other.

"Marry us." They both spoke as one, the whole room falling silent.

"We neglected to mention earlier, Mandy is my fiancé. I proposed to her earlier this morning."

Beside them Gladys and Harold both opened their mouths to squeal and cry with delight, holding each other as they faced the two with tears of joy. Max meanwhile opened his mouth to gape, as suddenly the revelation came to him.

'_That's what made them so powerful.'_ He thought looking down in shock. _'I was wrong.'_

"There's still no promise that we're gonna get out of this alive so we want it to be done now, by someone we know and trust." Mandy spoke within Billy's loving embrace. "We wanted it to be a good final send-off after all you've done for us, and while it's not the most romantic location, everyone we love is here with us now. So marry us."

Grim gazed at the two as a great heartfelt smile crossed his skeletal features, Harold and Gladys both gaping star struck as Gladys tried to hold back a scream of joy, holding her husband tight. Tak and Junior shared their joyfulness, smiling happily as Nergal Senior and Sis grinned from ear to ear. Billy and Mandy turned to face each other, the complete happiness they bought to their lives clearly visible for all to see, the love they shared shining like a beacon throughout the once dark and oppressive room.

"As you wish." He smiled. Crossing the floor to stand before the two young lovers he took his place facing them. Regarding him one last time they each linked hands, turning to face each other as their servant began.

"Billy. Do you take Mandy to be your wife, to love and comfort her with every ounce of your heart, and to be there for her until de end of time?"

"I do." He replied, sensing his mother's resolution not to cry break as she became overwhelmed by the moment. For him though, nothing could take away the beauty and happiness of this moment.

"Mandy. Do you take Billy to be your husband, to provide him all the love and affection your heart has to give, and to spend the rest of eternity in his arms?" Mandy's heart gave in, closing her eyes as tears welled up. Grim's words had struck her deeply, spelling out exactly what she wanted most, to just spend the rest of her time within the embrace of the love of her life. Right here and now she was happy, the happiest she'd ever felt in her life.

"I do."

"Then by the power vested in me by the forces of life, death and de afterlife, do I pronounce you husband and wife." He finished, stepping back from Billy and Mandy as they held hands, a smile of absolute happiness on their faces, knowing this feeling of perfect loving bliss would stay with them forever. "You may now kiss."

Closing their eyes they came together, Billy gently placing his hands on the sides of her waist as Mandy reached around his shoulders. Resting their foreheads together they nuzzled each other affectionately, before they bought their lips together in a soft and loving kiss. Their parents and friends grinned and shook with joy, no one daring to say anything for fear of interrupting the two in their heavenly moment together. They continued to gently kiss each other, holding themselves close before they separated, looking into each other with adoration in their eyes. Finally they had everything they had ever wanted to live happily ever after, with the exception of one thing.

"Mandy." She heard her husband whisper into her ear. "Let's destroy the world." Looking up to him as he face her she saw his blue eyes shimmer and turn red, a demonic smile crossing his features now that the desire to kill had returned to him. Bought back to the corrupted world they lived in she set her features in a cold hard scowl, turning out of his arms to look back to her family behind her as they watched and waited in anticipation.

"It's time."

Turning back to the empty doorway they stepped through the threshold, Tak, Junior and their families following them as they lead them down into a long almost black corridor descending deep into the interior of the planet. Finally reaching the end they came upon a black circular pool of matter cutting off the corridor from going any further, the link from this world to the underworld where their army lay waiting. Without a moments hesitation the two dark overlords stepped through, disappearing into the event horizon, their family and friends following them through likewise. Without a word they simply disappeared off the face of the earth as behind them the army broke through the second bulkhead, vanquishing the last of the valiant Nerglings, flooding into the base in search of their prey.

Leading the way Mandy walked across the dark steel platform, striding purposefully up to the solid edge of the balcony rising up to meet her. Behind her Billy, Grim, Junior and Tak joined her, their parents staying back to watch as the youths looked out over the endless black auditorium stretching ahead into the infinite.

Lying dormant far below them stood millions of merciless killing machines, all infused with the same power and savagery of their masters that created them, standing shoulder to shoulder in total silence. Each of the powerful beings gazed down on the army with ominous intent.

"Humanity was gifted with light." Stoke Mandy coldly. "The corrupt elements used it, abused it, and destroyed it in their selfish and hypocritical ways. Now all that is left is darkness." Summoning her blood red scythe to her hand once more she raised it to point out to the waiting army of demonised machines.

"Now darkness is all they shall receive."

With that a hundred million mechanical demons came to life, an evil orange-red light shining through their angular dark grey armour plate as a hundred million sets of eyes flashed and glowed a demonic red out into the darkness.

* * *

Stepping guardedly through the corridors of the now captured base the squad searched for their targets, the last of the little abominations that had dared resist them lying dead to the side of their path. Their weapons held at the ready they made their way down towards an open door at the end of the main hallway. They froze tensely as all at once the lights overhead winked out, leaving them all in near total darkness. Undeterred they continued on towards the doorway, the dim light just enough to make out their surroundings.

Following their partners before them they made their way through the doorway, finding themselves in some kind of room, a set of stairs leading down to the floor on their right, the light barely enough to see their hands in front of their faces. They stepped guardedly down the staircase, the dozen armed troops fanning out around the floor in search.

"Hey, I see something on the floor." One of their number called out, alerting the others to a tiny shape lying at one end of the room. Moving up to the foreign shape he reached down, examining it under the poor light with his hand. It was a tiny glass bottle, emptied of its contents. Elsewhere there were pieces of otherworldly metal lying broken and abandoned. "Those freaks were here not long ago."

"They're not here. Heh heh." Another smirked as the squad gathered around the floor. "I think we got em."

In one sheer blinding flash the lights overhead came back on, flooding their vision with glaring white light. Gritting and squinting out the blinding light they looked out towards the edges of the room, finding a number of large shadowy figures standing on the blurry walkway lining the walls above them. Gradually their eyes adjusted to the glare, opening them to gape in terror. Staring down on them was a force of maybe fifty sharp grey armoured machines, looking upon them with hatred and malice in their burning eyes. They cowered and shook under the nail biting force of their killing intent, their fear radiating out into the room, fuelling the demonic creatures' desire to gun them all down with their plasma rifles. Gazing about the room in terror their attention caught on the hallway leading off from the room, where a pair of oppressive figures stepped into view. On the right stood a young man wearing a black coat with an extremely sadistic grin on his monstrous demonic features, his orange eyes staring at them with savagery. Beside him stood an even darker presence, a woman in a red dress with blonde hair fixed in two peaks, a merciless cold-hearted scowl on her face as she regarded them coldly.

"Guess again."

On her will the machines above opened fire. The dozen troops couldn't even shoot back, the relentless repeating plasma fire massacring them all with brutal efficiency. They fell riddled with gaping holes burnt in their bodies.

Looking down with satisfaction upon their bodies Billy and Mandy stepped out into the room, Tak and Nergal following from behind. Walking up the metal stairway Mandy beckoned her soldiers to race around to meet them. As soon as another group of soldiers rounded the corner they gunned them all down, the machines storming out through the doorway as yet more troops came face to face with them. They fired with their rifles, the bullets impacting and glancing off the dense armour as they took aim in response. They fired with pinpoint accuracy, methodically cutting down their numbers as they held their ground against the hail of projectiles.

Shifting tactics they dropped low and raced in towards the troops at breakneck speed, a pair of triangular blades extending out each arm. Ignoring their terrified screams they swung and beheaded their enemies in a grizzly display, turning to fire down the side corridors as more soldiers fought back. One fired a grenade, impacting against the chest armour of one machine, throwing it back and disabling it if only until it healed. Another hammered away at the facial armour of another, the bullets weakening the composite until it was forced to withdraw, shielding its cybernetic brain with its arms as it moved back into the group. By the time they'd escaped the troops that had knocked them out had already been blown away, along with their comrades.

Stumbling back over each other the remaining enemy troops fired wildly as they made for the exit, their numbers rapidly wiped out by the machines relentless fire. Trying desperately to escape his fate one of the last soldiers turned around and tried to run for the exit, turning his gun on his comrades, killing them to clear his path far ahead. Without pity they took aim at the man's back but halted before they fired, their more ferocious master willing them to let him be. Grinning evilly he withdrew his revolver, taking aim at the fleeing lowlife with cruel satisfaction at being able to kill another non-human being. With his mighty strength he held the gun level as he fired, his shell striking through the man's leg, causing his thigh to explode. Screaming as he fell he soon found the revolver jammed into his face as Billy Smirked and fired into his skull, causing his entire head to explode.

Smiling Mandy and he stood back, allowing their supremely loyal, fully controlled soldiers to tromp forward past them as they made their way back up to the surface. Following after them a little distance back Junior stopped before the dead body of one of his minions, Tak standing at his shoulder. Together they looked mournfully down at their loyal servant, paying them all their last respect for their selfless sacrifice, turning to continue on towards the end of the tunnel.

Listening to the sounds of gun and plasma fire emanating from outside Mandy stepped out into the night air. Ahead of her and Billy her machines were gunning down those poor fools unfortunate enough to be within shooting range, the machines jogging and sprinting about as they blasted away their enemy. Seeing the remaining hundred or so tanks now converging in a line before them they ceased their attack, letting the survivors retreat back to the approaching battle line, helicopters hovering in wait as fighters and bombers circled overhead.

The powerful young woman didn't falter for a moment, striding out resolutely in front of her troops, standing alone against the army. Raising her scythe she took it in both hands, crouching in a battle stance as she took aim, her eyes flashing red as the epic power in her scythe built in the blade and shaft. Sensing danger the tanks fired on her, finding their rounds exploding harmlessly against the shield she'd placed around her. Fixing them with a last dark stare she fired, a titanic beam of ruby power blasting forth from the tip, the blast opening up to form a wave of unstoppable destruction that barrelled towards the army relentlessly. The red tsunami of energy hit the front, the tanks, trucks and troops searing and exploding before they were blown away altogether. Behind them the troops and militia screamed and fled in terror from the towering wave, their efforts rendered futile as the wave incinerated them all, the helicopters flying overhead scorched and blown out of the sky to land on the burning battlefield below.

Billy, Grim, Tak and Junior joined her as they looked up to where a Raptor fired on them with a pair of missiles. Junior raised a hand, shooting a long coil out to intercept one as Tak ordered her spider legs to open and blow the other away, pivoting around to fire back at the fighter, blowing it apart in a ball of fire as it streaked by. Craning her head skywards to where the aircraft raced around Mandy reached out, holding her scythe straight up over her head. Again she fired, the beam streaking into the night sky up to where the bombers circled, where it exploded with the power of an atomic bomb.

Grinning as the explosion blew away every aircraft within three kilometres Billy looked down to where a single surviving Apache hovered above the debris, looking down at them ready to fire. The demon's passion fired again, launching himself up to streak through the air, landing on his feet on top of the aircraft's nose, the pilot and gunner gaping in terror at the horrifying presence. His red eyes shone out into the blackness as he reared his arm back, feeding all his power into his hand as he prepared to end their lives under the blood red disk of the moon. Bringing his hand forward he struck out with the front edge of his fingers, the energy coursing through the cockpit, incinerating the occupants as it worked its way back, causing the entire machine to erupt into flames. With a flick of his wrist the machine exploded, the young demon prince bearing a wide shark-toothed grin as he hovered in the air amidst the light of the full moon.

The hundreds of great doors lining the edge of the hill opened, tens of millions of machines marching out as Mandy led her entourage out into the field of destruction, Billy coming back down to earth to join his wife at her side. Together the five made their way through the debris strewn battlefield, stepping up onto the burnt out hulk of an Abrams tank as their army converged in a line behind them, awaiting her order to attack.

Standing behind them Gaz and Max watched the scene with calm, objective content through their sharp gaze. Gaz looked to the sinister blue agent of death with wonder, as he watched the fires of their takeover from afar through sharp eyes as deep and black as his creator.

"What do we do now?" She asked him, having seen the dawn of enlightenment when he came to her rescue. Max never shifted his cold gaze.

"I was wrong about everything." He spoke recalling all that he had bought upon the world with a faint feeling of guilt and shame. "I am guilty. In my ego I blinded myself to anything I didn't consider to reflect my own control, and considered myself superior, and I did so much damage because of it."

Gaz saw as his eyes turned down slightly with the weight of what he had done.

"But those living emotions that Billy and Mandy share are not a burden like I told myself they were, they bring life and energy into them. You can see it clearly in them now." Indeed they radiated a force of will and energy that surrounded them, making them appear larger than life.

"I understand. I've seen it too." She still remembered how the girl had inspired her on the day they first met, when she sent her to another realm alive to begin rebuilding her life for the better. She owed everything to her. "We all make that mistake now and then. What matters is that you have the dignity to face your demons and do better in the future."

At that Max's gaze returned to its usual cold calm, the weight lifted off his shoulders.

"So what are you gonna do now?"

"Now I have a lot of work to do." He answered her simply. "I have a lot to make up for, and due to the neglect of the gods there are many souls in the underworld who are not where they deserve to be. I am making it my mission to bring order to the next worlds." He looked to her. "Would you like to join me?"

She didn't devote much thought to it. "Meh, okay."

Looking ahead again the two watched in silence. Max meanwhile recalled what he'd seen earlier and smirked, drawing Gaz's surprise.

"Have you ever seen a genocidal tyrant wear a solid gold suit ten sizes too large, and a plastic toy crown?" She faced him stunned, before both gave a soft chuckle at the thought. Max smiled warmly. "It's only been a few minutes since I first opened myself up to this, and already I feel so much better." Turning his even gaze upwards he smiled in content.

"The eclipse looks beautiful, wouldn't you agree?"

Gaz watched in silence as the dark figure now turned and walked quietly away. She looked back to Billy and Mandy atop the tank wreck with a stern gaze, and they both became eclipsed into a black dome each, dispersing to reveal they were gone again.

Taking her place atop the blackened turret Mandy looked out to where the remaining survivors of the epic battle were retreating in terror, abandoning each other to try and run and drive away from their certain death at the hands of the army behind them. Her best friends and husband crowded on top of the tank with her, she raised her scythe in the air above her head. Responding to their master's order the vast army launched themselves forward, craning down low as they shot out in a vast wave across the desert towards their enemy in the distance, racing past the group as they watched on.

It was done. Everything they had devoted their entire lives to bringing about was now realised before their very eyes. Endsville was destroyed. They had defeated the most corrupt society in all history. They were forever free from death. They were husband and wife for eternity. The age of vengeance and darkness they had longed for had finally come.

Mandy of the Night lowered her scythe to her side, scowling out strong and stern as a flurry of brilliant flashes of light and power took place where the enemy army was destroyed, her soldiers annihilating them with ease. Standing at his wife's side her husband Billy, the great demon prince of legend smiled cruelly, the desert wind catching his blood red hair and throwing it about his face as he watched Armageddon take place before their very eyes. Nergal the Second and the angel of vengeance Tak both gazed out with satisfaction to the end of humanity's corrupt civilisation, and the dawn of a new age in history.

Turning his gaze away from the end of the world Billy looked to his wife, the girl he had gone through his whole existence with at his side, the absolute most precious thing in his entire life. Casting her dark eyes up to his blue orbs she looked him in the face as he smiled down to her lovingly.

"We did it Mandy." He spoke softly. Smiling back she gently reached her hand out, taking hold of his hand as they returned their eyes to the brilliant lights of the battle far ahead of them.

"Yes we did Billy." She replied with a soft smile, holding hands affectionately as they watched the destruction of the corrupt beyond.

Here then was Billy and Mandy of the Night. They had love, and they had power. Together they had each other, and together they had the whole world.

It was the beginning of something dark and wonderful.


	52. Angels of the Night and Dawn

**Billy and Mandy of the Night.**

**Epilogue: Angels of the Night and Dawn.**

The year 3198.

It was Wednesday morning, but depending on where you stood without a clock or watch it was sometimes difficult to tell. The red mid-morning sun was currently shrouded by the thick blanket of acrid pollutants held in the lower atmosphere, just as it was eighty percent of the time. Even if the dense clouds hadn't been there the middle levels of the atmosphere were tainted with currents of aerosols which swept in bands over the lower half of North America, as well as the most densely populated portions of Europe Asia, South America and Africa, giving the clear sky over the megalopolis a deep orange hue. Furthermore the lightly acidic rain didn't make it any better for the billion plus people living in the towering megacity. Though it didn't prove any hazard to the century old kilometre high skyscrapers and countless dull apartment blocks, it did prove a minor health hazard to unshielded skin if exposed for an extended period of time.

As polluted as it was as a result of the inhabitant's less than noble state of mind, it paled in comparison to what some of the planets absorbed into the Night Empire had experienced, Irk first and foremost. For one there was no longer any radioactive fallout present in the toxic washout, whereas on Irk it was so extreme that the inhabitants had to wear paks constantly to repair the damage, and that was before the war. Thankfully for those Irkens who had migrated to Earth the damage and thus necessity for a pak had substantially decreased with the less inhospitable environment. The sight of a pak was not uncommon however, with many people of all species opting to use them at intervals to remove the toxins built up in their bodies from the air and rain, and to prevent cancer and other illnesses.

The rain however didn't concern one citizen in the slightest, the clear liquid washing harmlessly over the windshield of her sleek late model white Ford coupe as she piloted it along the skyway between the skyscrapers high above the grimy streets below.

Her name was Xeek. She was a young third generation Irken in her early eighties, born in New Moscow to parents who'd been part of the refugee movement that fled the collapsing Irken Empire to emigrate shortly before the war. She had a relatively average figure for a natural born Irken woman, five foot eleven in height, and a perfectly formed set of curves. She was one of the twenty billion Irkens around the galaxy who had reverted back to natural birthing and sexuality, very similar to that of humans, something her husband and her were grateful for. She and her husband lived part-time in an exclusive apartment here in the capital for work, and in a small house they kept in beautiful Quebec to get away from it all. They planned to raise a family there in a few years time. Xeek followed Buddhist philosophies in regard to living her everyday life, but was by no means a pacifist, leading her to wholeheartedly agree with her ruler's heavy-handed policies.

This morning she was in a good mood. Today was the first day of her new executive level job with the Rhea Corporation, a state owned and run technology megaconglomerate originally formed from several old world corporations including Sony, Microsoft and IBM just after the Empire was first created. News of her promotion had reached her just a few days ago, and despite the tension she felt she was as excited as she was anxious over her important new position. _'I have ten times the number of people counting on me to make the right decision. Oh I hope I get this right.'_

Taking a deep breath she blew it out slowly, trying to ease her nerves as she passed amongst the tops of the highest towers. Urging herself for calm she listened to the sound of a harp playing softly over the speakers. High above through the pouring rain she could make out a large breech in the clouds, a seam of orange light flooding through, a distinct contrast to the many neon-lit signs around the skyway rendered incoherent under the rain. Reaching to the centre console she turned the volume up slightly, feeling the tension slowly ease out of her system, leaving her to continue driving in comfort.

Xeek had originally come across the position after her old boss, an otherwise respectable if quite proud man or so she thought, had been revealed by the surveillance network to be a wife beater and an abusive father towards his son and daughter. She smirked as she remembered his fate, several sessions of well deserved torture to break him down so now he was a little bitch, and then being dumped on Irk, which was now known as the Empire's official toilet.

She'd actually been to Irk once, the original home world of her species, rendered almost uninhabitable by the pollution, its endless industrial sprawl left in almost total ruin after its defeat in the war. The memory of her visit made her grimace, ruining her relaxed attitude. Never had she seen so many extremely toxic, angry, spiteful people in all her life; raving, screaming with hatred, clawing up at her to try and pull her down to where they could kill her. Much of the population was made up of remaining second generation Irkens, clones based on an overly simplified version of the original first generation, which resulted in small and sickly creatures with weak skin and muscles who never grew out of smeethood. The native inhabitants had refused to admit that they'd been defeated, living in amidst the ruins in gangs of a hundred or so, slaughtering anything that didn't look like them. They continued to rant and rave on the might and majesty of the Irken Empire, regardless of the fact that it had been destroyed.

'_How the hell did they think they were the epitome of perfection again? I can't believe they still think they're the superior species.' _Indeed for someone like her ex-boss, who had no skills with which to defend himself, except against the threat of women and children who cowered and cried under his beatings, being sent to that hellhole was a death sentence. The crazed little sociopaths living within the ruins would tear him limb from limb, unless they'd done so already.

Returning to more optimistic concepts she recalled the manner in which she'd been selected. At least a dozen of her co-workers had applied, but she had stood out amongst them due not only to her intelligence, skills and strong sense of morality, but also because whereas everyone else was concerned with getting the job and the money that came with it, she'd been one of those concerned that she could do the job right. It was her mentality combined with her skills that made her most worthy for the position, though there were others that she knew and were friends with who had deserved it just as much, and she didn't take the privilege lightly at all.

Coming up to her destination she set her eyes on the enormous steel spire rising high into the smog, a proud smile adorning her features at being a part of something great.

'_I will contribute to this.'_ She thought with determination, guiding her car down towards the streets below as she came in to land in a secluded parking lot near the base of the giant tower. _'I will pull more than my own weight. I will prove myself worthy of this honour.'_

Parking her car she shut off the fusion reactor, the vehicle falling silent. She reached across to the opposite seat, taking her pak in one hand while grabbing her heavy tan leather trench coat in the other, not noticing as all the while the rain pouring down began to ease up. Slipping the coat over the shoulder of her grey business suit she opened the gullwing door up and forward, stepping out of the car. She paused when she didn't feel rain on her shoulders. Looking up Xeek saw where the breech in the clouds had opened up across the sky, letting her see the brilliant orange sunlight shining in through the gaps in the enormous buildings.

She smiled up at the light, harsh and oppressive yet life giving to her. She loved the bleak and cruel noir environment she lived in. It was like living in a painting full of rich oranges and deep shadows.

'_Huh. Convenient.'_

Taking the coat back off she dumped it and her pak in the car, shutting and locking it as she made her way out of the secluded concrete parking area towards the street.

Unfortunately a small gang of three skinhead thugs had other plans for her, stepping out to stop her in her path. She groaned inside despite the flair of tension, seeing the crude hateful tattoos on their skin, and the instinctual sense of a twisted and malignant soul. She recognised the feeling instantly, it was the same she had felt from the savages on Irk. _'Ugh, rabid dogs.'_

"Hey there pretty lady." One of them spoke with an evil smirk that made her twist inside. They all did, the three unshaven skinheads reeking of bigotry and sick fantasies. "You like living on our planet?"

"I was born in Russia, so-"

"Hey hey hey watch your mouth green bitch. You're the alien freak here, not us." He leered in towards her face, withdrawing and extending a stiletto switchblade, along with his two compatriots. Already she could tell from their twisted malice that they intended to do far worse than just to mug her. Rather than showing fear she pursed her lips in irritation. "You're Xeek right? We've been keeping an eye on you for a while now, another high and mighty animal who likes to pretend she's a person. We saw how you betrayed your boss and took his job. It seems to be all you vermin are good at isn't it?"

Xeek groaned inwardly. The level of their hypocrisy and blatant fabrication of facts was almost too much for her to handle. But she kept her shoulders and hard gaze up and level despite the lies and crap they poured all over her.

"Now seeing as we let you Irken degenerates pollute our planet, I say you owe us a few taxes."

"The hell I do. I don't owe shit like you anything. And one other thing, I never betrayed anyone in my life, so don't you dare judge me." She spat, trying to move around them, upon which they became more aggressive.

"Gimme your fucking wallet alien bitch!" He growled out, pointing the blade at her thin throat now. "Do you wanna die freak? Give us the wallet!"

"Alright, take it." She said in resignation, digging into her right pocket, handing them the white leather wallet. He passed it to one of his friends. They didn't even look through it, pocketing it as they turned to their latest victim again.

"Now hows about we have a lil fun eh?"

"Yeah she'd like that little green whore!" Another one of their number with pockmarked skin shouted. Grabbing her antennae roughly he moved behind her, holding his knife to her throat as the other two moved in to satisfy their twisted urges.

"I always said that degenerate alien freaks like you needed to learn their place. You fuck up our planet by being here, so I say it's only right we get to fuck you up just as much."

"You people are as stupid as you are sick." She spoke with her growing terror now clear in her voice even as she tried to remain calm. "You people think it's alright to violate a woman, but because I have green skin _I'm_ the monster? The Empire is always watching. There are cameras everywhere. You think they're not watching us right at this moment?"

"HAAHAHA! Like-Like we give a shit about cameras!" Their leader laughed in her green face, his fowl smelling breath washing over her in a nauseating tide as he smirked cruelly at the alien abomination who was now their sex toy. "So what if they can see us? Let em watch, just so they can see how inferior vermin like you should be treated. Besides, what're they gonna do? Face it little different, nobody's gonna save you."

It was at that very moment of course when a deafening roar of powerful engines erupted directly above them as if by an act of fate. Xeek closed her eyes as a number of blinding spotlights burned down on them as her assailants staggered and tried to shield their eyes. Managing to spare a glance upwards through the blinding light and deafening roar the three could make out one of the empire's patrolling gunships hovering directly overhead.

"_**DON'T MOVE SCUM!"**_ The booming angry bird of prey roared. Of course they didn't listen.

The leader immediately shoved his partner aside, grabbing the woman around the throat and set himself up behind her. Xeek gasped as she felt the new blade pressed hard up against her throat as the thug looked up at the machine with mad terror and hatred in his eyes.

"I'LL KILL HER! STAY THE FUCK AWAY OR I'LL KILL THIS ALIEN BITCH!"

The central gun mounted in the underbelly of the machine took aim and fired a single blue pulse of high energy plasma with pinpoint precision. Xeek shut her eyes as a bright flash erupted near her right arm from a small but well placed shot, and her assailant's blade fell to her feet, along with his arm.

"… Ah! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The supremacist sociopath staggered back gaping and screaming at the sight of the burned stump that severed his right arm above the elbow.

Out of the sea of white a single humanoid figure fell, a tall, athletic creature bearing a grey armoured body, landing on his feet with a bang between a stunned Xeek and the leader of the gang. Turning to face the new presence the three rapists gaped in terror at the sight of malevolent burning red irises, the disfigured leader loosing control of his bladder as the demonic creature regarded him with hatred.

Moving with inhuman speed it dealt a sweeping blow with its left arm that hammered him against a nearby concrete wall and left him lying crippled and in pain on the ground.

Rounding on the other two with a predatory snarl he lined up the one still holding one of Xeek's antenna. He dragged her back away with him for a step holding the knife close to her, before she snarled and wrenched it aside, the thug gasping as she ducked away. The sadist was left undefended as the soldier clamped down on the hand holding the knife, crushing the rapist's fingers, tearing the blade out of his grip as he screamed in pain and terror. Rearing his right arm back he willed a triangular blade to form out over his hand, and dealt a quick slash across the front of the man's throat. His eyes gaped in horror as his blood burst out across the demon's face, before he simply fell back dead.

The last of them tried to flee out into the nearby street. Taking a terrified look behind him he stopped when he saw the demon standing over the body of one of his accomplices, staring at him through the blood down its front. Seeing he had no chance of escape through running or fighting the now cowardly thug did what they all did when cornered; lie.

"It's not my fault! They're the ones whose fault it is! If it weren't for them none of this would be happening!" He shouted pointing shakily at Xeek with mismatched terror and hatred. "The Irkens came here unwanted! We welcomed them in and they betrayed us and made war on us! And you protect her? She framed her own boss! She's a liar and a freak just like the rest of them! It's us against them! Those two are dead all because of her! It's all her fault!"

The cybernetic-organic-demonic soldier had tired of the vile man's lies. Vanishing from his view as he pointed with his knife the thug arched his back and let out a gagging sound as he was lifted up. Shocked he looked down with bulging eyes and saw an immensely powerful arm had been put through his chest from behind. The bloodthirsty creature snarled, flinging his victim up high into the air off his arm. Extending the blade again as he fell he dealt another perfectly timed brutal slash, the thug's body coming apart in two as he hit the ground, showering him with more gore as he stood with a predatory stance gazing down at his bloody handiwork with burning satisfaction.

"_**HUEAAAAAAHHHH!"**_

Xeek looked on stunned as the terrible creature stood upright and looked to face her calmly. As she faced him with awe she received a bad start when a loud crack of armour striking the ground behind her drew her attention. Standing beside the crippled sociopath was another such creature, this time notably a woman. The thug cowered as she turned her slatted orange eyes down on him, turning to face her counterpart ahead of her.

"_**And that's how you do it."**_ The male demon spoke as he strode up to Xeek between them. _**"That was an excellent shot by the way."**_

"_**Thank you Sergeant."**_ She replied. Her elder reached down to the thug with his throat cut and took the woman's wallet out, handing it out to her to take back gratefully.

"Thank you." She spoke meekly.

"_**You handled yourself well Xeek."**_ He spoke to her as she gaped wordlessly. _**"We've been keeping a close eye on you for some time now, and you've impressed us. You want to pull more than your own weight, and want to grow the world around you. We need good people like you. How would you like to work with us?"**_

"You can't be fucking serious!" The thug shrieked in outrage back at her. "SHE'S A FUCKING ALIEN! AN ANIMAL! A BOTTOM OF THE BARREL PIECE OF SHIT!"

The demonic woman extended a gladius blade from her arm and held it close to his throat, silencing him. Boring into him with burning wrath she turned to face her superior.

"_**Sir, if I may suggest, why don't we let Xeek decide his fate?"**_ The thug looked at the green woman with fear now that the tables had been turned.

Xeek looked between the two demons with surprise. The Sergeant considered the thought, turned to her and gestured for her to decide his fate if she wanted to. Setting herself with a scowl she stepped up to the wounded thug, feeling the anger at what he had said and what he had been about to do to her rising in her heart. She relished in the fear he showed her through wide eyes.

"To reiterate what I was saying, you people do all kinds of terrible things to others, you think its fun to rape a woman, and because I'm not part of your in-group that somehow I'm the monster? Would you please explain that to me?"

But he just quivered, opening and closing his mouth like a fish with nothing to say. Xeek watched and waited, but no response or justification ever came. She grimaced at him.

"Send him to Irk where the real monsters live." She pronounced his judgement, the man's eyes widening in terror. "There when he's surrounded by people who want to peel off his skin while he's still alive, maybe the last thing he will ever see will be just how similar they are to him."

"Wait! NO! You evil bitch! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT DIFFERENT!"

Angered by his outburst Xeek turned around, reached down and took the little switchblade still held by his severed arm. The neo-Nazi's screwed up face turned to cowardice again as she advanced on him with his own knife, and a look of deep rage on her features.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! They forced me! NO!" Grabbing him by the back of his head she positioned the point of the knife directly in front of his left eye. "NOOOOOO! NOOOOOO! AAAAAAHHHHH! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

She watched him as he screamed with the knife imbedded in his eye, thrashing and writhing in agony on the ground. Around her the two soldiers stepped in to stare down at the evil creature, who then vanished in a ball of black energy a moment later.

"_**So what do you think?"**_ The bloody Sergeant spoke as they turned to her. _**"Would you like to join us?"**_

Xeek considered it for a moment and shook her head with a contented smile. "Sorry but I have a job to do here right now. I can't abandon my commitment just after I got a new job."

"_**She is perfect."**_ The other woman spoke with admiration. Xeek smiled at the two powerful figures as they stood back facing her with respect. _**"The Empress will always have a place waiting for you."**_

Suddenly Xeek gasped in shock. Out of the backs of the two a pair of immense spectral wings seemed to appear out of nothing. She gazed them over with awe. The stunning crystalline structures appeared black at the tips, immersed in all the darkness and evil of the world to protect people like her, while the inside of the wings shone white and clear.

The two figures looked to each other mute as they saw her gazing up at them awestruck.

"_**You can see them can't you?"**_ The male spoke now that Xeek had seen their true nature. For all their darkness and terrible power they were demons only on the outside. On the inside they truly were angels.

Xeek stood back and watched as they faded away into a spectral mist and ascended into the waiting gunship high above. Throwing her head back with her eyes in the sky she watched as the machine gunned its engines with a renewed roar, turning around to make its way back towards the nearby street. Following it she ran with a blissful smile on her features out of the concrete alley.

Emerging out into the wide damp, cold streets she looked out through the crowds of faceless grizzled people, watching the great bird of prey fly away over the road clogged with two stroke motorcycles and the odd land car. She stood amidst the dense packs of humans and other minority species breathing deeply as she watched them to cruise away amidst the hundreds of towering complexes and vanish into the orange light of the sun through the thick pollution, wherein it was replaced by the shadow of another much larger structure.

Her eyes caught on the monolithic mountain of concrete and steel that overshadowed the city, clearly visible now in the distance ahead through the constant haze of pollution. A stern satisfaction swept her face as she looked lovingly up to the oppressive figure, making its presence known permanently to those selfish, narrow-minded little fools that made up much of the population. It stirred a sinister side to her, all the pressure of the misanthrope she had accumulated over the years being satisfied right down to her core.

In there lived the most powerful and inspiring dark tyrants of all history. They were boundless in their wisdom and self-restraint, bearing a strength of will and inner fortitude that inspired her every day, and the merciless iron rule of terror needed to keep humanities vile habits firmly under their control. It was up there, in the great slab-sided monument that struck fear into trillions of people across the Empire's thousands of worlds, that Mandy of the Night lived with her husband Billy, the rightfully named Great Demon Prince as he was known, along with their friends and family.

She stood amongst the crowd as they gave her some space for fear of the malevolence that radiated from her, gazing up with wonder towards the epic symbol of power and control. While she loved working for Rhea, and being around people who really deserved their positions of authority, part of her knew that she wasn't living up to her full potential while she was ordering around pathological narcissists and halfwits. Up there was where she felt she belonged. She wanted to be a part of the power and control and justice that she'd practically adored for so long. She wanted to serve her divine masters, although they had repeatedly denied all allegations of divinity. She'd always felt they were overly modest.

For now though as she had told the angels who had saved her she had a duty to perform as part of a powerful and important corporation. Until the time came for her to step up and do something greater for the cause she loved, she would devote all her abilities to doing the best she could do and being the best she could be right now, like her leaders had inspired her to be from her youth.

'_Thank you.'_

As Xeek continued on towards the entrance to the massive tower before her she silently hoped that somehow her masters had heard her thoughts as they surveyed the Night Imperium from within their looming concrete fortress high above the capital.

Unknown to Xeek even if her thoughts were able to penetrate the walls of their bastion of power, they would never have been heard anyway, as the aforementioned leaders were currently nowhere near the citadel.

* * *

A young man stood by the bedroom window of a cabin, looking out with a smile of perfect content out over their secluded little retreat nestled deep within the forest in between the snow capped mountains and brilliant blue sky. His blue eyes roamed over every minute detail of the scene before him, inspecting them, focussing on the beauty and magnificence of every small structure. The breeze touched his exposed chest and his damp red hair, earning a sigh of happiness.

Billy smiled out at their little patch of sacred paradise, where all the evil and foulness of the world would melt away to leave just themselves together surrounded by beauty and their love for each other. From the top floor bedroom he could see down through the morning mist, the orange-yellow light filtering through the trees. Further down he could faintly see the crystal clear stream running off from the mountains in the distance.

A millennium blessed with precious life had taught him the value of every moment, especially moments like this, where the world was laid out in front of him in all its splendour and perfection. It was almost as beautiful as what lay behind him.

Turning away from the window he looked towards the king size bed, his feeling of contentment deepening as he gazed over the figure sleeping within.

Mandy, his wife of over a thousand wonderful years, the most foreboding and ominous ruler of all time, and the absolute love of his life since when they were just children. There she lay relaxed in her sleep, her features showing the state of perfect calm and tranquillity she exuded, the light sheets draped over her nude body up to her hips, with her elegant back displayed for him, her long blonde hair splayed across the bed as she snuggled into the pillow. Her body rose and fell under the gentle ebb and flow of her breathing. To anyone else the young figure would've appeared to have no connection at all to the merciless iron will that held the reigns over an empire, who as wise and just as she was would not hesitate to swiftly and pitilessly crush and punish any sort of grievous transgression. To anyone else there was no possible way such a personality of power and greatness and iron-fisted authority could sleep with such an air of innocence and light and warmth about her, as if she'd rather snuggle up with the one she loved and just sleep the day away in his arms. But that was where her husband knew her more closely than anyone else.

Billy's smile grew, his heart constricting inside his chest. He just watched as she unconsciously nuzzled the pillow, her arms splayed out beside her without anything batter to do than just enjoy the soft comfort of the bed on her skin. Nothing could describe just how much he adored her. Watching her as she slept he remembered back to their earliest days together. In the beginning she'd been just as tough and strong as she was now, albeit with her softer side heavily suppressed for fear of becoming weak, to her own anguish. His memories of himself from back when he was about eight were somewhat sketchy; parts of his early life becoming a jumbled blur due to his inactive brain. Until he was almost nine he'd been all but completely incapable of most rational thought, the supremely loyal mindless underling to what was back then his best friend.

That began to change one day when he overheard Mandy first voice her innermost thoughts, the reasons why she was angered at humanity as she was. He remembered it well; Grim had called her a little Nazi girl, to which she had been outraged, going on to explain it all out to them. Those words were the trigger for the first profound thought to come to the boy, and had begun him on the path to becoming what he was today, a powerful demonic overlord and homicidal killing machine with an insatiable thirst for the blood of the corrupt. In time he had come to love Mandy, and through being there for her in her times of greatest hardship and loss, had ultimately changed her into something much greater. Together they had achieved perfect balance between a terrible darkness that cast a shadow of fear over billions of people, and an almost youthful innocence and affection that they only shared between each other.

His memories played forth right through when they'd first given in to the love they felt for each other, recruiting new and close friends in the form of Tak and Nergal who still stood by them to this day, through their marriage and takeover, until he reached a time when they were seventeen. The long campaigns of their takeover was drawing to a close around Asia, leaving them a few days to take off back home, back to where the previous cabin had once stood amongst the trees. There they rebuilt it all themselves, exactly the way it had been before. He still remembered working all day in the cool air with her at his side, before cooling off in the stream. On the night it was finished he had taken her upstairs to this very room, to that very bed where she lay now, and together they had made love for the vey first time.

That wonderful night eons ago had been relived just last night. Every emotion, every feeling of what they'd shared together hours earlier flooded his mind. They'd arrived in the afternoon, where they'd gone down to the crystal stream together and tenderly consummated their love for each other. Later that night they'd given themselves to each other again, and again, and again, plus another couple times more. Thus here he stood, clad in his sleeping shorts freshly showered, his arm leaning against the window frame as he gazed over the sleeping figure of what was by far the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Stepping lightly he made his way over to the bed where she slept. Lowering himself he sat on the bed next to her to look down on her soft face from above. She stirred upon feeling the bed give beside her. She smiled as she felt him lightly place his hand on the middle of her back. Caressing her gently Billy took in the feel of her skin under his hand, watching as she breathed deeper. Leaning down he reached in and pushed aside a lock of her hair, and gave her a gentle kiss just under her ear. Mandy groaned in content at his presence. Opening her eyes up for the morning she looked up to where her husbands face greeted her, smiling down from directly above her.

"You are so beautiful in your sleep." He told her. She smiles softly, reaching her hand up to caress the side of his face with her fingers, Billy closing his eyes as she gently ran her fingertips across his skin.

"You are what makes me beautiful." She said back. "I'd be nothing without you."

"Last night with you was wonderful."

"It was. You were amazing. I love being with you." She spoke up to him, cupping his chin in her fingers as he moved a hand to caress her hair. Leaning down towards her he opened his lips to kiss her mouth. She smiled into the kiss, reaching to grasp the white sheet and pull it up over her as she sat up to embrace him across his shoulders, Billy caressing her bare back as he held the nape of her neck. They separated a moment later, smiling into each other as he held her in his hands. "What time is it?"

"About nine. You wanna get ready?"

"Let's take our time. We don't come out here enough."

Mandy take clothes and get showered, Billy dressed, goes downstairs to heat up pizza. Mandy emerges, find him on couch, old racing game ready. Play video games together, dark lords cuddled together eating pizza like when they were kids. Time passes quickly, have to abandon game, go out to car. Meeting soon.

Rising from the bed she held the sheet to her body as she made her way across the room to the closet, Billy following her as she pulled out a set of underwear. Billy was quite content to stand back and gaze up and down her figure while she looked back to him with a smile, before he began to dress himself. As Mandy pulled out her outfit and hung it over her arm, turning to her husband she watched as he put on a simple black silk shirt and a set of dense leather trousers linked to a pair of light armour shin guards and boots, his belt buckle still bearing a human skull in its metal surface. Reaching in he also took an immense dark red cloak to be fitted around his front via a set of steel clamps, though he would put it on later. As his wife took her clothes he watched her move out of their bedroom to take her morning shower taking the sheet with her.

Billy made his way down the stairs ready to start the day as he heard the shower come on. Entering the kitchen he paused in thought. Neither Mandy or he had devoted much time to learning how to prepare a meal. But as he had always thought, the simple solutions were usually the best. Going to the fridge he pulled out a pizza, opened the oven and placed it in to heat up while going over to the coffee maker.

As Mandy stood enjoying the feel of the hot water running over her shoulders and down her curving sides and back, working its way through her long platinum blonde hair, she closed her dark eyes and transported herself back to last night. Her whole body blushed and a warm feeling welled up inside of her as she remembered how she kissed his mouth, how she traced her fingers gently over his body like she knew he loved. She drew a heavy breath when she remembered how he put his hands on her body, caressing her curves, how he gently worshipped her c-cup breasts while he nuzzled her. And she remembered how he had slowly moved himself in sync with her inside her body, how they had shared the total overwhelming bliss and ecstasy of each other's sex, not only of the physical pleasure itself, but of the total sacred intimacy that only they could share.

She opened her eyes; she wanted to be with him more than anything now.

Shutting off the water she stepped out and dried herself off, taking a few moments to look herself over in the mirror with satisfaction. She stood at five foot eight, and her figure was slim and finely proportioned. She'd always had an aristocratic build. Brushing her hair into shape, a long river heading down to the middle of her back, the front hanging down to the side across her forehead while two locks framed the sides of her face, while her crown was still topped by the ominous devil horns that let everyone know who was in charge.

Turning to the clothes she'd bought she quickly applied her underwear, going on to a form fitting long sleeved body glove that extended down to her ankles, fastening itself down her back, adorned in rich red with streaks of black along the seams, an exquisite black rose set displayed above her breasts. Over that she fastened a dark silver v-shaped belt across her hips, matching her husband's shoulder and shin guards. Laying off to the side was a flowing dark red coat encompassing her shoulders, stretching down to touch her silver and black boots which she now slid on, leaving the coat aside for later.

Ultimately they both gave off the aura of two dark lords, yet not going so far as to render the designs impractical or outrageous.

She looked about the bathroom; she had forgotten one thing. Turning to the door she opened it to go to their bedroom, and found her husband standing there with a smile, holding her black headband.

"You wouldn't be getting careless now would you?" He joked with a light-hearted smirk. Mandy gave him a mock scowl, closing her eyes and bowing her head as Billy slid the simple black plastic into place above her forehead. Facing him again with love she quickly put her hands on his shoulder and around the back of his head as she moved in to give him a passionate kiss, Billy closing his eyes and holding her around her back as he revelled in the warmth of her mouth.

"I missed you." Mandy spoke when she parted with him.

"After only ten minutes? You were thinking about last night weren't you?" Billy replied back and smiled, touching her nose with his. "I missed you too." Resting their foreheads together they held each other quietly, happy to just feel each others close presence and remember all they had to be grateful for that they had been together since childhood.

"We have plenty of time. You want a game?" Billy asked, to which Mandy smiled.

"With you of course I do."

Going downstairs together Billy grabbed the pizza from the oven, fresh as if it were just delivered to their door, while Mandy bought in two cups of coffee and a bottle of cola. They set themselves up on the couch in front of the television, appearing as little more than a wide black picture frame hanging on the wall. With their less than staple breakfast on the table in front of them Billy lay back propped up in one corner, watching as Mandy lay back on top of him. His arms instantly found their way around her waist, holding her close as she reached up and around the back of his neck.

They both lay there together like when they were children after they'd first confessed how deeply they felt for each other, watching as their game loaded. As it did they both reached out and began taking slices of pizza, chomping away at the junk food as they then took the controls and began the setup. It was an ancient racing car game they had loved their entire lives. Billy chose his favourite, a bright green Dodge Charger, that suited his personality as much now as it did back then. Mandy meanwhile went with something more controlled and slightly more subtle, a blue WRX.

This time the race started fairly. By way of being able to get the most out of her ancient vehicle Mandy took a small lead around the first corner, with Billy pouring out tyre smoke on the exit, creating as big a spectacle as the mad little man-child could. He bit his tongue and concentrated as he tried to catch up to his lover, only for his skinny sixties tyres and poor quality suspension and chassis to be of no use in the next few corners. As Mandy closed in on the finish line for the first lap sensing victory, Billy gave her a mischievous smirk.

"Hey Mandy, you know what bad little boys like me do when we're facing imminent defeat at the hands of someone more competent?" He took one hand off the controller and slid it down onto his lover's waist. Mandy gasped as he felt him swirl his fingers across the lower left corner. "We exploit our opponents weaknesses."

"Hah… Bil… ly… Ahh…" Mandy smiled and threw her head back as he tickled her where she was sensitive. Billy grinned as he felt her body tremor under each brush of his fingertips, abandoning her controller to throw her arms around behind his shoulders to surrender to more of his wonderful torment, all the while Billy used his free hand to manoeuvre around Mandy's abandoned car and take the lead.

"And when… boys like you exploit… haaaahhhhh… ahh… our weaknesses, evil little girls…" Suddenly she turned herself over in his arms, Billy's face showing his surprise when she bored into him with her gaze above him. "… we up the ante."

Gazing at her mute Billy was further surprised when she closed her eyes and leaned down onto him, kissing him, and slid her tongue into his mouth. His eyes widened, and promptly rolled back as he kissed her mouth back, dropping his controller as he wrapped his arms around her back. After passionately kissing the inside of each other's mouths for several seconds they parted, smiling and flushed red, before their eyes shifted to the controllers, and the two cars now abandoned on the second lap.

Lashing out for them they both quickly took up the racing as soon as it had stopped, both parties smiling and laughing amongst themselves as they continued to touch and tease and kiss one another amidst the racing, which carried on for several dozen games.

"Wait, what time is it?" Mandy suddenly asked. Billy looked across to the clock behind them.

"Shit, it's already eleven thirty." He spoke.

"We gotta leave soon." Mandy spoke as she reluctantly sat up out of his arms.

They both got up hurriedly and began packing the remains of their breakfast away. After going upstairs and getting cleaned up ready Billy and Mandy both secured the last outer pieces of their clothes, and strolled out to their curvaceous silver-red, low slung jet skimmer coupe parked in the clearing out the front. As Mandy loaded their clothes into the ample boot Billy gazed out at the forest, listening to the distant sound of running water through the cool air. He closed his eyes for a moment as he was transported to a variety of wonderful times spent down there. Turning back to Mandy he made his way over to the passenger seat as she opened the door upwards. As she made to sit down she felt Billy's hand wrap around her arm.

"Mandy this place is paradise, why leave in such a rush?" He posed to her in a soft voice that beckoned to her. "Why not stay for a little while longer?"

"Because we're meeting the others in an hour's time, that's why." She answered to little effect.

"So? I'll give em a call and tell them we'll be another hour… or so." Billy responded with a romantic smile. Mandy relented, unable to say no while every inch of her soul and body were begging her for it. She closed the door as Billy opened his hand to reveal a small phone to have materialised in his palm. He held it to his ear as it made the call.

"Hey sweetheart it's dad… No you've done enough spree killing for one week. Look, tell the others your mother and I are gonna be here a few hours longer… No you can not kill anyone… Okay fine, just so long as they definitely deserve it… I'm sorry I know they always are… Alright, see you then. Say hi to your brother for me."

Hanging up he flicked his fingers back into his palm, the phone vanishing instantly from their presence. "There. Now, why don't we go for a walk down to the river together?"

Mandy smiled as she turned into his arms, linking hands with him. "That sounds like a great idea."

Hand in hand they left the side of the car, lazily making their way through the damp morning air downhill to where they had both stood together centuries prior. They watched their surroundings go by as they walked. Mandy was glad to have decided on opening herself up to the natural beauty of the world, and to be able to appreciate things other than depressing neo-noir cityscapes, not that she didn't deeply enjoy that either of course. An iron-fisted dictator needs balance after all, the same going for near psychopathic demon lords.

Together they arrived at the shining white pebbled bank of the river, still as perfect and unmolested by humanity as it had been when they'd first laid eyes on it. As one they stepped out of their heavy black shoes and socks, turning to each other so Billy could trace his fingertips over her slender hands, while she entwined them with the same gentle affection. Turning to the water Mandy led him out until the near frigid liquid rushed around their ankles, where they faced each other again. Billy and Mandy both felt their bodies go rigid with tension as their hearts started to race.

"So… what happens now?" He asked her tentatively as he wrapped his arms around the base of her spine.

She looked up at his face with her wide eyes slowly starting to cast a sultry spell on him. "Now you kiss me."

Leaning in he claimed her mouth, engaging her with a sensual kiss, tasting her soft lips as she wrapped her hands around his shoulders. They both sighed into the gentle softness of each other's lips as they savoured the sensation. Mandy could feel her face go warm as she groaned softly, Billy feeling the blood beginning to rush in his ears and cheeks. It was part of a particular peculiarity of their relationship, and a wonderful one at that. Every time they came together like this they would treat it almost as if it were as close and intimate as their very first kiss. It made every moment spent with their lips locked together affectionately all the more undeniably beautiful.

They separated for air, taking but a moment to ready themselves before they plunged back into each other's embrace, this time going deeper. Billy opened his lips to slide his tongue into his lover's mouth, finding her opening up to let him in. Her eyes opened wide for a second with her fingers flexing outwards, overcome by what she was feeling, before she closed her eyes and began to kiss his tongue with her own. For Billy, everything they had been through and done together over more than a millennia all came down to this. In his mind nothing could possibly be greater than this, the warmth of her mouth as he continued to kiss her fervently, holding her by her curving sides, thankful that she had chosen him as the man she wanted to spend her life with.

Finally Mandy pulled out of their French kiss, turning around to present her back to him as she breathed hard. "Now y-you put your hands on my body."

Reaching for her Billy wrapped his right hand softly around her small waist, caressing her up and down as his left hand entangled with hers. She closed her eyes as she leant back into him, letting his hands explore her body freely, snaking and flexing her hips into him at his sensual touch. Mandy didn't know if the hammer beat was from her own heart or her husbands, halfway in between caring and sheer ignorance as he leaned his face into the crook of her neck, nuzzling her shoulder under her red regal gown. He worked his way up to her neck, pausing to tickle her tensely awaiting skin with his hot breath, causing her to roll her head across to enable him. Bringing his lips down he kissed her over the vein, prompting Mandy to squirm in his grip, opening her mouth to give a small gasp of delight as a flash of nervous pleasure shot across her body down to her toes, before she relaxed again.

"Now you strip me." Mandy instructed in a voice barely able to control her nerves, her eyes still closed in an intoxicating visage.

Her mate didn't hesitate a second. Unclasping her ornate belt he cast it aside. Next Billy hooked his fingers around the top lip of her body glove. In one single simple move he pulled the red top apart, the fabric opening up all the way down her back as it was meant to like a zipper. Mandy helped him to pull it down over her arms before she simply stepped out of the bottom half, allowing him to pull it straight off her. Tossing it to the bank he returned his gaze to his wife now in her black bra and panties, placing his hands on her bare sides again as she wrapped her arms up and around his shoulders behind her. Placing his lips on her neck again he gave her a long, sexy kiss on her jugular, probing up and down with his lips as his fingertips traced across her skin.

Mandy smiled, overwhelmed by the pleasure and love and happiness that whirled inside her body, turning her eyes to catch a glimpse of her lover as he kissed her neck. "Now… you take off my bra."

Retracting one hand to her shoulder blades he positioned his fingers on the small clip holding her bra in place. Mandy stood and waited, a sudden dizzying feeling of nervous anticipation taking hold as she felt him slide one strap over her shoulders, followed by another, before he withdrew the piece entirely, tossing it to the bank, leaving her topless in front of him. Her stomach still tense she held her breath as he ran his fingers between her shoulders, his other hand still occupied with her waist, almost as if waiting for permission to move up to her bare chest.

"N-Now," She began with a slight nervous stammer in her voice as her heart and breathing raced, "you… you… t-touch my breasts."

Billy did as he was told with complete devotion. His hand traced up to clasp and slide across the bottom edge of her left breast. She closed her eyes, melting into his embrace as he began to sensually massage her soft chest, lovingly tracing his fingertips across the soft surface, pressing and kneading her as he pleased.

"_Haaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!"_

Her head rolled back as her trepidation gave way to an overwhelming flood of pleasure, all the while Billy listened and watched her writhe as he nuzzled his wife's head with his mouth, loving the ability to make her feel like this. Reaching around he took his other hand off her back and gently cupped her right breast. Mandy gasped for air and let out a long string of groans of pleasure, unable to contain or control what she was feeling from his hands as he continued to lovingly knead and massage her soft breasts, pressing up and in with his thumbs to send a flood of warmth throughout her body.

They were both overcome by their love and lust for each other. Billy gazed at her wide-eyed with his heart ready to burst as he saw how much she loved what he was doing to her, and the wonderful warmth and softness of her perfect sacred breasts. Burying his face in under her hair he kissed her neck as tears of happiness began to well in his eyes. Mandy shared his happiness, giving a smile of perfect bliss and excitement as he kissed her, tears of her own welling up as he rubbed his palms across her sensitive nipples.

"Uh… Ohhhh Billy…"

"Oh Mandy, I love how you sound when you're in pleasure. I love your breasts." He told her as she pressed herself back into him. "Do you like how I'm touching you?"

"Yes. Just like that. That's… just… _perfect. That feels so good."_ She replied, her gasps of pleasure giving way to a visage of complete and absolute peace and content. She leaned her head back against his collar, her eyes closed, a contented smile crossing her features as she relaxed back into her husbands embrace, the ocean of sensations from the way he caressed and massaged her breasts sending her to a place of sheer bliss.

She turned herself around in his arms, nestling her face into him as he held her back, resting each others foreheads together as Billy placed his right hand on her breast over her heart, while his other arm moved around her shapely waist and back, holding her close as she now unbuttoned his black shirt. Easing it off him with his help Mandy threw it back to the bank to press her body against his bare chest as he stroked her hair and fondled her chest. With their foreheads together they nuzzled each other with a perfect smile. This was what they had wanted their entire immortal lives, existing for moments of such love as this.

Mandy lowered her eyelids to look into Billy's with a calm happiness, surrendering herself completely to the man she loved more than all else. "Now you make love to me."

Coming together they kissed once more, each turning themselves over to the love of their life. Wrapping their arms around each other they kissed passionately, both gradually lowering themselves down to lay in the cool stream beneath them, all the while the life giving yellow-white sun shone bright and clear down on them amidst the perfect blue sky.

* * *

Atop the immense slab-sided imperial fortress however that sun was veiled under a layer of dense smog, its light tainted a deep orange-red, the same colour as the eyes of a young woman looking up to it with an odd mixture of content, mad fury and glee. Her face was twisted in a half-crazed yet relaxed psychopathic grin, with a considerable percentage of her being wanting to reach out and slash at the polluted disc, to smash and destroy it in a frenzied outburst against the people that had corrupted its once pristine image. It was almost as if that wasn't the sun, but an imposter, a cheap, blasphemous copy, a corrupting influence that showcased all the stupidity and apathy and arrogance and small-minded selfishness that most of their subjects in this corner of their society exuded in a greasy and polluting exhaust.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT!" She screamed up at it suddenly with a manic grin. Clenching her fists beside her she mentally willed it to explode, and to in turn fry all the vile little shits that had created it. Much to her frustration and hilarity the bright orange orb continued to hang high in the orange sky dotted with areas of near clarity and dense clouds that cast their heavy shadows below.

"DON'T FUCKING STARE AT ME YOU ORANGE PIECE OF SHIT! WHY DON'T YOU GO TO HELL! Teeheeheeheeheehee!" She giggled stupidly at the dizzying feeling of power and fury that coursed through her body, regardless of the sun not reacting.

Her name was Sarah. She was the first born child of Billy and Mandy, and took most of her traits from her father's side. She was five foot eight in height like her mother, had her father's rust red hair from when he was younger, and had inherited his demonic nature. Her eyes glowed red at all times. She only showed her blue eyes around the people who were important to her, otherwise setting her in a permanent state halfway between human and demon. Her attire included a white and blue tank top that showed a hint of her waist, and black leather trousers with armour plates on her knees and shins, completed by her buckle-up boots. Her primary weapons consisted of a pair of angular short machetes attached to her back, the Sorrow Sisters, Shock and Retribution, each bearing a large spherical guard and a wicked geometric cleaver blade. These were actually her own rendition of the scythe concept her family specialised in, able to unleash the same destructive potential as her father's. Indeed if one looked close enough one could see the green tinge like their uncle Berserker, right before one's head was bisected. Her favourite pastimes were hunting and slaughtering evil scum, and going to unconquered worlds and wreaking as much destruction as possible in preparation for the invasion, all within reasonable boundaries of course, she cared about people just as much as the rest of her family. Other things she liked were her parents, her younger siblings, and her husband.

Currently she stood upon the vast open roof of the citadel. Looking up she saw the orange sun shining through the polluted sky, the current object of her fury. Looking down she saw the endless expanse of dark grey concrete and steel and glass towers that made up the city centre, the skyways full of cars and transports gliding about between the giant towers. _'Heh heh. So many filthy greedy little people. You can easily tell they're corrupt just in their eyes. They're always afraid of being watched, and always looking for someone to exploit.'_

"So I take it you will be going hunting soon." Came a vaguely British voice behind her. Pivoting around Sarah looked towards the new presence, finding a tall Irken man making his way towards her. He wore a long black trench coat over a black business suit with red shirt and black tie. His skin was a particularly dark shade of green. Furthermore he wore no pak, with deep green eyes with vertical slitted black pupils. His antenna curved back before spiking vertically upwards. His name was Nergal Junior, the son of Nergal the Second and Tak, the overlords of the Irken-Nergal Domain, a sub-state of the Night Empire comprising a good quarter of all its worlds. This man was her best friend, lover and husband.

"Hey cutie pig. When did you get here?" She turned to face him happily.

"Just a few minutes ago. Mom and Dad are down saying hello to the Tallest, or is that Shortest?" He asked himself, seeing as their lofty sense of superiority had been pruned quite thoroughly following their capture at the end of the war a few months ago. "Where are the others?"

"Mom and Dad are gonna be away a little while longer, they'll be here sometime this afternoon." Smirking Sarah gave a kissy face, knowing what they were probably doing right now.

"At least they're not like mine." Junior added with an unhappy sigh. "It's so awkward to be around them lately after the latest scandal." Luckily for Sarah's parents Nergal Junior was not the sick-minded individual his parents were.

Sarah and Junior had grown up together. They had been best friends for as long as they could remember, and had fallen in love at the first opportunity when they were around nine. They were affectionate and light-hearted with each other, Sarah providing the madness and energy, and Junior providing the control to channel it. They worked together doing the odd jobs that arise with reigning effectively over a massive society of hundreds of trillions of people. Essentially they got rid of the dangerous elements, be they individuals or large secret societies operating outside of the surveillance network's watch, crime families, terrorists, and particularly hate groups. Business was booming, and that was both marvellous and tragic depending on their mood.

She looked up to the orange sun again with a smile. "I'm sorry; I like you just like that. It's like living in a painting." She spoke to the glowing disk through the haze and clouds.

"Come on, let's go hunting. It's been so long since we were on Irk, and I need to feel alive again." Sarah said, disregarding what 'Daddy' had told her, turning to the city below. Reaching to her back she took hold of her twin blades, pulling them out and ready, a malicious yellow-green glow surrounding them in anticipation for blood. Beside her Junior willed his family's abilities to the surface, a number of long dark green crystals and coils erupting out of his back, forming a ridge of sharp blades as his coils extended out beside him, changing to form two great demonic wings.

"Well dear, let's hunt." He spoke in his typical smooth, cultured British accent. Together they stepped up to the edge of the fortress, looking down its steep slab-sided face towards their prey below. He paused momentarily, drawing Sarah's attention. "Wait, where's your brother?"

At this a disturbing sense of sadism and doom took hold throughout the woman. She turned to him, eyes ablaze with demonic power as a nightmarish grin crossed her features.

"Working."

* * *

The sky over Los Angeles, a district of the south-western side of the capital, was permanently veiled in night. The pollution over this part of the city was so dense that it blocked out the sunlight altogether. Though the official source for it was the massive number of industrial parks, factories and foundries that lined the area, the truth was something stranger. Few people knew that in the earl days of the new society the Empress had cast a spell over city, causing the environment to adapt to the prevailing mood and mindset given off by the local inhabitants. Here the pollution never left the sky, lingering in a thick dark grey blanket.

This part of the city featured somewhat fewer of the towering skyscrapers and neon lights that made up the city centre closer to the core, although it did boast a vibrant night life around its central business district. The entire area was becoming known for its particularly high concentration of drug dealers, pimps and other seedy lowlifes, all of which had been allowed to go unchecked by the police, hence the constant darkness from the sky. Lately it had been revealed, as many had suspected, that the police force itself was the centre of the infection.

Out in one of the more desolate areas of the urban slum one such officer patrolled the area in his cruiser, an anti-grav car riding close to the ground on its low altitude coils, slowly gliding past the giant pillars of an overhead bridge. The lazy white man didn't pay any particular attention to his surroundings, uncaring if some woman was being raped or a murder was taking place. All he cared about was doing the bare minimum of his job so he could get his pay check his cut of the ugly revenue, and go back to his apartment. He still couldn't comprehend that it was because of those narrow-minded selfish sentiments that he was living in this hellhole in the first place.

'… _What the hell?'_

As apathetic as his empty skull was he couldn't help but become interested in a series of sudden bright flashes of blue-white light from behind the pillars of the bridge, lighting up the old concrete amidst the constant cold blue artificial glow that permeated this part of the world. Turning the wheel he glided it in under the huge structure, bringing it to a halt as the flashes suddenly slowed and ceased from just behind the square concrete structures. He watched through the windshield with growing paranoia as a ghostly white glow continued to radiate from somewhere within the structures.

Opening the door he stepped out, groaning inwardly at having to exert himself though his shallow breath came faster with instinctual fear all the same. The man was uninspiring as a police officer even without the corruption, pudgy and lethargic, with the air of a stereotypical bureaucrat. He reached for his bulky flashlight, sweeping the dimly lit area with its beam as he made his way towards the faint glow where he'd seen the peculiar flashes.

Rounding through the small network of pillars he narrowed his eyes at a clear patch of concrete ahead. Sitting just metres away from him was a billowing dome of black ethereal matter standing at head height, rippling and churning steadily as he regarded it cautiously, giving off a faint white light through the deformations in its surface. The officer gaped at the object, unable to comprehend or understand the strange phenomenon he was facing, pulling him out of his usual apathy. Looking on in wonder he stammered on his feet as the top of the dome parted with a slightly brighter glow, the shimmering onyx bubble fading away from the top down the sides, the energy dispersing and vanishing before his disbelieving eyes, leaving no sign of what had caused it to form. He stared mutely at the empty patch of concrete in front of him, shining his torch suspiciously on where once there had been something now nothing resided.

From behind the man a darkness emerged from within the shadow behind one of the cold grey pillars, condensing and moving in a smooth, soundless gait towards his back as all the while he stood staring at his distraction oblivious. The officer's hairs stood on end as a particularly cold sensation brushed over him, a chilling presence now in the air, heavy with killing intent, coming up behind him. He turned and shone his light just in time to catch the face of a lean built man in his early twenties, blonde hair set in a perfect short back and sides cut, and onyx eyes with a depth that hypnotised him, before he delivered a two fingered Black Hand strike to his heart, killing him.

Vincent stared down impassively at the body slumped on its side. Taking a quick scan of his surroundings to ensure he was alone he crouched down, reaching out for the officer's pistol, checking to see it had a full charge. Holding it in his hand he examined his uniform, comparing it with his own. He wore a black long sleeved shirt and trousers, secured to a pair of light leather boots of the same colour. Over his relatively lithe frame he wore a heavy violet coat made of Irken composite, with a long cape-like strip extending down his back to his ankles, acting as both a shield from the weather, a light armour and camouflage for blending into the shadows.

The man he had stalked and killed had been part of the local police department. It was corrupt to the core, and had been in connection to an orphanage acting as a front for a child slave trafficking organisation, and along with a myriad of other criminal endeavours responsible for causing untold suffering and destruction amongst many of the population. He'd already terminated the primary perpetrators of the child slave ring, and had followed the trail to the force which had been providing them cover for their terrible activities. His objective was to execute Chief Austin Patrick and all working for him. Looking over the man's uniform he took note of every fine detail.

A second later that same dark blue uniform had formed over his own figure, taking shape perfectly as he adjusted the underworld energy in his body to match the clothes of his victim. Turning on his heels he left the body, stepping over to where his white and blue cruiser awaited, stepping in and closing the door after him. Taking the wheel he drove the machine around, piloting it smoothly away from the body behind him, his features stilled into a cold and logical scowl.

Relentless. Calculating. Cold. Just like his predecessor Max.

Calmly piloting the police cruiser along the roads leading towards the headquarters he remained completely objective in what he needed to do, taking note of every detail around him along the way. Approaching the more vibrant area of the district he entered into where businesses grew in skyscrapers, with restaurants, bars and nightclubs lining the neon lit streets. He paid the crowds of dressed-up patrons no interest as he cruised slowly up towards the bland white four story building standing amongst the vibrant cyberpunk scene. Pulling the wheel around he guided the car down into an alley opposite, parking it and getting out, his new compact weapon strapped to his hip as he strode out into the street.

The bright glow of the neon lights and signs contrasted with the oppressive deep blue glow from the sky reflecting from the office buildings high above. He watched the crowd as they moved to and fro past him, many wearing elaborate, outlandish, often skimpy outfits. The sound of electronica met his ears, along with the whir of engines as cars manoeuvred in the streets and above their heads. With objective indifference he disregarded his surroundings, continuing on down the street towards the glass doors of the police station.

Entering into the building he saw an officer typing at a computer behind an armoured glass shield, though the surface was still gouged and scratched, with a door to the side leading into the office. He could see twenty plus officers milling about inside as he made his way to the desk.

"Hi. I'm here to see Chief Patrick." He spoke politely, putting on a light hearted smile.

The man behind the desk took a glance up at him. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No. I'm here about a transfer from New York. May I speak to him?" Watching as the clerk turned around to face the office behind him he flicked his eyes up to watch through the glass. There emerging from a corridor of offices came an officer in his fifties, balding and slightly overweight, every bit the corrupt pig. He was personally responsible for over a hundred murders as a result of gang violence.

'_Target sighted. I will move around to the back and use the rear entrance to avoid detection.'_

"Hey boss." The desk officer called earning the man's attention. "There's a guy here who wants to talk to you about…"

He cut away as he returned his gaze to the man waiting before him, only to find no one was there at all. "… a transfer… Never mind." He lowered his head back to the glass screen before him, typing in the last few characters of the document he'd been working on. "Hey take over, I gotta get a coffee, before I loose what's left of my sanity."

Regardless of wether or not his co-workers actually heard him he got out of his chair, heading down the corridor towards the back of the building where the pot of coffee resided. Taking a cup he poured himself a dose of the hot brew, turning around to head back. Making his way through the corridor his foot caught on a lip in the carpet, causing him to stumble, his cup dropping out of his hand.

"Ah sh…" He stopped as a hand shot out and caught the cup in two fingers around the brim, not a single drop lost.

"Yours I believe." The other officer spoke as he handed him his cup.

"Meh." He grunted in response, taking the cup and continuing on as the other uniformed man turned to watch him go, disappearing into one of the offices a moment later. Taking a sip from his coffee cup the man made his way through the office, before pausing mid step. Slowly he turned around, looking back to where he had last seen the other officer, realising with a start he was the same one he'd spoken to before he disappeared just moments ago.

Standing inside the closed door Vincent locked his deep emotionless gaze onto the balding man sitting at his desk as he looked up at the sudden intrusion.

"Hey who the hell are you? Who said you could come in here? Get the fuck outta my office prick!"

The shouts of the man over his intrusion mattered not to him as he identified him as his primary target. He followed his training with stoic calm, his intrusion suddenly mattering less to the Chief as he watched his right hand become enveloped in a rippling black aura pulsating with danger and lethality. Vincent set his target with a deadly stare, stalking smoothly over to where he sat behind his desk. Lancing out at him with two fingers at lightning speed he delivered a massive jolt to his heart, the muscle rupturing and dying instantly. The corrupt man gagged, a few small droplets of blood ejecting out his mouth before his head hit the desk, Vincent looking down apathetically as his life came to an end.

Turning to the door he saw the officer he'd met at the reception, looking in at the scene in shock. Grasping the pistol he'd stolen earlier he took aim and blasted the man in the chest with a powerful flash of blue plasma. Another two officers appeared in the doorway, their guns drawn ready. He shot them both dead, striding out into the corridor over their bodies as to his right and left his swarming enemy drew their weapons and fired.

He paused in the doorway, forming a protective barrier around himself as the highly energetic blasts detonated against the field, partially obscuring his view. Turning to his left he raised the weapon, blasting two more police as another group disappeared around the corner. Following them into the break room he used clinical precision in targeting them one after another, ignoring the blasts against the front of the shield as he killed the four men and women. This was his contribution to the Empire his parents had forged; to ruthlessly hunt down and terminate those who threatened their iron fisted rule of revenge, in addition to infiltrating and destroying key enemy personnel and infrastructure. While his sister and brother in law were more or less homicidal maniacs and bloodthirsty demons, he was a cold, clinical killer. Were it not for his blonde hair it would have been nigh on impossible to distinguish him from his rogue predecessor.

There was another thing however that distinguished Vincent from Max. As he terminated the last of the officers in the lunch room he turned and made his way back to the corridor, wherein he was hit by a powerful barrage of laser rifle fire. He stumbled back under the impacts, the blasts almost strong enough to break down the front of the shield. Taking cover behind the corner he reassessed the situation.

'_I need more power.'_

Extending his arm out he concentrated all his stoic control and darkness into his palm, sending out a summons deep into the underworld. Immediately his call was answered. A black ball formed in his palm, elongating rapidly out into a long, thin shaft. From the top end a sharp, geometrically shaped blade formed, his scythe now grasped firmly in his hands. It held the same design as his mothers, but whereas hers held an enraged blood red aura to it, this was as cold and stoic as he, bearing a deep, cold blue tone, courtesy of the spirit that lived within. This was the final manifestation of the family's rogue son, now redeemed. Max, his job done, had decided to bring himself to rest, and imbued his soul into a staff and blade, that way his power would forever be bound to his brother's will to continue his work.

Moving at a slow, rhythmic step he advanced out into the corridor, ignoring the powerful blasts now that his shield grew that much stronger. Emerging into the main office room he swung his scythe around, Max leaving a blue contrail in his wake, the power within striking out at the necks of four police at once, beheading them. Continuing on he slashed another to death, turning to blast a wave of blue-black power out at his adversaries, causing several to drop to the ground dead. He felt no pity or remorse for the killings, completely absent of any adrenaline rush or frenzied blood lust. He was as unfeeling as a machine, scowling out at his victims as one after another they fell.

Sensing their imminent deaths several police abandoned their comrades and tried to flee out the front door. As soon as they made it out into the foyer they were dismayed to find a series of dark green crystals rising up out of the ground to block the exit. One of their number who had just made it out the door found himself skewered and torn apart vertically by the sharp columns. Backing away fearfully they turned around to try and find another way out, only to come face to face with a pair of frightful orange eyes.

"Heh heh heh heh…" Sarah chuckled in a low tone, her twin blades held at the ready beside her as Junior stepped up beside her, a dozen coils extending out his back. She struck first, splattering the brains of one officer across the room as Junior sent his coils after three, impaling them and tearing their bodies apart bloodily. Whirling around Sarah bought her blades up to block several blasts, launching forward to slash the two men's throats. They gaped in horror as their blood blew out violently, bringing their hands up to try and stop the bleeding. Taking aim at them again Sarah used the underworld powered blades to send a swarm of small piranha-like demons at them, eating into them as they dropped to the ground.

"DIE!" She slashed one man's arms off, burying the blade in his brain.

"DIE!" She threw the blades out at two trying to escape past Max, impaling them in the backs of their heads.

"_**DIE!"**_ She put her now increasingly inhuman fist through the stomach of one fat officer, holding him as her husband wrapped his coils around him, crushing him into a bloody paste.

Vincent struck one last officer over the heart, scanning across the body strewn office without conscience as he sent his scythe back to the netherworld. Turning his onyx eyes towards the two newcomers as they faced him his nature changed completely, the biting cold that permeated him fading away. In its place a real, genuinely heartfelt smile arose on his face as Sarah flicked the blood from her blades, placing them back into their scabbards on her back. With a big cheesy grin she held out her hands as she waddled drunkenly towards him, her brother moving to embrace his older sister in a heartfelt hug.

"Hey Sarah, how've you been?" He asked in a light hearted tone despite the bloody carnage around them.

"Oh you know." She mumbled. "Truth is I've been bored as hell since the end of the war with Irk. I just keep thinking back to that time we went there with Mom and Dad."

"We destroyed half the planet before the army ever arrived." Junior spoke up, drawing Vincent's attention. Reaching out the two men gave each other a rough hug. "How's work treating you?"

Vincent indicated to his side of the mayhem. "Cold and methodical, as per usual. How about you two?"

Sarah indicated to their side of the mayhem. "Bloodthirsty and sadistic, like always. It's great, neh heh. Anyways Daddy called earlier. He says hi. He also says that they'll be another few hours before they meet up with us. They're gonna stay back at the cabin so they can get all romantic." Turning up to her husband she narrowed her eyes aggressively much to his alarm. "Why don't you ever do anything cute and romantic like that?"

"But I do sweetheart. Remember how we slaughtered those thugs, and I drew you a love heart in the blood?" He asked her. Sarah screwed up her face in thought.

"Oh yeeeaaaaahhhh. That was so sweet of you. I'm sorry." She cooed to her mate, leaning over to give him a kiss on the… where his lips should be were he human. Vincent watched the exchange with a flat face.

Sarah and Max had both been born in the first decade after the takeover, in time for their grandparents Harold and Gladys to see them before they passed away in their sixties after a life well spent. They had always been close. Their parents' wise teaching and the oftentimes lack of company from the everyday people they ruled meant that they looked to each other for friendship. This was the same with Vincent and Junior, the two men having become brothers in a relatively short space of time, cemented by the many hardships they had faced over the years.

"Mmm… mn… Okay let's go." Sarah said as she separated from her partner and the two made their way to the front door, Junior retracting the crystal blades back down to nothing, allowing them to simply exit the front door as if nothing had happened. As Vincent strode out into the street he willed his police uniform to burn away, becoming engulfed in a black flickering flame, the energy taking the form of his regular black clothes and heavy violet coat. Joining his sister and brother in law out in the street they noticed no one else on the outside seemed to have noticed the massacre, the local denizens going about to and fro, the electronica still playing steadily over the sound of engines.

"So you wanna head back now?" Sarah asked. Vincent looked down the street quietly, just observing the thousands of individuals going about their business, coming and going from bars and pulsating nightclubs, entering and exiting their cars which then took off at a gentle hover down the street or rose high into the air above. The late morning sky was still dark as night, an eerie blue glow filtering in through the clouds above being all the natural light they received, with the rest coming from the countless bright neon signs and the lights of the office blocks high overhead.

Yet throughout the nihilistic decadence of it all he felt a familiar presence close by, someone he hadn't been able to see in too long. His spirit began to pull on him, and he yearned to find the source of the presence.

"You two go ahead. I think I'll stay out a bit longer." He replied. Nodding his sister and brother in law turned to make their way back.

"Okay, we'll see you later." Whipping out her blades again she struck a deep scar in the fabric of reality before her, the diagonal tear forming a portal back to the citadel. Vincent watched as they both stepped into it, the tear closing after them, leaving him alone in amidst the perpetual nightlife.

Turning away from the police station he set himself in a façade of the stoic calm and darkness that usually pervaded him, though he was immediately alert below. Stepping down the footpath he turned his head left and right, watching the people going about whatever they were doing, all the while reaching out for the feeling. He looked out at the bright neon lights lining the street, some of which floated on anti grav coils up between the buildings. Overhead a large light grey blimp gently glided on through the skyline, displaying advertising for different corporations, the various cars and skimmers below serving to contrast with its looming size and grandiosity. Amidst the background noise Vincent could make out the sound of Cold Storage's Body in Motion, an ancient track that had originally been used as part of an old world jet skimmer racing game, a favourite of his parents. Overhead the sound of deep rolling thunder came from the dense clouds. Looking up he noticed as the first cracks of a lighter grey began to spread, indicating that with the police gone the damage was starting to heal. It fascinated him how all these narrow-minded people, many of which could barely even tell right from wrong despite their society's best efforts to show them the way, could be made to build such a powerful civilisation. But they didn't do this by coming together and deciding to work for a common good, they did so because they were forced to get over themselves. What power his parents had to wield in order to effectively control their subjects to build all this. When he stood back and just stared at it he couldn't help but marvel at its dark splendour.

He found where the presence was coming from. Looking away to his right he strode across out of the crowd, towards a secluded alley. Following it down towards its end he saw it came out into a large, dimly lit stretch of space behind the buildings on either side of the street. Looking left in the darkness away from the neon and streetlights, through the vapour in the air he could make out a gently glowing dome of spectral energy like what he used to move to and fro, its black surface rippling and giving off a soft white light. He could feel the presence of the one he was looking for coming from within.

Dropping his emotionless façade he started out towards the flickering dome with anticipation in his features. As he approached expectantly the dome opened at the top. Vincent stopped as he watched it open up, waiting for the person he sensed to face him back from within, but as the dome faded away he was perplexed when he found nobody inside. He frowned, until he heard the sound of muted footsteps on the concrete in the shadows of the buildings behind him, and the presence changed to emanate from the same source.

Turning around to face the intruder he gasped, as emerging from the shadow was a woman his age, with jagged purple hair and a matching outfit, a mystic demon hunter katana strapped to her back, and eyes the colour of amber.

"You're not getting sloppy are you, falling for your own trick?" She spoke as they both faced each other with a softer gaze than they normally gave people.

As one Vincent and Gaz whisked in towards each other, wrapping their arms around one another and engaging in a passionate kiss. Gaz ran her fingers through his short platinum blonde hair as Vincent cupped her face with one hand, while his other cradled the side of her slim waist. Separating they gave each other a heartfelt smile and nuzzled each other affectionately, Vincent willing his cloak to evaporate so he could feel her delicate pail hands and arms around him as he held the slim, beautiful woman.

Gaz and Max had crossed paths many times in the underworld, and after Max had begun training Vincent to take over in preparation for his own retirement the two had started working together. Though Max had been uninterested in a romantic relationship even towards the end, Vincent was different. He was like her. After only a few jobs together the two had quickly begun falling for each other. But even as their relationship blossomed into love, Vincent's work took him to all corners of the physical plain, while Gaz was often trudging through the deep levels of the underworld where getting between the two levels was nigh on impossible and they were cut off from each other, sometimes for weeks at a time. In these times Gaz often thought about the first time they had consummated their love, where he had finally cleansed her of the remaining foul taint left over from her sad brother's abuses, and made her feel whole and complete again.

"I missed you so much. I swear I don't know how I can keep going here without you in my life." Vincent spoke with love as he revelled in the feel of her kiss again. "I need you with me. I want to be there with you."

"I know, but this is just the way it has to be for now." Gaz replied calmly. "The more apart we are, the less we can take each other for granted."

"But I never take you or anything for granted." He protested. Gaz caressed his fringe, causing him to close his eyes and sigh with bliss as she smiled.

"There are just too many creatures right now who want us dead. The Night only rules over the physical world. I'm already prey down there and I'm not even part of it, I have to run more than I fight. With you there would be nowhere we could run to. I won't allow that, not in my turf." She growled with a hint of her old ominous nature shining through much to his enjoyment. "Besides, there'll be plenty of time for us to be together soon."

At that Vincent placed one hand on her belly with love for the two people who were currently with them at that moment.

"Have you told Mandy yet?"

"I'm going to tell her today." He answered with love for all three of them.

Gaz was two months pregnant with twins. She was busy preparing to finish what jobs she needed finished before leaving to start a new life with her husband on Earth, where they could raise their children in safety. At this stage however it was difficult for her to stay in the physical world for any length of time, simply as a result of her spending most of her time above and below it. Currently she was using a considerable amount of the power her late friend Max had given her to stay here. But as her mortal children grew within her that would change, and she would return to the physical world with them.

"Sweetheart I can't stay." She spoke knowing she would have to return in a few moments lest she and the lives depending on her be left drained and helpless against the hordes out to kill her. Vincent faced her with pain.

"Just be careful. You're a mother now." He spoke. She smiled at his worry, bringing him back from his depression to face her with adoration again. "We'll be together soon."

Coming together again the two shared one last loving kiss, before Vincent felt the ethereal energy forming around her again, and stepped back as a black dome rose up around her. Gaz had time enough to give him one last smile, before the dome closed around the peak, and evaporated, leaving only empty space.

Vincent watched her go mournfully, until he bought himself back to his natural orderly state, content that he would see her again soon and would wait until that time. Stepping back away from where the dome had formed he returned to the alley, looking down it out at the crowd outside with focussed contemplation.

Like all great masterpieces the Night Empire was plagued by minor flaws, blemishes that he dedicated his mind and will to seeking out and terminating to keeping his society running smoothly. He could sense the corruption of minds in the wide urban sprawl all around him like a taint.

However he looked down on them objectively, indifferent to their plight in relation to the damage they caused to the people who actually tried to give the wider world more than they took. It bought him neither satisfaction or pleasure, nor guilt or remorse what he did. It was simply his mission, and he carried out every mission with the same logical, detached and cold scowl required to use his and his scythe's terrible power.

His mission here was complete; the slave traders were dead, as were the corrupt police cooperating with them, and the remaining gangs and criminals would be dealt with by the regular armed forces. Summoning his scythe again he held out the blade ready, causing a soft light to be given off, drawing out several dozen souls from the nearby police department, sending their wasted souls to oblivion where they could rot away without disturbance before it returned to its normal cold calm. Lowering it to his side he reviewed the situation, content that he had effectively followed his lifelong mission. He dismissed the scythe again, before forming a rippling black orb to form directly behind him. His work complete he stepped back into its cold embrace, the dome vanishing after to reveal he had vanished like the spectre of shadow he was.

XTak hadn't reverted back to her old Irken clone body for years. In comparison to her five foot six human body her original physiology was temperamental, unsuitable to all but a very narrow set of conditions, and dependent on a pak for survival. Their only saving grace as she saw it was they were small enough to hide in tight spaces. Other than that the second generation Irken was just the by-product of a culture high on their own pride and arrogant sense of superiority. Besides, with a well endowed figure like hers, with the voluptuous curves, sexy hips and ample e-cup breasts she found herself gifted with, why go back to that tiny little stick figure from before?

Her attire consisted of a form fitting purple and violet long sleeved top with the Irken Republic insignia and an open midriff that showed off her curvaceous waist, loose at the lower edge below her breasts. She still wore a violet miniskirt that parted down her left leg, though somewhat shorter and looser. Below that was a set of purple and black thigh length socks, attached to a garter on each thigh, which was in turn attached to a suspender around her hips under her skirt, with her usual high buckle-up boots at her feet. Tak was ever eager to allure her husband, especially considering his sexual hunger and perverted tendencies matched her own, and he could do remarkable things with his tentacles. Her sexy attire was bolstered immensely by the fact she hadn't worn a bra or panties in a very long time, and loved the constant danger she felt of being exposed and humiliated as she was every now and then. It set her in a near constant urge for pleasure which only her man could satisfy.

Work wise Tak and her partner had found it surprisingly simple to control the territories once held by Irk. The native inhabitants of many worlds had been faced with abhorrent crimes from their oppressors, genocide first and foremost. To many of these people though they were distrusting of their new tyrants when they arrived, when they set down to the task of rebuilding each society and enforcing law and order they were soon seen as benevolent lords in comparison, and though officially they ruled their people with a heavy hand, they governed wisely and justly. Also the use of the Irken control brain technology within their territories as opposed to officers took care of many of the problems of micro management for them especially with regards to surveillance, leaving them with only the larger decisions to make. Her husband made himself busy as lord of the Nerglings, no longer the small scurrying creatures they once were but a proper race of demons living amongst their subjects. They would accompany them into war when it came time to expand their power and bring about the demise of yet more corrupt regimes throughout the stars.

Currently the mid twenties woman stood behind a one way mirror deep within the bowels of the beast, watching into a concrete room of the dungeon below the massive walls of the citadel. She smirked, watching as the red and black suit-clad Nergal tortured the last remaining leader of the Irken Empire, former Tallest Red. He wasn't so tall anymore considering his legs had been cut off at the hip, the bandages around the stumps stained a bloody green colour. His armour had been stripped, revealing his frail body. Currently he was dangling just below face height above a pool of chlorinated water set into the floor, the chain around his pak connected to the ceiling with his hands fastened behind his back, Nergal watching on.

"You know one of the things about holding great power and authority, is that you need an equal amount of mental strength with which to be able to control it." He spoke to the dangling former despot as all the while he gritted his teeth and glared furiously back through the pain. However instead of forming a visage of defiance it only served to made him look like a selfish child who wasn't getting his way. Nergal the Second scrutinised him coolly through his stylish green glasses.

"If you can control yourself you may become wise and revered among your subjects as a great and powerful ruler, and go on to forge great civilisations. Most people however, people like you and your friend over there…" He gestured to the mass of minced flesh in the corner that was once Tallest Purple. "… become drunk on your own pride and abilities. You become arrogant, conceited and vain, believing that you are more important than everyone else and deserving of whatever you want, and think of everyone else as being somehow below your level of so-called perfection. People like that soon forget all about actually maintaining their strength, and become lazy and stupid, and weak. That is why so many of your subjects fled to Earth, and your people were crushed so easily by our forces."

"SHUT UP!" Red spat back in a fit of self-righteous anger unwilling to take accountability for his actions. "You think you've won? You worthless vermin are nothing compared to me! I'm the ruler of the master race and you are just an animal, a lab freak!" He smirked as he looked over to the ruined heap of meat. "Thanks to you I'm now the sole ruler of the entire universe! You hear that, you actually helped me!"

"Did we now? In that case why don't you summon your vast army and crush us like ants?" He retorted. "Well? Where are your legions of troops now? Where are all your factories and cities and billions of subjects?" Red grimaced as Nergal's words grated away at his bloated ego. Nergal took a step closer and leaned in towards him, taking off his glasses and putting them in his coat to see him clearly.

"Let's take a moment to review just what it is you and your 'master race' have accomplished shall we? First of all, your predecessors and all their followers built an empire by invading, murdering, pillaging, raping and enslaving one people after another, and undid societies that took hundreds of thousands of years for people to build. Everything the Irken Empire has, or rather had, was stolen from better people who struggled to create it. Then you two come along, and not only continue to murder, rape and pillage billions of people on a dozen worlds, but because you needed to have your own god complex fed you drained your own empire of every drop of life from within, like an enormous parasite. And in your selfish stupidity and uncontrollable greed you hollowed out your own society so that when you made your attack, there was no strength left to back it up. So considering all of this, what exactly do you have to be proud of?"

The bruised and bloodied tyrant snarled furiously, all sense of reality and reason lost to him. "YOU! YOU BASTARD FREAK! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, I'M BETTER THAN YOU! I OWN YOU! I OWN EVERYTHING! I AM A GOD! IT'S NOT FAIR, YOU CAN'T, ONLY I CAN…" His deranged ranting and raving only irritated the demon. Extending a tentacle out his back he pressed a button on the wall, lowering the madman towards the pool. "GERRRAH DAMN YOU! GAU! IT'S NOT FAIR! ONLY I CAN, I'LL GET YOU! I AGAH… YOU! I'LL CRUSH YOU! I AM A GOD! AUGKIH! ARAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH H!"

He continued to scream in agony even as his antenna submerged into the toxic liquid. Junior watched on impassively while behind the mirror Tak smirked with glee. After holding him underwater for a few more seconds he depressed another button with his coil, raising the blistered and burnt creature back up as he coughed and cried with the pain of his body-wide burns.

As the Irken Empire decayed from centuries of neglect under their reign the Tallest had been enraged by the refugee movement of their own subjects to Earth. Amassing a fleet they launched an attack on the capital. Though the damage had been done and thousands of people died as a result of their intolerance, the fleet was destroyed, and the two despots fled back to Irk. Afterwards they had faced one crushing defeat after another, one by one stripping them of their captured territories even as they tried to destroy their enslaved societies before the armies arrived. When finally the attack on Irk came there were few troops left to defend the capital. Irk was reduced to a ruin, and the two responsible were now at the mercy of the people they had tried to exterminate.

They had been at this for weeks since, torture, humiliation, bit by bit breaking down his high and mighty persona and reveal what he really was underneath, to reduce him to the level he deserved to be at. Purple had been easier to break because he was a coward. Red however had been so full of pride for his own power and greatness that he'd not given up his narcissism yet. Now though it appeared they were close to their goal.

"Before I torture you anymore I want you to know why I am doing this to you." He explained to him. "For much of my life I have been cursed and hated simply because I was different to everyone else, as if their way was the only way, and the existence of anything that wasn't like them was a crime. You are the epitome of this bigoted scum. You see fit to exterminate billions of lives simply because they weren't like you. You think you are perfect? Look at you, spindly and weak limbs, burnt by any environment different to your own, and a mind too weak to think beyond yourself." Grasping his head harshly he pulled him around to face his hard scowl.

"This is for all the people you enslaved and killed and raped simply because you thought you were better."

"But I am better!" He retorted, his voice now beginning to crack. "I… I-I can do these things. I'm the ruler of the universe! I can do whatever I want! Those freaks deserve that they got for being weird and ugly and freakish! They're contaminating my universe! Those freaks and whores should be grateful that I allowed them to serve me as my slaves." Grimacing in disgust Nergal reached out with his coils, fastening them around the tops of his arms. With one swift pull he tore them out of their sockets. "AAAAAAAA-HA-HAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"How dare you talk like that in your state. You're nothing now. Your empire has been _destroyed,_ your billions of slaves are _our loyal subjects,_ your capital is _in ruins,_ and you and your rabid people bought it all upon yourselves."

"FUCK YOU! YOU'RE JUST A FREAK! AN ABOMINATION! A MONSTER!" He screamed in response as his green blood trickled down from his shoulder stumps.

"Freak. Abomination. Monster." Came a new voice. Turning to the open armoured doorway in the side of the room they saw standing there the one woman who had sealed the fate of the Irken Empire, Tak. She smirked in humour at the pathetic wreckage dangling above the water. "That's rich coming out of you. Look at you, you're a mutilated corpse that still hasn't died yet. Every inch of your skin's been burnt, you have no arms or legs, and you call me a defect?" Striding in she grasped him by the antenna, holding him down close to the water. "Now you are the freak. How does it feel? Tell me, how does it feel freak!"

She plunged his body into the water again up over his face, his screams of agony forming bubbles as his skin blistered further with the acidic reaction. Her partner watched with satisfaction, loving the sadistic evil grin across her features as she pulled him up again. The ruined despot gasped and whimpered now, his eyes screwed shut as he tried to block out the pain in his body and the pain of his defeat.

"Now you sack of shit, you still think you're better than me!" Tak barked into his burnt face. Shivering in agony he managed a shake of his head. "Hey, I didn't hear you!" She shoved him down towards the water again.

"AHH NO! PLEASE NO!" He cried out just millimetres from the burning chlorine. "O-okay, I'm not! I'm not better! I'm no-noth-hing… P-ple-he-hease…" Tears ran down from his eyes as he shuddered and cried, his arrogance and pride finally breaking down before them. Her lifelong ambition finally realised Tak straightened up, heaving a deep sigh of content as she withdrew the weeping, ruined despot from the water's edge.

"Yes, that's right Red. That's right. You have nothing to be proud of, just a stuck-up little thug who never deserved to rule. Isn't that right?" He nodded slightly, his mutilated body still shuddering and racking with sobs.

"Oh please have mercy." He whimpered pathetically as he hung suspended from the ceiling. Unfortunately Tak just sneered sadistically.

"No. SARAAAAAHHHHH!" She roared out, the whimpering creature's face taking on a look of utter horror. Out the open door they watched as a figure came barrelling in towards them, orange eyes glowing murderously along with a demonic smile.

"Heeeeeyyyyy guuuuuyyyyyys!" The crazed woman called ahead of her as she raced up to stop in the doorway, casting her eyes leeringly on her prey as he gaped back terrified. "Hey, you bought me a new chew toy! He looks like he'd be a real squealer just like his pal Purple. I just know we're gonna have so much fun together!"

"_AAAAAAAAAAAHHH! AAAAAAAAAHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"_

Red screamed hysterically, shaking his head and thrashing his stumps about in an attempt to escape. Sarah smiled, withdrawing her sabres from her back. Aiming them at the round pool below the despot she fired a stream of particles, turning it into a bubbling and boiling cauldron of nightmarish matter leading straight to Venusian hell. Eyes ablaze with sadistic glee she grasped the screaming tyrant by the neck and pushed down against the chain, applying ever greater pressure as a number of jawed tentacles reached up to try and snap at him. Nergal folded his arms across his chest, Tak and Sarah grinning cruelly as Red's pak finally gave way, tearing out of his back as he and Sarah plunged into the pool of boiling green foam, a final scream of agony escaping from within.

"You guys are sadists you know that?" Vincent said as he and Junior stepped into the doorway.

"Says the tee-one thousand." Tak replied back. "I wonder what would happen if I shot you in the face with a shotgun?"

"You wouldn't want to find out." He answered with a realistic imitation of his cold death-stare. It was enough to send a shiver through their spines anyway.

"Say is that still open?" Junior asked pointing to the pit of nightmares.

"_NOOO! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"_ Came Red's voice from within.

"I see. Hmm. In that case, excuse me, heh heh heh heh…" Chuckling sadistically he stepped up and dived in to join his wife. Vincent simply watched flatly, a slight twitch occurring in his eye.

Watching the entire gruesome and satisfying spectacle Tak smiled, before her lips parted with wonder.

"… _Oooh…"_

She raised an eyebrow as the satisfaction she felt now moved down into the jewel partially hidden under her skirt. Nergal looked to her with curiosity as her eyes fluttered out of focus, and her legs locked tightly together as she arched her body with her breasts out. Vincent frowned, then rolled his eyes as he saw the peaks of her two peaks starting to poke through the thin fabric of her top. Turning to her husband Tak gave a sultry smile as her face blushed madly, as the ends of the man's lips began to pick up, among other things.

"Hey sweetheart…" Tak cooed to her husband as she reached her hands around his shoulders and pressed her body into his side. Nergal looked to her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Breathing heavily with her pupils dilated Tak opened her mouth, and licked sensually around her lips with her wet tongue, causing Nergal to gasp.

"Again?" He asked her with a look of shock as Tak lowered her face shyly still looking up to him with a sexy smile on her tomato red face. "You were only just sucking on me in the car on the way over here, and under my desk, and under the sheets this morning. You even drank me in your coffee!" Tak giggled softly as she shied away from him ever so slightly with embarrassment, putting one arm across her front while still pressing her aroused body into him.

"Then I haven't had nearly enough of you." Biting her lip she moved around to his front, putting her hands up around his shoulders as he cupped her bare waist, tracing his hands across her curvaceous skin. Casting her eyes down she could see the large bulge that she fantasized about moving down his left thigh under the fabric of his pants. Looking back to him as he blushed she rubbed her thigh against it, causing his arousal to grow, both thankful that neither of them wore underwear.

Tak and Nergal's relationship was not sacred and wholesome like Billy and Mandy's was. Their sexuality usually involved snorting and snarling and screaming and swearing, and would often leave both of them in considerable pain afterwards. There was no level they would not degrade themselves to in order to make their partner feel how they felt. Many times they consummated their perversion within earshot of others, and there were hundreds of scandals of them doing some very indecent things in inappropriate places, in the car amidst traffic was one of their favourites. There were hundreds of humiliating pictures and videos of them doing different things, and every one served to fan the flames of their passion. Tak's sexual hunger had reached a point where she had been recognised as a succubus by that race of demons, and she had more than lived up to the title.

As her lifelong lover gently petted the long main of sapphire hair that nearly reached her shapely hips, one hand rubbing along her back between her shoulder blades where they encountered no strap for any bra, Tak looked up to the taller man with love in her now wide-set emotional eyes.

"Nergal, my love…" She faced him with her heart open for him to see. "I want to suck on your-"

"Could you two _pleeease_ do this somewhere else?" Vincent spoke up uncomfortably, grimacing as the two immortals turned to face him.

"Why are you still here!" Nergal snapped.

"Look, I don't have any real problem with you two exchanging your bodily fluids into places they don't belong in your own disgusting form of love, but would you _please do it somewhere else?"_

You're just jealous because you can't have me." Tak retorted with a frown before she smirked turning back to her partner. "I only drink the essence of one man."

Vincent just stood staring flatly with revulsion as Tak and Nergal looked to each other with love and shared a short kiss. Raising his hands he backed away towards the door to leave them alone together.

"Make sure Aurora doesn't hear us."

"You don't have to tell me!" He snapped back closing the metal door.

"Now…" The former Junior spoke, a sly smile on his handsome features. Grasping the bottom of her loose top he pulled the fabric up, exposing her fat breasts as Tak gasped at the assault. Breathing hard she rolled her eyes back and started to moan as her partner attacked her breasts with his hands, groping and molesting her roughly as he smiled.

"Shit Tak, your tits feel even bigger than I remember!" He exclaimed as he gave her bulging nipples a twist as she moaned with delight.

"They are. They always… get bigger… when I'm on heat… and cause of you I'm always on heat! Oh baby! That's so good! You're bruising my tits!"

"They'll heal!" He snarled as they kissed each other passionately, their tongues sliding over each other in the middle as he molested her. Tak pressed her chest into his hands as he squeezed her soft flesh, while spreading her legs slightly to allow the air to grace her partially hidden treasure, increasing her arousal.

Pulling back from their French kiss the second Nergal patriarch leered at her as he took one hand away from her fat chest and reached up and under her skirt to grope her smooth round ass. He smiled as he began working his fingers, squeezing and kneading her forbidden fruits, watching now as Tak gave a guttural groan and bit her lip as a twisted smile broke out across her face and her eyes rolled back in their sockets.

Overwhelmed by the pleasures he was causing her body with his fingers intrusion her eyes snapped open.

"No more games!" She spoke sharply.

Pulling back from him she pulled her top down over her breasts, grabbing his hand and leading him over to the wall beside the door where she slammed him up against the surface hard. Her partner breathed hard with anticipation and arousal as she faced him with almost predatory intent, breathing hard as she now ground herself up against him with love in her eyes.

"Should we lock the door?" He spoke up before they continued. "What if someone comes in while we're going at each other? Or what if Sarah and Junior come back while we're still here?"

"Oh yeah, that would be so embarrassing, seeing me degrade myself for you… and _soooo hot!"_ Tak moaned overcome by lust. Nergal gave a laugh and shook his head.

"My dirty, beautiful angel." She looked to him with heartfelt affection and smiled lovingly.

"I'm going to make love to you with my mouth now." She spoke to him with a wide smile and a warm gaze as he gasped for breath. "I want you to feel just a little bit of how you make me feel, just like when I first sucked on you the day you told me how you felt." They remembered the feelings to this day, how they had taken turns in filling the cabin of their little craft with moans and pleasure and love, and how they had held each other so close after that.

Her partner smiled to her adoringly as he reached up and caressed her pail features, tracing his fingers through her hair behind her ear as she now placed her slender hands in between his legs and groped him, making him take a shaking gasp. "… And every time since."

They smiled to each other with their hearts starting to race. "Remember, I like it when you put your hands through my hair when I'm doing it." She spoke feeling vulnerable with what she was about to do, Nergal giving a nod in return.

Leaning in Tak gave him a gentle, slow kiss on his open mouth, the ex-Junior caressing her face as he kissed her back, before she pulled away, and with a loving smile lowered herself to her knees. Her partner held his hand in her hair all the way down as she began to undo the belt and zipper of his pants.

* * *

If Vincent concentrated hard enough he could reasonably pretend that he had not experienced any of Tak and Nergal's sex session.

'_God, so this is what Junior has to go through around them.'_ He was supremely thankful that he had not turned out as the depraved weirdo his parents were, considering he was his sister's lover. After spending several lifetimes together through thick and thin the three had come to an understanding. He trusted Junior with Sarah.

Looking back down the hallway he stared at the door where he'd left them, gritting his teeth as he rolled his eyes skywards, turning on his heels to continue walking down to the right hand corridor away from them.

'_How the hell did their kid end up with Mum and Dad's kid?'_

Looking down the cell block he noticed the doors at the end open, and a smile graced the cold predator's face as a young girl of age seven stepped through the doorway facing him. She had dark eyes like him, pale skin like her mother, and dark blue-black hair like Max fixed straight back down to her neck, with a silver headband like her mother. She wore a red dress with a bright yellow smiley face in the middle, with a skull pendant around her neck that once belonged to his wife Gaz. As she saw him there coming towards her she smiled. Her name was Aurora, and she was the youngest daughter of Billy and Mandy.

"Vince!" She cried out happily despite having seen him just yesterday. Despite having inherited her father's happy-go-lucky personality from before he became a demon lord, she was actually considerably smarter than she let on she was, and had the merciless iron will and determination of her mother to match.

"Hey sis." Vincent called back with a smile as he walked out to meet the girl, putting a hand around her shoulder as she faced her elder brother. "How have you been? Have you been good while I was gone?"

"Nope." She replied happily. "I came down here to say hi to Red. I was gonna try having a reasonable conversation with him, and chip away at his pride a little bit, and maybe poke out one of his eyes depending on the answers he gives me. Where is he?"

"Sorry, Junior and Sarah got to him first. They just broke his shell now." He replied.

"Right. I almost feel sorry for him. All those layers of hypocrisy…" She smiled evilly at what he must be going through.

"You had your own chance with Purple. Speaking of which what did you do to him?" He asked with curiosity. Aurora smiled softly and looked to him with haunting black eyes.

"I stared at him with such unwavering judgement that he fell into a coma." Vincent felt cold as her eyes seemed to hollow out all the way to hell.

"So that's why he had that look of constant horror on his face." He recalled of how she had trapped him inside his own mind at the mercy all that he had ever done. Thankfully she looked away and they continued on.

"So where's Tak and Nergal?"

"_Oooh… Oooh… Tak, honey, you're so good at that."_ Came a familiar moaning voice down the sell block. Aurora narrowed her dark eyes.

"What's that?" She asked of the strange moans. Vincent promptly clamped his hands over his sister's ears.

"Torture, or at least something horrible." He answered quickly with a disgruntled grimace, cursing the two for not doing this in a better place. He led her out the door away from the two in the other hallway.

"Come on, let's go."

"Those two are pervs aren't they?" She spoke with a flat look that mirrored her brother's.

"Aurora, promise me you'll never end up like them." Vincent pleaded her.

"Okay, what would you like me to be instead? Should I be like Sarah the Homicidal Maniac, or should I be an emotionless hunter-killer like you?" Looking down from above Vincent gave her the withering cold stare he had inherited from his predecessor, which she matched eye to eye. He smirked.

"I'd say you were just fine the way you are." She smirked contentedly back and looked out ahead as they made to exit the cell block.

"In the end planning or not I think you just have to make up who you want to be as you go." She dropped the piece of insight and trailed off as they made their way through a pair of sliding doors, passing a pair of armoured soldiers. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"_**Hello master, we're just fine thanks."**_ One machine answered her politely in a way conflicting with its menacing green eyes and plasma rifle.

"Cool. I'll see ya later." She spoke as she led her brother out away from the prison, stepping out into a vast open hall the size of a football field supported on epic pillars. Looking up to him she quietly beamed with some unseen accomplishment and excitement, earning Vincent's interest. There's something I want to show you."

Pausing in amongst the vast open space she took hold of the old skull, lifting it up over her head to hold in her hand. With a short toss she threw it out in front of her. The ancient carving soared gracefully through the air in its short trip, before it came down to the ground. Upon impact it burst out in a bright flash of red supernatural flame. The pyre grew quickly, turning an orange to yellow colour as if grew to touch the roof. Another flash and the column turned green, a number of growing streaks of lightning flashing throughout. The flames turned a deep neon blue, slowly dissipating to reveal a tower of searing lightning and power, its colours changing through indigo and violet. When finally they vanished with a last bright flash and a loud bang, Vincent gazed in wonder at the foreboding figure that now stood where it had been.

A pitch black robe flowed over cold, skeletal features devoid of flesh. Two hollow eye sockets stared out to the world, their depths revealing the oblivion he embodied. In his skeletal right hand he held a long razor sharp scythe, whilst in the other dangled the skull pendant that had summoned him.

"**I. Am. Dea-"**

"HI GRIIIM!" She called obnoxiously and ran up and gave him a stupid-looking hug, immediately shattering the ominous aura surrounding the ancient reaper.

"Oh for de sake of all evil and darkness you intolerable child will you please just stop cramping me style?" Grim grizzled. Aurora's smile turned evil, and she pulled inwards hard, causing Grim to gasp as one of his legs detached at the knee. Vincent stared in mute surprise.

"Grim? The Grim Reaper? The original one that served Mom and Dad?" He asked hesitantly to which Grim gave a nod as his young master let him go, wherein he reached down to reattach the severed limb.

"I won him just yesterday in a game of scrabble. I won easy cause I know Irken words, and I have a dictionary to back them up." Aurora explained feeling pleased with herself. Her servant however didn't appear to be as optimistic about the situation.

"Oh joy of all joys. I'm enslaved to the same family I was a millennium ago. Do you little runts know how long it took me to get back my original power and prestige after Billy and Mandy wrecked it?"

"Grim, now I know that you've suffered under the ownership of your previous masters, and your pride doesn't like it that you've been reduced to a servant again." Aurora spoke to him with an even voice in an attempt to rationalise with him. "The thing you have to understand is that while I know and respect what you've gone through… I don't care."

Grabing him by the robe she yanked him down to eye level with her so she could scowl mercilessly into his eye sockets. "If you don't do exactly what I order you to then I will introduce you to a nightmare world of shrieking anguish and humiliation so extreme you will want to go back to serving Mom and Dad when they were kids. Do not underestimate my wrath, because I have a job to do. I'm building upon my Mother's vision. Are we clear minion?"

In that instant Grim saw just how much his old masters embodied the new. Her eyes possessed the same deep seated force of burning rage and domination that Mandy had in her youth, and had successfully combined it with Billy's optimism and her own veiled intelligence, and his ferocious cruelty. With that combination she was set to become something far more frightening than those two ever were. Despite his fear somewhere deep within he smirked. _'I think I could get used to dis.'_

"Yes my master." He spoke humbly and sincerely. With that Aurora let him go, taking back her skull pendant.

"Hold on." Vincent spoke up. "Why would you go out and challenge Grim to a game all of a sudden? It doesn't make sense that you'd do it just for kicks."

His sister turned to face him with a smirk, a knowing gleam in her dark eyes. "You'll find out soon enough, as soon as Mom and Dad get back." Putting her pendant on over her head again she set out for a deeper level of the titanic structure. "Come on, Grim's gonna show me how to use the scythe."

Vincent and Grim shared a look as they watched her slowly envelop herself in the shadows, smothering them in an air of darkness her mother could only dream of when she was her age. Even at such an early stage in her life it was clear to all that she would destined to one day surpass and succeed them.

* * *

Later.

The orange sun continued on its path across the hazy sky over the capital megalopolis, the various clouds of dense material floating gradually across the sky as it came to midday, arriving at early afternoon, still without the Empire's rulers there to watch over their billions of subjects. Millions of people of all races and species bustled about amongst the giant mile high city, the lowlifes who thought only of themselves scurrying about below like rats while above them the honourable people went about their jobs with loyalty and diligence.

Eventually later in the afternoon many of these two types of people began to leave their jobs to go home. Among them was Xeek, piloting her Ford south towards her apartment complex.

Her first day had proven to be wonderful, magical, even if fraught with danger. She found herself surrounded by people just like her, if of widely varying background, and all showed her the respect they'd show a best friend. As for her job she had quickly proven to be more than adept at management. But what she had experienced of the two angels of vengeance this morning had inspired her, and as much as she loved her new job she already knew where she was going in years to come. Thus now she had a smile on her face as she cruised on home amongst the traffic, the looming monolithic fortress of their rulers visible to the front-right.

From behind her a lone red and silver skimmer rocketed in towards the flow of hovercars, slotting into the long line of vehicles, many of which moved to give it distance for fear of the dark aura it radiated out.

Xeek sensed something throughout her body, some level of her recognising what it meant as he antenna twitched in anticipation. _'Power. Authority. Revenge. Darkness. What is this?'_ Furrowing her brow she noticed the cars around her beginning to move away from her, their drivers sensing it too. Though part of her wanted to get away from the source of her fear as well, another greater side of her wanted to be a part of it, causing her to remain unmoving in her flight path.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a shape approaching up beside her. Instantly she knew it was the source of the powerful aura. Turning her head slowly, hesitantly to the right she saw her menacing new companion.

In the cockpit of the low sleek jet skimmer she made out two people, the one closest to her being a blonde haired woman. She could feel the power radiating from her like a firestorm, able to make out her low set face. Noticing she was being watched the woman turned to face her with focused onyx eyes. Xeek's blood froze momentarily in fear, before bit by bit her terror became replaced by a feeling of absolute reverence.

Smirking she dipped her head down in respect for the woman looking back. Watching her show of respect from within her skimmer the woman lowered her head in response, before the wraith of a machine turned and streaked away in a flash of blue jet trails, leaving a very happy Xeek chuckling darkly to herself behind them.

Soaring above the buildings towards the citadel the sinister red craft descended towards the base, a door in the top of the structure opening up to permit their entry. Piloting it in with ease the machine came down to park itself on three landing pads, several hundred machines lined up to greet it, watching on with cold malice as the doors opened up vertically. Stepping out into the docking bay Mandy of the Night strode down their ranks, a determined scowl set on her features as behind her the terrifying figure of the Prince Demons Billy followed her, smiling savagely to be back amidst their element as his eyes glowed a brilliant orange-red.

Passing the garrison by without issue they entered the elevator, riding it up in silence up to the top of the colossal fortress. Making their way out they passed by their throne room, twin seats suspended high above the floor, moving on towards their room. Entering the luxurious suite Billy sat back on the red sheets of the bed, watching as his wife made her way to the giant panoramic window.

Scowling darkly she set one fist up against the glass and looked out over her domain, musing quietly as she surveyed the power she held with satisfaction. All her life she had desired power over people, to enforce order, so people would live according to what they contributed to the world they lived in. And look at what they had accomplished. Her society ran like a well oiled machine. Few of the people who used to feed off the suffering of their fellow human beings ever put a foot out of line now. All of those people down there lived their entire lives in fear of her wrath. They obeyed her laws to the word out of their fear, the stress of her oppression never leaving them for an instant. Meanwhile those who contributed moved up in life, and took positions where they were most needed and best suited to, forming her society's important middle class. They all started with the same bountiful opportunities, schooled and trained for their lives, but it was up to them to decide how their lives were going to turn out, and it was the same even for those who had only recently become part of their society, refugees and the inhabitants of the worlds they now reigned over. It was just as she had wanted all her life; people had been bought to a level they deserved to live at on an individual level. There was finally justice. Her Empire was a powerhouse in both military and economy that ran like a clock, there was nothing else like it in all the worlds she had encountered, with an incredibly rich culture and history from their own past and that of the societies they had absorbed. It was equal parts utopian paradise and dystopian future-noir. She had bought people both moral and corrupt together and inspired and forced them to work together to forge all this, while her loyal soldiers and subordinates, the surveillance network and the computers that filtered through it all ensured that her control was well maintained, and any parasites pulled out and taken care of.

And yet as her youngest had made her realise not long ago, this was only the first step.

'_In Endsville they spent their entire lives trying to drag the world down to below their level to cover up what they were inside, so we fed it all back on them. Now they can drown in the misery they've sown.'_

"Heh heh heh heh heh…" She heard her husband chuckle. "You never get tired of that view do you?" Billy spoke behind her with a noticeable dark undertone.

"Have you?" She posed. "I thought you liked terrorising corrupt scum, tearing out all their hypocrisy and exposing all they are underneath." Billy gave a low chuckle in response, stepping up to embrace his wife from behind. Mandy's scowl melted slightly as he wrapped his arms around her slender waist, holding her close as they looked out over their empire.

"I couldn't imagine ever doing this without you." Mandy told him, prompting him to caress her waist softly. Leaning in he kissed her on the neck, a soft smile forming on her face.

"I adore you." He whispered in her ear. Turning around in his arms Mandy put her hands on his shoulders, closing the distance between them to kiss him. His presence bought on an intoxicating feeling of absolute bliss whenever she was with him, a feeling he shared with her. Smiling into the kiss she felt the warmth within her making her blush, Billy focussed completely on the softness of her lips and the gentle curves of her body in his hands. When finally they separated they faced each other, their faces flushed, their breath coming deeper as they nuzzled and held each other affectionately.

"Come on." Mandy spoke up at last. "The others will be waiting for us."

As they began to make their way to the bedroom door they were met with a knock on the other side. Pausing Mandy stepped over, opening it to find her son Vincent standing there with a soft smile. Her heart always melted when her children faced her like that. He made his way in and the two embraced each other in a hug.

"Hey Mom."

"Hey Vince. How have you been?" She spoke with affection.

"I've been keeping busy. You have too many blind spots in your security network. I told you that we should try monitoring what each person sees." He spoke jokingly, turning to his father as he approached. The two embraced in a similar hug, Billy still managing to eclipse his boy in his arms even though they were both relatively lithe figures. Vincent had always looked up to his mother and father, and had tried to shape his life as best he could every step he took according to what they had taught him as a boy. He still considered himself a boy when he was with them, and he loved the feeling.

"You know that really is an excellent idea." Billy spoke as they turned to Mandy. "If the control brains could watch everything trough the eyes of our subjects it would make the current surveillance system obsolete. There would be no gaps." Vincent felt warm under his father's praise. His mother nodded in thought.

"I'll get to work on it. How is Gaz?"

"She's happy. I saw her just today." He spoke now stepping over to face her, and she sensed there was something important on his mind. "Actually that's the reason I came up here. After all you've done for me in making me who I am now I wanted you to be the first to know." He took his mother's hands as she looked to him with wonder, seeing him smile back at her with reverence.

"… Know what?" She stammered, watching as her son's eyes shimmered with tears.

"In about seven month's time, you're going to be a grandmother."

Mandy opened her mouth to gasp as a wide smile broke out over her face. Tear-filled sobs of joy escaped her as she nearly collapsed into his arms, Vincent's eyes overflowing with tears as she wrapped her hand around him and pulled him into her hold.

"_Oh my boy! My baby boy!"_

She cried as she held him tightly. Billy gaped in shock, a wide grin forming as on instinct he came towards the two, Vincent turning in his mother's arms to embrace him as well. Billy laughed softly with joy, unable to think of anything better to do as his wife cried with happiness.

"It gets better. It's a boy, and a girl."

Mandy cried out with joy as she kissed her son's forehead, before finally letting up, drying away the tears as they all calmed down.

"Twins, a boy and a girl, Vince you are so lucky." Billy spoke as the younger man turned to him. "I know from experience that you're going to make a perfect father, and Gaz will be such a loving mother. I'm so proud of you."

Vincent's heart came apart inside of him. With another stream of tears he buried his face in his father's chest as they held each other Mandy watching on with wet eyes and a smile. After another few moments Vincent and Billy regained their composure, where they set to the task at hand.

"I haven't told the other's anything yet. I'll tell them when we're all together."

"Alright." Mandy spoke. "Let's get this underway then."

Leading her husband and son back out of their room they walked through the long line of passageways towards the sculpted silver-grey doors of the dining hall, wherein she grasped the handles and pushed them both open, where they found everyone had already congregated waiting for them.

"Hey guys!" Sarah cried out as she literally fell from the ceiling to greet them, throwing her arms around her parents as they appeared in the doorway.

"Hello sweetheart. Hey Junior, how have you two been?" Her father spoke looking from her to her partner where he now stood from his seat on one side of the oval table.

"Oh he's cool. We went and had some fun with Red." She answered for him and sniggered. "He squealed like a piggy when we cut his bowels out, just like he did the other fourteen times."

"Thirteen. We disembowelled him with his own severed arm once and that doesn't count, remember?" Junior spoke up causing her to nod and her father to smirk.

"That's nice." He replied. Meanwhile their youngest Aurora stepped up to her mother's side, the two women looking to each other with respect as they gave each other a hug.

"How are you feeling?" Mandy asked her to which she shrugged.

"I'm okay. It's a big thing though. This is the first step towards our plan."

"Your plan." She corrected proudly. The girl smiled back at her.

"Sarah." Billy spoke with a heavier tone. "I heard on the ride over there that you had gotten involved with Vince's job. What was that I said about not going on any killing sprees?"

The auburn-haired maniac grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry." She admitted with a smile, her father then giving her a wide smirk.

"Keep up the good work!" He responded, causing her to grin.

Embracing each of them one after another in a round of hugs and kisses they turned their attention towards the table. On one side sat Nergal and Tak, both only half conscious with their faces glowing like neon signs, and sharing a loving smile as they cuddled up next to each other. He knew what that meant, and he rolled his eyes. He recalled a rule about sitting at a table with Tak and Junior. If something was dropped and went under the table, it stayed there until they were gone. Aside from the lack of underwear they had a habit of doing inappropriate things while there were people in the room. On the other side Junior stood beside his chair, somewhat uncomfortable around his parents right now, with Sarah's seat on his right. In fact Tak and Junior were the only ones to occupy their side of the table.

Going over the seats they soon came upon someone they hadn't seen in a very long time.

"Hello Grim." Mandy spoke to the silently grizzled reaper.

"Ye don't seem real surprised to see me."

"That's because you're part of the plan." Aurora spoke up as she led the congregation towards the table. "We've got a job for you."

Settling down Billy and Mandy made their way to the head of the table at the other side opposite the doors, all present sitting down with them, with Tak and Nergal finally starting to pull themselves back out of their own little world on the right side of the table. Mandy remained quiet in thought as she surveyed her family and friends before her.

"It's been awhile since we were all together like this hasn't it?" She spoke to no one in particular. She looked to her son. "First, Vincent has something to share with us."

The group turned to the dark figure with the blonde hair. He smiled under their gaze. "Sarah, Aurora, I thought you should know now, in seven months time you're going to be aunties."

…

"_EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"_

Sarah latched onto her brother's head squealing with delight. Aurora's eyes widened as she looked across to her brother.

"You mean, I'm gonna… have a nephew or niece?"

"Uhh actually…" Vincent wavered with the weight of his elder sister on top of his head. "… you're going to have both. Gaz is having a boy and a girl."

"_EEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAA!"_ Sarah rubbed her face into his as he started to become concerned with what she might do. "Oh my god Vince! I is so happy for yoooouuuu!"

"Please stop suffocating me."

At last she got off, Vincent breathing heavily as Sarah stepped left past her husband to sit next to him and Grim near the end. Aurora beamed up at her brother with joy.

"Also Mom you might like to know the names we've chosen for them." He spoke again. Mandy looked to him intently as he smiled. "Phillip and Claire."

Mandy had to stifle crying at that. The names of her beloved parents opened her heart up, bringing her hands up to her breast to hold herself intact. She smiled at him.

"_Thank you, my boy."_ She spoke softly, Vincent smiling contentedly back, before they finally set themselves to the task at hand, as all eyes went to the matriarch at the head of the table.

"Alright. Now you have all seen by now how our society has bought order to much of the physical world. There is still work to be done in places where cruelty and evil goes unpunished, and where noble hard-working people are exploited and not rewarded. You have seen the different states of people, those who care about the world they are a part of, and those who don't. Even Aurora here understands how the spirit and the soul can influence people for better and for worse." Mandy took a deep breath, trying to figure out what she needed to convey to those listening.

"For most of my life I have held the understanding that it was enough to make it so that the people, who for reasons of their own out of control ego, needed to cannibalise on everyone around them, should be restricted from doing so through the fear of incurring our wrath. And for most of my life I was right. Good people don't have to suffer here any more under those kinds of people. Now the ones who preyed on others are the ones getting preyed on. Now, except for a minority, they can't even try and drag another person down with words for fear of what will happen to them."

The people around the table understood perfectly. They had dedicated their lives to the cause of darkness, of bringing about the oppressive world they now lived in. Billy and Mandy the looked to Aurora in silence.

"But that's not good enough now."

Around the table many started to look at her perplexed and bewildered. What could she possibly be insinuating here?

"A few nights ago Aurora came to me with an idea, something that she had been thinking about for a few months. These people who feel that compulsive need to feed off the suffering of others, never quite satisfied with themselves, now that they can't take out their problems on other people they can only take it out on themselves. That means that a considerable portion of our population is suffering needlessly. Now I'm all for the torture and humiliation of those who have tone terrible things to people, like the Tallest, but after considering the fact that few of these people have ever done anything seriously wrong to anyone else I no longer find it acceptable that they can be left to slowly devour themselves, not when there is a way they can be shown the error of their ways and start to heal."

"Mandy…" Nergal spoke up while rubbing his forehead. "I'm not sure I understand. You are talking about reasoning with these people, when they have already proved time and time again to be completely unreasonable?"

"That's not what I meant at all." She responded, taking a deep breath and a pause again.

"… Now you all know how the gods created humanity in their own likeness, and how in turn humanity made the gods in their likeness, or something like that. We all know how that turned out don't we?" The powerful woman addressed them. "You've noticed how it's almost automatic that people seem to turn on each other. It is a part of their basic nature. And sadly once we go down the path of forsaking reason for an ego high there's little hope for coming back, and when we get there we suffer, and we make the people around us suffer. Now if the gods made humanity like that in their own image, then what does that say about the gods? Obviously the gods are just as corrupt as humans are, depending on the individual. Why else do you think they never lift a finger to protect those who are suffering, but will wipe out an entire civilisation of millions of people because they worship them by a different name, if not just for fun? As gods they had a duty of care over the people below them, and they have betrayed that duty. So far they've been allowed to twist and play with humanity like their toys without consequence. They've gotten away with what they've done simply because no one has been strong enough to take them on." She explained clearly, all the while her family listened intently.

"That's going to change soon." She continued, the significance of those few words pressing down hard on the congregation before them. "As we've seen time and time again, when a person becomes arrogant and conceited in their dominance they gradually become lazy and weak, and will ultimately loose the power that made them dominant in the first place. What do you think is happening down there right now? As time passed they've become so corrupted by their pride and their petty small-minded arrogance that by now they've lost most of their power. That's why there haven't been any more great floods or other earth shattering cataclysms caused by them since even before we came to power. They've become so removed from the rest of the world in their own realms that they simply don't bother anymore, and so they've lost the power that made them gods in the first place. And if you need something to back that up, just look at this."

With a flick of her slender hand the Golden Apple of Discord formed in her palm. Around the room they stared in shock. The apple had rotted through, its previous master having long abandoned the spark that kept it alive, choosing instead to get her fix off Billy and his daughter. She tossed it across the table towards Sarah who caught it in her hand. Looking at it now they watched as almost immediately it healed back to its original flawless state.

"You see that? Whereas the old gods weren't able to keep it alive we could." Mandy spoke as Sarah fingered the powerful object with wonder. It was perfectly suited to her destructive nature, and indeed its surface shone with a brilliance it never had with Eris. A thought struck her. Rising out of her seat she withdrew the Sorrow Sisters from her back. Whirling them in her hand she struck down as one on the apple. As she'd predicted the apple disappeared with a flash, Shock and Retribution taking on a golden shimmer as it bonded with her savage weapons, the blades now changing to form a jagged hook in the top edge. With a crazed smile she took her seat again, sheathing her swords away across her back as she returned to the matter at hand.

At this point Aurora stood beside her parents, and all eyes turned to the young Valkyrie with the dark, foreboding and charmingly cynical scowl.

"Regardless of what we do to contain the damage they have done, people are still hurting. Our people in our society are being damaged because they didn't do their jobs right. I do not accept this. I believe now that we have formed a stable base of operations over the past thousand years in the physical realm it is time we fixed the problem." Everyone in the room gazed at the suddenly very domineering and powerful young girl with respect as she scowled with focus and a dark fire through dark eyes.

"Why should they continue to go unpunished for the things they have done now that we're strong enough to challenge them? If we have the capability to do something about this injustice, this serious imbalance in the universe we inhabit, then we have the responsibility to do so. That is why I and went out and laid my own soul on the line to challenge Grim, taking him as my servant. He is a major figure in the underworld, and he knows about the more powerful beings we have to look out for, about the size and strength of their armies, and their weaknesses."

"Wait, you want me to rat out on dose maniacs? Are you insane! Mortals can't fight gods, we'll be crushed!" He cried out in alarm.

"Actually we want you to take a stand against something that is wrong and do your bit to fix it. They're demons and monsters Grim, not gods, they lost the right to be called gods long ago. Tell us what you know on them and then help us in the fight to destroy them." Aurora spoke up sternly to her subordinate, instantly putting him in his place.

Quietly Mandy felt an immense swell of pride inside as her youngest gave Grim a stare with the weight of a planet to oppose any form of refusal. She gave a smile that stretched from deep down.

"So what are you proposing we do?" Vincent spoke up from his seat beside his little sister, setting himself in a stern disposition at what he was hearing and looking to her intently with interest. He lived to serve his family in missions, and if what he was hearing was correct, then he would soon be facing something greater than anything they'd ever faced before. But he loved and respected his little sister. She inspired him. He would follow her lead anywhere and she knew it. For now the girl looked from him back to her mother, handing it over to the seasoned professional to handle for now. She would take over when the time came, but for now she was still a learner.

Mandy gave a respectful nod as she sat. As the elder woman now stood she surveyed her family once more with a hard scowl. Standing at the head of the table she saw how Vincent looked to her with cold focus, Billy and Sarah looking to her with destructive glee, Tak, Nergal and Junior looking at her with cool respect, Grim resigning to his fate once more as Aurora faced her with her own stern gaze, before she spoke at last.

"We are going to take over the underworld."

The solid, dependable conviction she felt was unmistakable in her words. Mandy obviously knew what she was doing, and how to go about doing it, and had clear confidence in their abilities to meet the challenge. She and her family were from the beginning a group of natural born leaders and rulers and warriors, with the indomitable spirit to face any threat head on, the cool, calm intellect to know when to tiptoe around and attack the rear, the ferocity and cruelty to strike terror into the most proud and conceited of their enemies, and the loyalty and consideration to others both to each other and of their combined soldiers and subjects, and everyone else that could feel the same things they did. Like all of them she embodied the power and control they each strived for in their own way, with the deep burning passion and inner drive for justice and revenge that fuelled the darkness deep down inside her soul. That darkness held a force that struck fear and inspiration into entire worlds across much of the physical universe, at least the one they inhabited. And yet after more than a thousand years they once again found themselves only at the beginning of their work. For millennia they had reigned over the Night, and now it was finished. Now was the beginning of the Dawn.

"We are going to take over all the levels of the underworld high and low, and we will defeat and get rid of the gods that have grown corrupt and have spread ruin throughout the universe, and preserve the ones that show the right way. Once that is done Billy and I, and other noble souls that can show the way for everyone else, will take their place. Then we will fix humanity, and all the races of all worlds. We will make it so that the ego can no longer corrupt and destroy souls like it can now. There will be evil, when people get frustrated and angry, and there will be mistakes, without evil there can be no good, but there will be no more terrible things done to people by other people that cannot be undone. There will be understanding, and forgiveness, and people won't have to suffer anymore because of their own loss of reason, because we will show them the way, and we will protect them, and care for them like everyone deserves to be cared for. And then we will move on to other universes, and we will be succeeded one after another in a never-ending cycle that brings order and peace to everything that exists."

The Empress' passionate speech left them all in silence. There were still questions to be answered however.

"But how can we honestly hope to go to war against the gods and succeed? They are just as powerful as we are, and there are so many afterlives with so many gods across so many societies and worlds and universes that it would take hundreds of thousands of years to defeat them all, if not millions, if ever." Spoke Nergal from his place by his wife. He was answered by a monstrous grin from Billy that bellowed of bloodlust, rage and darkness.

"**They have become weak with the weight of their corruption, while we were bestowed the burden of their hubris. Their selfish arrogance feeds the darkness that burns within our depths. The pain and torment they have cast down on their subjects has made us stronger."** He rose from the table, casting an ominous deep shadow over the congregation as he clutched his hand in rage and glee.** "Our power stops the planets from turning. Our heartbeats make nations tremble with fear and the oppressed masses rise up and fight. The crust breaks under our feet. The wind and waves roar as one with our fury. Empires break and fall under our wrath. Each of us is a living calamity beyond everything they have ever inflicted on the world, and a vessel of mercy and justice that our people deserve to feel safe under. They created the plague that nearly destroyed humanity's humanity, and for it their world will burn in the flames of our revenge."**

Around the table they smirked and smiled at the patriarch's powerful eruption of passionate anger and warrior fury. He looked to Sarah, seeing her smile back at him with burning eyes and a mouth full of shark's teeth the same as his own. They could each feel the desire to crush their enemies and destroy the liars and hypocrites that called themselves the gods rising from deep inside. They were the embodiment, the very source, of everything that made people twisted and corrupt and small-minded, and the problem had to be fixed.

"All the intolerance, arrogance, greed, cruelty and selfishness that people show each other comes straight down to us from them." Aurora spoke up next to her mother. "We've punished the people for their crimes, and we still suffer. Now it's the god's turn to face the consequences of their actions." She spoke with a focused and passion-filled voice, clenching her fist as her dark inner furnace flared and exploded inside her depths. "They've got a lot to answer for, and we're gonna be the ones to make them answer for it."

"Just tell me what I can do." Vincent spoke in a cold voice with a deadly gaze.

"LET'S KILL EM ALL! AAAHAH HAH HAH HAH!" Sarah spoke with a maniacal grin, whipping out her twin blades once more ready and eagre for battle. Turning to her husband sitting beside her she awaited his answer.

"With you? How could I refuse?" Junior spoke up earning a smile from Sarah. Turning to the next two they focussed on Tak and Nergal as they sat to the side.

They turned to face each other questioningly. "Well sweetheart, what do you think?" Nergal asked her, his suave mixed European accent still prevalent in his voice after all the centuries together.

"Well…" Tak paused in thought. "We have to make sure everything's worked out in the Irken territories first cause they're still recovering from the war. It shouldn't take too long to get those disgusting little horrible things under control and have everything in order. That will also give us time to build up our forces ready for our devastating attack." Concluding her thoughts with images of destruction and triumph over people with egos a thousand times greater than her Tallest she smirked and sniggered in response. "Nyeheheh. The Irken Domain is at your service."

"As are the Nergal demons. We've destroyed worlds at your side before, and we will continue to destroy all that stands against us." Nergal replied. "When everyone else shunned and hated us for being different, you and your family embraced us as one of your own. For that we will serve you until the very end."

Mandy's stern scowl softened, lowering her features as a small smile of gratitude flashed across her face. "Thank you. All of you." Returning her gaze to the assembly she narrowed her gaze on Grim as he sat off to the side looking around anxiously. "Well Grim? Can we count on you to serve us with loyalty like you did last time?"

"M-Mandy… Billy… Aurora…" He stammered nervously, all eyes on him. "I-I can't! Though dey're not as powerful as they used to be dere are millions of gods spread across millions of afterlives, and dat's fer this universe alone. How can you possibly… expect to win out through all dis?"

As he spoke he frowned and tried to clear his vision. A funny thing had just happened. For a brief moment he could have sworn he had seen a series of black and white crystalline wings emerging out of everyone gathered before him, but before he could focus any attention on them the mysterious illusions were gone, with nothing to say they had been anything but his imagination.

"Because we share something the gods have long since forgotten all about Grim." Mandy spoke with a knowing air of wisdom and experience. "We're a family, we love each other. We're part of the whole while they are individuals who have alienated everyone around them. You told me long ago that it was pointless to try and break away from those you love because it weakens you. You were right all along."

Looking out over her family and friends gathered around her she remembered just how far they had all come together. "Thank you for telling me what I needed to here. If not for you all this could never have been achieved. What the gods don't understand anymore is that by banding together with the people you love and lead you hold a power greater than the sum of its parts. In their arrogance they have forgotten about caring about those around them, and we are going to show them their mistake. We will make them regret it. And when we take their place we will change people to the way they were supposed to be all along. Together we will finally cure the world of corruption."

"But…" Grim hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"On our own… no. But we are not alone." She spoke finally, putting his fears to rest.

Looking out over her beloved family she silently thanked that she had seen reason all along, and that her husband had chosen her as the one he wanted to spend his life with. Turning to her left she faced him as he looked back upon her. He smiled to her, taking her hand in his softly under the table, the two looking out over their family and friends. Mandy's now light heart melted once more, a soft smile coming to her lips as she gazed over the loves of her life.

"Don't worry. I know we can."

**The End.**


End file.
